Diagnostics, Traceability and Digitalization for a Sustainable Agri-Food System: From the European Infrastructure METROFOOD-RI to the National Infrastructure METROFOOD-IT

Event organized by Metrofood-IT.

Metrofood-IT, a research infrastructure in the Health and Food domain, also through the Department of Chemical, Life and Environmental Sustainability Sciences at the University of Parma, promotes dialogue among laboratories, businesses, and institutions on crucial topics such as food quality and safety, product authenticity, and traceability. It offers metrological services to support the sustainability of agri-food systems.

Session overview

The key theme of the Workshop is how to address the challenges posed by national and European regulations in the field of food safety through the METROFOOD-IT research infrastructure. This infrastructure was established with the goal of providing metrological services in support of the sustainability of agri-food systems, enabling the assessment of food quality and safety, product authenticity, and traceability. It forms part of the broader European infrastructure METROFOOD-RI – Infrastructure for promoting metrology in food and nutrition, which is included in the ESFRI Roadmap under the Health and Food domain.

During the Workshop, the fundamental role of metrology will be highlighted as the basis for the mutual recognition of analytical results at the international level — a crucial element in ensuring the reliability of measurements used in analytical methodologies for the control of food quality, safety, and authenticity.

The Workshop will also address the topic of advanced and non-destructive diagnostics for the quality and safety of agri-food production, as well as digitalization and the accuracy of “big data” analysis. It will be shown how these aspects are developed through the facilities of the METROFOOD-IT laboratories at the Department of Chemical, Life and Environmental Sustainability Sciences of the University of Parma, presenting the strategy, procedures, and support systems for delivering services through Transnational Access (both physical and remote) and Virtual Access.

Finally, the contribution of the infrastructure to advanced post-graduate education will be illustrated, with specific reference to PhD programs conducted in the METROFOOD-IT laboratories at the University of Parma.

The event will be held in Italian