Newsletter no. 9

December 2011

Q-PorkChains newsletter ninth edition - final edition

Q-PorkChains 2007-2011

In early January 2007, 100 scientists from 50 organisations (Universities, research institutions, industry) situated in 16 European countries and 4 international countries (China, Brazil, South Africa and USA) were assembled at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark for the kick-off meeting of a newly approved EU project with the acronym Q-PorkChains.

 

After 5 years, the project was in October 2011 officially concluded at the final stakeholder conference. 

 

"The arrangement of the final conference marks the end of a successful large integrated project. New, fruitful and professional connections and friendships among people from different cultures has been created, which had not otherwise been possible", says the Project Coordinator Prof. Anders H. Karlsson from University of Copenhagen and continues:

 

"Q-PorkChains has gathered new knowledge of importance for sustainable pig meat production of high quality for the society as a whole and for the consumer as such".

 
During the 60 project months a huge amount of scientific data has been produced. The total investment has been approx. 21 million Euro, of which more than 70% are supported by the EU Commission under the 6th framework programme. Almost 210 man years have been included in the activities.

 

"We see the outcome of the project as an essential step to develop a sustainable European pork production in a direction that is demanded by the European society, taking into account sustainable production, increased nutritional value and eating quality", tells Prof. Karlsson.

 

www.q-porkchains.org will be active until 2014. From January 2012 all Q-PorkChains updates will be published here. E-news will be distributed among the newsletter subscribers.

 

In this - the final - newsletter you can read about

• Five years with Q-PorkChains has reached its conclusion
• Q-PorkChains meet Majorcan Black Pigs
• From research to pig and pork industry
• Praxis and science - collaboration or conflict
• Healthier pork products
• Consumer focused development of new product concepts
• Non invasive technologies for assessment of fat content
• Ultrasound technique (AutoFom) for assessment of fat content in Italian heavy green hams
• Combination of biomarkers to control meat quality
• E-learning resources for universities and industry

Q-PorkChains in short Q-PorkChains includes 62 partners, from 20 different countries including Europe, Brazil, China, South Africa and USA. The total budget is 20.7 million €. The EU grant is 14.5 million €. Q-PorkChains is an integrated project under the EU's sixth framework programme. The full title of the project is "Improving quality of pork and pork products for the consumer: Development of innovative, integrated, and sustainable food production chains of high quality pork products matching consumer demands". Q-PorkChains is composed of nine modules. The six research modules include consumer and market analysis (Module I), on-farm sustainable production systems (Module II), product development (Module III), integration and sustainable management of the production chain (Module IV), molecular biology in pork quality control (Module V) and synthesis of existing knowledge on pork quality, safety and welfare (Module VI). Two horizontal modules (A and B) aims at incorporating new knowledge into pilot and demonstration chains and disseminate Q-PorkChains results to stakeholders at all levels.