UK-based ABP Food Group has now become a part of pan-European consortium to lead groundbreaking food research.

The consortium includes 50 companies and research institutions from across Europe, including Siemens, PepsiCo, Nestle, Sodexo, Cambridge University and the University of Reading.

The consortium was chosen by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and will be working towards the improvement of food production levels throughout the supply chain.

"This is a great opportunity to be partnering with leading global players."

ABP Food Group technical and sustainability director Dean Holroyd said: “We are delighted to be part of this prestigious and ground breaking initiative, which will help tackle the many challenges facing the food supply chain.

“From ABP’s perspective, this is a great opportunity to be partnering with leading global players as we look at ways to improve the sustainable production and processing of beef from farm to fork.

“We look forward to collaborating with our colleagues in EIT Food with a view to making a lasting and positive impact on European and global food production.”

Over the next seven years, the consortium partners will be investing nearly €1.2bn in the EIT Food project, and EIT will also be funding approximately €400m to support this project.

EIT Food will set up four innovation programmes to target a number of important societal food challenges such as the FoodConnects Assistant programme, which examines the sphere of personalised healthy food and nutrition.

The Web of Food programme will be researching the digitalisation of the food system.

The third programme will be Your Farm2Fork that explores consumer driven supply chain development and new technology adoption in farming processing and retail.

The fourth and programme the Zero Waste Agenda will focus on transforming the current linear ‘produce-use-dispose’ food model into a circular bio-economy.

EIT Food will also provide training to the students and food professionals through workshops, summer schools and online educational programmes.