<< Background >>The food and drink industry is a major contributor to Europe’s economy. In 2018, it had a turnover of 1,109 billion €, making it the largest EU manufacturing sector and the leading employer (4.57 million people). This accounts to 294,000 companies and 110 billion € exports (17.9% of EU global exports). However, the safety and microbiological suitability of food remains an issue for food professionals and requires good knowledge of the microbiological hazards associated with the different stages of the technological route of a product. The food and drink industry is confronted with the risk incurred by the consumer linked to the ingestion of a food contaminated by a pathogenic microorganism, as well as the consequences resulting from the public questioning a product or a brand for sanitary reasons. The issue is also linked to the costs of product and image loss due to the development of flora causing product deterioration. In addition, the control of microbiological hazards and spoilage bacteria is also an element promoting innovation and the development of new products.As a result, the industry needs reliable data and support tools, to ensure the microbiological quality of products upon receipt of raw materials, during the various stages of product processing and when it is placed on the market until consumption.Better control of the microbiological quality of food products also makes it possible to fight against food loss and waste, since it is estimated that nearly 1.3 billion tonnes of food would be thrown away or lost each year on a global scale (FAO, 2019).Besides trained staff, graduates from food studies explicitly trained towards the development of microbiological competences can fill this current skills gap in the food industry and have an increased employability. Undergraduate students and professionals need to have continuous access to transnational knowledge, research and societal trends to keep their standards and their commitments on local and European regulations up to date. Although e-learning activities have grown in recent years, the current COVID-19 crisis has greatly accelerated the need for digital transformation of education and training systems in Europe. The challenge now is how these e-learning activities can be better integrated in vocational, higher and life-long learning educations. At both instances, agricultural education (including the trainers) and food industry (including small scale producers and associations), there is a need to have more interactive and encompassing e-learning tools that take into account the specific features of the food industry.Moreover, the trainings of e-SafeFood will take into account all the new processes and techniques used to control health risk in the food industry. The deployment of such processes is part of a sustainable development approach since it reduces energy consumption compared to conventional heat treatment and since it can provide solutions for the preservation of foodstuffs in a clean label context, where the use of additives and preservatives must often be reduced with lower concentrations or ruled out by manufacturers.<< Objectives >>Aim of the projectThe aim of the project is to develop an interactive online training programme on microbiological risks in food, in order to improve the capacity of students, educators, researchers, and agri-food professionals (including SMEs and small-scale producers). This training will have the particularity of having a strong practical aspect and will be certified at European level.ObjectivesThe objectives of the project are as follows:- to contribute to the dissemination and transfer of knowledge on microbiological food safety to target users with limited access to in-person learning in the field of agri-food;- facing the current context linked to COVID-19, to ensure the continuity of the training of food industry professionals and students/teachers, including laboratorial work, by developing an online learning platform on microbiological food safety; and- to improve the training offer currently available on microbiological food safety by expanding on applied aspects and promoting the practical aspects of knowledge to our audience.The achievement of these objectives will lead to the development of 5 project results.Target groupsThe target groups for this project will be students, educators, researchers and agri-food professionals, who work in both the fields of food sciences and food industry, including agriculture. This will include:- agri-food professionals: farmers, technicians, advisors and industry professionals from SMEs(artisanal producers, small and medium food processors) and cooperatives;- students and apprentices, from secondary VET education to higher education, including agricultural high schools; - vocational education and training teachers from technical secondary schools related to the agri-food sector, and high-education lecturers from the agri-food degree programmes; and- researchers from institutes and universities.