SEAFOODplus: First results from FP 6 Food presented in Brussels

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First results from FP6 Food presented in Brussels

The European Commission hosted the first prestigious conference in the Parliament Building in Brussels Tuesday 12 December 2006 for presenting the most exciting results from the projects granted during the first wave of FP 6 within the food area. The title of the conference was:

'Food Quality and Safety Research: First Results from FP6'

A total of 12 projects were presented, followed by a debate on how research results could best be disseminated to stakeholders and end-users.

Author: Torger Børresen, DIFRES

: Left: Christian Patermann, Director Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food

The conference was opened by Director Christian Patermann from Directorate E - Biotechnologies, Agriculture and Food. He welcomed the 150 participants by emphasising the importance of the results coming out of the first research projects granted as part of the Framework Programme 6. He stressed that the research results showcased in Brussels at this important conference demonstrated how research is helping to make our food healthier and of better quality.

Full conference programme

Professor Gertjan Schaafsma, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, coordinator of SEAFOODplus RTD 1 area highlighted the most important results from the Seafood and Nutrition pillar at the session 'Nutrition and Health'.

The title of his presentation was

'SEAFOODplus: Integrated research on improving health and well-being of the European consumer'

During lunchbreak three projects were selected for presentation at a press conference in the Berlaymont building. SEAFOODplus was one of the projects, and the Coordinator, Torger Børresen, made a brief presentation of the major achievements after three years of operation. Director Christian Patermann said in his introduction that 'although the health benefits of fish and seafood due to omega-3 are well-known, the EU supported project SEAFOODplus has discovered that there are other important health-giving components in these foods'.

The slides used for presenting some of the SEAFOODplus results

The following text is the press release from the European Commission about SEAFOODplus:

The European Commission stands behind many projects that discovered new health benefits of seafood. In the past tests had been carried out on the health value of the Omega 3 fatty acids but European researchers have recently discovered that other components such as: proteins and amino acids also contribute to making fish a high-quality food. In addition to nutrients that are naturally found in fish its nutritional value can be further improved by using enriched feed. Recent experiments show that by adding selenium rich garlic to fish feed it is possible to enrich fish with this essential micro nutrient believed to prevent cancer.