Organic food is a real mine. Not surprisingly, the characteristics of its production, in which neither pesticides nor synthetic fertilizers can be used, make the product more expensive.
This may be the case of the sale of products treated with pesticides, but which are sold as organic; or the sale of horse meat such as beef.
30% of consumers of organic products are under 25 years old
In the case of Olive Oil, the fruity and spicy flavours and the smell of cut grass, tomato and artichoke are some of the sensations that characterize premium quality extra virgin olive oil. Even a tingling in the back of your throat is a sign that it’s packed with health-enhancing antioxidants.
Europe produces 70% of the world’s olive oil so maintaining a reputation for quality and avoiding any deception is essential. And the same for the rest of agricultural and livestock products from Europe.
The concern of the European Union
The European administration is concerned with this matter, and for this, it is supporting and subsidizing a European project that tries to use smartphones to analyse the quality and safety of food on the spot.
In 2018, the European Commission, together with Europol, decided to launch a specific action on the control of organic production within the framework of Operation OPSON VIII. The aim of this operation was to protect the reputation of the EU eco-label and guarantee the confidence that European consumers have in it.
And this is because the key objectives of the Farm-to-Fork strategy to transform EU agriculture is the goal of promoting 25% organic food and farming by 2030.
Organic farming in the EU has a share of 8 to 9% of the total agricultural area
The FoodSmartphone initiative
It’s about the project FoodSmarthphone which proposes the development of smartphone-based analytical, diagnostic and detection tools for rapid, simplified on-site pre-screening of food quality and safety parameters and wireless data transfer to relevant stakeholders’ servers.
With this technology, both governments and industry will be able to react faster to an emergency problem and know more precisely which parts of the food chain to close.
The consortium
The consortium that composes FoodSmartphone, led by Wageningen University, comprises 7 training sites (3 universities, 3 research centres, 1 innovation SME), plus 5 partner organizations (1 global food industry, 1 diagnostic SME and 3 universities awarding PhD degrees)
The CONSOLE project wants to support this initiative that, without a doubt, will mark a before and after in the quality of European agricultural products that are moving towards a sustainable system.
