Food safety research advances at IFR

Researchers at the Institute of Food Research (IFR, Norwich Laboratory, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UA, England, UK) are implementing a new science strategy. Their overall aim is to provide the necessary basic science to enable processors, manufacturers and retailers to produce better foods-better in the sense of offering products that deliver improved sensory and other consumer benefits-and to utilize more efficient production methods.

IFR has three objectives: to understand why foods taste, smell and feel like they do by focusing on the structural basis of the perceived texture of foods and on the cognitive and physiological determinants of sensory perception; to elucidate molecular and structural interactions of food materials (proteins, polysaccharides and fats) during processing and storage of food (particularly in relation to moisture migration); and to derive processes for manufacturing foods in a novel way or with novel functionality that will give producers the means to develop a new generation of foods and new approaches to quality control.

The institute's research into food safety focuses on measures to protect the consumer and to communicate food safety messages effectively. The main goals are: to elucidate how certain new strains of pathogenic microbes, such as E.coli O157, arise, why they are so resistant, and how they can be inactivated or inhibited; to develop new methods of assessing risk so that control measures can be most effectively targeted, e.g., by network modeling of hazards associated with C. botulinum; to understand public perceptions and concerns associated with microbiological hazards and linking these with technical risk information to develop strategies for effectively communicating food safety risks to the public; to develop new methods for food authentication and for detecting adulteration in order to provide the most effective tools to ensure that food companies comply with legislation; and to counter the potential threat posed by adulteration.

IFR's overall aim is to provide the necessary underpinning science to enable producers, manufacturers and retailers to produce better foods, better in the sense of delivering improved sensory and other consumer benefits, and better in more efficient production methods. IFR has released science information sheets on E. coli O157.

Further information. Catherine Reynolds; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone].