A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
In response to the announcement in March 1996 by the UK government that the appearance of 10 cases of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) could be linked to exposure to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), the European Commission, which had been sponsoring research into BSE and other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) since 1990, launched an action plan on TSEs.
Sixty-five projects were started between 1997-99 under this plan, with a further 15 new projects starting this year.
After this period of targeted TSE research action, and in light of the results, the Commission has been pondering the next course of priority action. According to a statement this week from the Commission, TSE will be a priority subject for research in the 'food quality and safety' area - one of seven key areas chosen for the advancement of knowledge and technological progress within the Sixth Framework Pro-gramme .
The Sixth Framework is a major science research tool funded by the European Commission to promote the European Research Area (ERA) in a bid to support the better co-ordination of research activities and the convergence of research and innovation policies, at national and EU levels.
The European Union is hosting a homepage dedicated to EU-funded TSE research that provides access to information on EU-funded TSE research projects, relevant research projects from other programmes and relevant non-research-type projects from all programmes, key documents on TSE research released by the European Commission, and staff at the Commission's Research DG currently working on TSE projects.