DEFENSEFOOD is a European project which aims to enhance the resilience of Europe’s food supply chain against disruptions as well as chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) threats.
Project goals
The project will develop advanced detection and monitoring tools, effective response mechanisms and smart data procedures that will improve early risk identification, accelerate incident management and strengthen the safety and resilience of the food chain. The project employs interconnected work packages, with each element addressing a specific theme or objective. The project started in October 2025 and will run until 2029.
DEFENSEFOOD will achieve its goals by:
- Developing an AI-driven, evidence-based horizon scanning dashboard to anticipate changes in the food system environment.
- Creating rapid detection methods, integrating novel analysis tools and leveraging monitoring systems in EU Member States.
- Establishing test methodologies for reducing the impact of CBR threats on the food supply chain while enhancing the chain’s recovery potential.
- Coordination among EU and international security authorities, improving cross-border response mechanisms to food terrorism threats.
- Creating knowledge management and decision-support tools to enable early detection, impact reduction and fast recovery.
- Improving awareness and preparedness of food system actors (mainly authorities and SMEs) to CBR threats through targeted training and capacity-building initiatives.
DEFENSEFOOD focuses on three critical case studies: cereals, shellfish and water supply.
Multidisciplinary consortium
The project consists of several EU research institutes and public organisations:
- Syreon Research Institute (Hungary)
- Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands)
- Wageningen Food Safety Research (The Netherlands)
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (The Netherlands)
- Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (The Netherlands)
- Sciensano (Belgium)
- McGill University (Canada)
- National Research Council (Italy)
- Spanish Food and Drink Industry Federation (Spain)
- Fraunhofer (Germany)
- Sustainable Criminal Justice Solutions (United Kingdom)
- University of the Bundeswehr Munich (Germany)
- Ubuntoo (The Netherlands)
- reframe.food (Greece)
NVWA role within DEFENSEFOOD
In DEFENSEFOOD, NVWA brings experience from frontline food safety oversight, contributing to risk assessment activities and helping to connect research and innovation with day-to-day food safety practice. By contributing expertise from official controls, incident response, and action against food fraud, NVWA supports the project’s goal of improving preparedness and strengthening the ability of authorities and the private sector to respond effectively to evolving food-related threats.
Project funding
DEFENSEFOOD is a HORIZON-CL3-2024-DRS-01 project co-funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No 101225957.
More information
Image: © DEFENSEFOOD
Image: © European Union