Safe Smart Food Project

Clusters involved in the SAFE SMART FOOD; Clúster Foodservice (Catalonia), Cluster del Packaging (Catalonia),
Bussiness Upper Austria- GMBH / BIZ-UP / Food Cluster (Austria), Lithuanian Food Exporters Association –
LITMEA / Smart Food Cluster (Lithuania) and Latvian Federation of Food Companies / Food Products Quality
Cluster (Latvia).

According to the European Commission (EC), competitiveness in the food and packaging sector in Europe is decreasing compared to the situation in other economic regions, especially in terms of added value. The European institutions have identified a lack of transparency in the supply chain, inefficient B2B relations and a lack of attractiveness for skilled workers.

With all this, during the last decade, the two sectors have received strong pressure from society and governments to guarantee healthy and quality food throughout the different supply and value chains, a reduction in environmental impact from the eco-design of products and the use of sustainable materials and packaging, among others.

Consequently, clusters involved in these sectors must propose actions to improve their management and professional skills and competences in order to transform the sector’s challenges into innovation, business opportunities and investment, optimising their resources and expanding their area of action at a regional level at European and international level.

The SAFE SMART FOOD project, within the COSME: European Cluster Excellence Programme, aims to address these challenges by contributing to the implementation of European legislation and measures and to create the conditions for a favourable ecosystem in the food and packaging sector in order to boost innovation, competitiveness and internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the realisation of intelligent regional specialisation strategies.

The initiative will strengthen collaboration between clusters and improve their management capacity to create the conditions for a favourable ecosystem in the two sectors to offer SMEs associated with clusters an integrated programme of services based on excellence. The SAFE SMART FOOD project involves different European clusters from Austria, Lithuania, Latvia and Catalonia.