SAFOSO Supports the 5th European Food Risk Assessment (EU-FORA) Fellowship Programme

During the 5th EFSA-EUFORA induction training, twenty-five mid-career scientists from eight European countries and from Georgia, Belarus and Azerbaijan were trained on topics related to food safety. SAFOSO proudly coordinated the implementation of the 5th cycle of the EFSA-EUFORA Induction Training from the 30th of August until the 17th of September in collaboration with AGES (Austria), BfR (Germany) and EFET (Greece). The training covered various topics related to food safety risk assessment including introduction to food safety principles, statistics and modelling, epidemiology, microbiological and chemical risk assessment.

The Induction training is part of the European Food Risk Assessment (EU-FORA) Fellowship Programme, a key initiative for professionals from EU and EFTA countries, offering candidates the chance to broaden their knowledge on and hands-on experience with food safety risk assessment. The aim of the programme is to enhance cooperation among Europe’s food safety organisations and EFSA, thus contributing to the harmonisation of food risk assessment practices across Europe.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last two editions of the training were implemented remotely, and the training consortium revised the original training format and agenda to reflect the remote nature of the training. The didactical approach of the training is based on the “experiential learning” concept whereby only a minimum part of the training is based on classical lectures with the majority of the sessions structured as highly interactive sessions and hands-on training.