MED Food TTHubs is one year old!
And since our last newsletter, a lot of progress has been done despite the COVID-19 pandemic…
After the preparatory analysis phase that was concluded over the autumn, we had a clear map of the current state-of-play of agro-food supply-chains structures, and the traceability and authenticity processes followed in the seven Mediterranean countries. This provided the guidelines to start getting the MED Food TTHubs e-platform into shape. Besides that, a dedicated survey was run to come up with direct insights into the interest and views of the stakeholder community. The results of the survey, together with observations from sever Focus Group meetings carried out in all countries, contributed to the definition and analysis of the users’ requirements. The development of such profiles will facilitate the design of a user-friendly e-platform, which will be better customised on the needs of future users.
In parallel, MED Food TTHubs partners have been working on the full-path Voluntary Scheme of Traceability for MED foods. To this end, critical characteristics of fresh, semi-processed and processed products in terms of authentication of species, their proven geographic origin and the process of processing have been identified, nutritional profiles have been developed and a step-by-step full-path tracing traceability system has been designed.
Meanwhile, the analysis and technical design of the MED Food TTHubs e-platform’s architecture has also started. This will be further customised based on the needs and requirements of the key stakeholders and support the traceability process of Mediterranean food products. Finally, during the last semester, another important step has been done: dedicated Action Plans for the creation of the Stakeholder and End-users Community have been developed. These strategies are designed to mobilise and engage our key stakeholders and end-users groups and will be in force over the next months.
So, what’s next?
Now it’s time for the MED Food TTHubs e-platform! In the following months, consortium actions will focus on the overall system development and the integration of the e-platform’s Modules. Once the platform is ready, it will be tested internally and fine-tuned for the pilot activities. At the same time, MED Food TTHubs will select the participating bodies in order to initiate its stakeholders’ training process with a view to set up several pilot cases for testing MED Food TTHubs platform and its services in real-life context.
The MED Food TTHubs project is keeping up the good work, looking forward to the forthcoming months!
Keep following… Now, things will get more and more exciting!