Over the next five years, the 'Quality Low Input Food' project, will receive €18 million to carry out research from fork to farm for protected crops (tomatoes), field vegetables (lettuce, onion, potato, carrot, cabbage), fruit (apples), cereal (wheat), pork, dairy and poultry products, reports CORDIS.
QualityLowInputFood will set out to measure consumer attitudes and expectations, and will aim to develop new technologies to improve organic foods.
"The research will provide meaningful information that is currently lacking, on the extent to which differences in production systems affect nutritional value, taste and safety of food," said Professor Carlo Leifert from the UK's University of Newcastle, who is co-ordinating the project.
"The project is expected to make a significant impact on increasing the competitiveness of the organic industry to the benefit of the European consumers and organic farmers," he added.
Research would have us believe that European consumers desire tasty, safe, affordable and nutritious food which does not harm the environment. 'Low input' farming, which aims to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, is therefore favoured, writes CORDIS.
"The best known low input system is organic farming, which is one of the most dynamic sectors of agriculture in Europe, but also faces substantial challenges to meet consumers' demands for safe, high quality, affordable organic food," added Professor Leifert.
The project will start by investigating what consumers expect from low input foods and measure what they buy in order to establish what producers need to do to satisfy consumer demand.
A second element will be to compare low input and conventional products for features such as nutritional value, taste, shelf life as well as risks related to reduced fertility, pathogens and toxins from fungi.
Based on their findings, the project team will develop new techniques to generate better, cost effective products. These will then be circulated to the food industry.
"The focus here will be on farm-based research into cereals, vegetables, dairy, poultry and pork production," said Professor Leifert.
The EU-funded project falls under the 'Food Quality and Safety' of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).
New research published this month by Mintel reveals the past five years have seen a boom in the organic food market with sales across Europe doubling since 1998. Consumers in Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain and France spent a total of €8 billion on organic food.