MYcotoxin MAnagement (AI)platform To face CC impact on food safety and Human Health: MYMATCH

Programme(s)
HORIZON.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment MAIN PROGRAMME

Topic(s): HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-4 - Climate change and food safety: effects of climate change on food safety across food systems

Call for proposal: HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01

Funding Scheme: HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

Grant agreement ID: 101181208

Project description: AI-integrated mycotoxin management platform could increase food safety
Food safety is an increasing concern given a growing population and climate change, which impacts the emergence or re-emergence of hazards. Mycotoxins that occur in maize, wheat, tomato and nuts are among these hazards. The EU-funded MYMATCH project aims to improve the resilience of food crops to climate change effects on mycotoxins. Its multi-actor framework will conduct careful data collection to fill current knowledge gaps. These data sets will enable assessment of mycotoxins exposure in humans and animals and inform fungi and mycotoxin predictive models integrating accurate climate change scenarios. The models will become part of an AI-integrated mycotoxin management platform providing tailored predictions, recommendations and mitigation approaches, enabling better risk prediction and management.

Objective

Climate change amplifies food safety risks by fostering the proliferation of pathogens and contaminants in the food supply chain, and introducing unfamiliar or novel hazards. Among the food safety threats, because of their ubiquity, MYMATCH will consider the effects of climate change on a selection of mycotoxins (related to fungi belonging to Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Alternaria) occurring in maize, wheat, tomato, and nuts. Thanks to a strong and multi-actor partnership, MYMATCH will contribute to i) the prediction and mitigation of risk related to fungi and mycotoxin occurrence, ii) the assessment of mycotoxins exposure in humans (concerning different diets) and animals, and iii) the implementation of proper risk management measures. This will be achieved with data collection taking place at different levels, from literature considering events that happened in the past, under controlled environments and open fields, enabling the generation of the missing datasets needed to fulfil the project aims. This will support the development and implementation of fungi and mycotoxin predictive models founded on accurate climate change scenarios to anticipate the changes in mycotoxin occurrence in European food systems. MYMATCH AI mycotoxin management Platform will be the final output, the support for all food system actors with tailored predictions, recommendations, and mitigation approaches. By using this platform, the agri-food researchers, farmers, industry stakeholders, and policymakers, involved in the project through the MYMACTH’s Multi-Actor Framework, will be assisted in taking threat-mitigation initiatives and in decision-making, both in the short- and strategic long-term planning. MYMATCH tools and methods will be generated in a way that is easily extendable to other contaminant issues and co-created and developed with a strong interaction with potential users like EFSA.