<< Implementation >>As means to achieve the objectives of e-SafeFood, the following work packages will be implemented:WP1 – Identification and selection of existing relevant e-training material (Lead partner: IPBragança)Participating organisations: all•Task 1.1: State of the art of the already existing material (Lead partner: Actia-Aerial-Actalia)•Task 1.2: Selection of material, based on users’ expertise and practicality (Lead partner: IPBragança)WP2 – Design of the user-tailored e-training program and elaboration of further material (Lead partner: Actia-Aerial and Actia-Actalia)Participating organisations: all•Task 2.1: Definition of the content for each category of users (Lead partner: Actia-Aerial-Actalia)•Task 2.2: Development of practical trainings, demos, tutorials and modelling modules (Lead partner: IPBragança)WP3 – Implementation of training programmes in the ISEKI-Food e-learning platform (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)Participating organisations: all•Task 3.1: Training implementation (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)•Task 3.2: Testing of the course functionality (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)WP4 – Piloting and certification of the e-training programmes (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)Participating organisations: all•Task 4.1: Pilot training and refining (Lead partner: Actia-Aerial and Actia-Actalia))•Task 4.2: Certification (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)WP5 – Dissemination of the platform (Lead partner: Alimento)Participating organisations: all•Task 5.1: Communication and dissemination plan (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)•Task 5.2: Creation of dissemination tools (leaflet, social medias) (Lead partner: Alimento)•Task 5.3: Dissemination and training activities (Lead partner: Alimento)WP6 – Management of the project (Lead partner: ACTIA)In addition, the following activities will be implemented:•Training of 200 students, educators, researchers and industry professionals, through pilot trainings conducted in the different partner’s organisations and 2 training events.The objective of these trainings is to train the trainers of the e-SafeFood partner establishments to use the interactive training content available the ISEKI-Food e-learning platform, under development by the project in front of a real audience bringing together students, researchers and industrialists and to test all e-trainings and assessment tools and materials available on the platform. After taking into account the feedback from external participants as well as from e-SafeFood participants, the idea is also to improve the platform to make it more efficient and adapted to user needs.•Exchange of best practices and knowledge through virtual meetings for the development of the e-learning content•Three transnational project meetings for the effective management and implementation of the project•Conduction of three webinars, with the participation of at least 300 students, educators, researchers and industry professionals, to make known the e-learning platform as well as all the project's achievementsFor this project, two training events dedicated to students, professionals, researchers and academics in order to test, enrich and improve the content and the tools of the e-trainings (one face-to-face and one remotely) are being planned.<< Results >>e-SafeFood is associated with five main project results:PR1: Selection of the material and tools based on expertise of users and with a practical focus (Lead partners: Actia-Actalia & Aerial, IPBragança)The objective is to produce a set of selected existing relevant e-training material on microbiological food safety from open access resources (data, content software,) that are available for use and re-use and that can be adequately fitted in the user-tailored e-training programmes to be developed in e-SafeFood.PR2: Development of material/adapted tools and definition and elaboration of the e-trainings (Lead partners: Actia-Actalia&Aerial, IPBragança)The need to have more interactive e-learning practical tools is felt at the academic, agricultural high school and food industry levels. The objective is to set up and develop dedicated pedagogical material on food microbiological safety and hygiene for the aforementioned target users. Tailored appropriate pedagogical methods and tools will also be created. The e-training program will be divided into basic modules, common for all the target users (with translation in French, Spanish and Portuguese) and specialised modules in English, with an advanced level that will be specific to each target group.PR3: Implementation of trainings in an e-learning platform (Lead partner: ISEKI-Food)The training course content developed in the previous work package will be implemented in the ISEKI e-learning platform (https://moodle.iseki-food.net/), with a modular format. Course e-learning functionality will be tested, evaluated, and improvements will be made before launching.PR4: Conduction and certification of e-trainings (Lead partners: ISEKI-Food and Actia-Actalia&Aerial)Pilot trainings will be implemented for teachers and professors, students and agri-food professionals, allowing the testing, assessment and refining of the different training modules. Afterwards, the training programme will be submitted to certification under the course certification scheme developed by ISEKI (EQAS FOOD Certificate, https://www.iseki-food.net/accreditation/eqas_food_certificate) Those trainees completing successfully the assessment activities of a module/course will receive the corresponding certificate of completion.PR5 - Dissemination and valorisation of the e-trainings (Lead partner: Alimento)The success of the project and the broader use and recognition of the e-trainings in Europe requires its broad dissemination towards students, educators, researchers and agri-food professionals, who work in both the field of food sciences and food industryThe platform will save record of information on the training participants (age, country, activity profile (student, teacher, researcher, professional)) in order to track attendance and plan actions to engage target groups less involved in the trainings. This information will be stored and used following GDPR requirements.Partners will make the best use of their communication/dissemination channels to engage trainees.A dissemination and engagement plan will be prepared at the beginning of the project for this purpose. Validation of the content Two training events dedicated to our target groups will take place with the objective to train, collect feedback from users and implement improvements.