

METROFOOD-FED.BE is a 3 year BELSPO-funded project supplementing the implementation of METROFOOD-RI at a Belgian federal level. Sciensano colleagues from the scientific directorate of Chemical and Physical Health Risks are involved in the project and will coordinate the foreseen activities of METROFOOD-FED.BE.
The core goal of the project is to develop, advance and implement Sciensano federal components (services) for the promotion of metrology in food and nutrition in the European and (inter)national research and innovation (R&I) landscape. Through the project’s lifetime, METROFOOD-FED.BE via its dedicated activities will ensure that Sciensano services are robust, well-developed, reinforced, optimally positioned and sufficiently innovative to cater to a broad set of target users seeking to improve practices and looking to apply state-of-the-art metrological solutions to challenges in food and nutrition. As part of the project, Sciensano select services will be robustly tested and prepared for optimized performance and provision at par with ESFRI standards for long-term inclusion in the ESFRI research infrastructure, METROFOOD-RI.
This will be achieved by means of open transnational calls for access to the federal components of Sciensano, where potential users of Sciensano services will have the opportunity to access two services free-of-charge for their metrological needs in food and nutrition. The first service is related to the physicochemical characterisation of nanoparticles in materials in contact with food and their potential migration. A second service will address the safe & sustainable development, risk assessment and compliance evaluation of materials in contact with food.
Follow-up committee
| Petru JITARU Head of the unit Trace Metals and Minerals at ANSES, France | Expert consultation on expertise in food analyses (trace elements), their speciation including characterization of nanoparticles. |
| Cristina NERIN Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza, Spain | Research and knowledge about different FCM including conventional plastics, paper and board, biomaterials and natural materials as well NIAS screening. |
| Marc ELSKENS Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium | Expert consultation in the bioanalytical field, with regard to cocktail effects, via the development of emerging tools for risk assessment. |
| Nives OGRINC Head of department of Environmental Sciences at Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia | Experience on proposed two topics (safety assessment of materials in contact with food, and metrology for nanoparticles measurement in the food chain) at the national and EU level in connection to relevant projects. |
| Lenka KOURIMSKA Associated Professor at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague – Department of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Czechia | Experience in leading and running national research infrastructures (from being pioneers in their own country) and in providing food and nutrition information from Central Europe. |







