Université de Mons (UMONS), located in Mons, Belgium, coordinates the Purple4Life project focused on valorizing agri‑food by‑products through purple photosynthetic bacteria (PPB). Led by Baptiste Leroy at ProtMic, its “PurpleTeam” develops sustainable PPB bioprocesses...
Our partner CNR will host the EU Food Safety Forum 2025 on 2–3 December at the CNR headquarters in Rome, bringing together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders and innovators to shape the future of food safety in Europe.. We are pleased to share that...
CNR-ISPA is leading the way in Purple4Life, turning purple bacteria into safe, sustainable ingredients for the foods of tomorrow. As coordinator of the EU Food Safety Platform, CNR-ISPA guarantees strict safety checks, helping new bio-based foods earn regulatory approval and win consumer trust.
The National Research Council of Italy – Institute of Sciences of Food Production (CNR-ISPA, https://www.ispa.cnr.it/) plays a supportive role in the Purple4Life EU project as a research partner dedicated to advancing sustainable, safe, and innovative food ingredients. CNR-ISPA’s expertise in food safety, nutrition, novel foods and functional foods serves Purple4Life’s mission to develop purple non-sulphur bacteria as novel, health-promoting food and feed components. This partnership is essential not only to drive scientific excellence but also to ensure that novel ingredients created through cutting-edge biotech processes meet regulatory standards and gain consumer trust, which is critical for societal acceptance and market success.
CNR-ISPA is renowned for its comprehensive research spanning food production, safety, nutritional quality, and innovative probiotic developments. CNR-ISPA is at the forefront of research on novel foods, exploring innovative sources of nutrition to meet the challenges of sustainability and food security. Among its most pioneering studies are those on jellyfish and edible insects—two unconventional resources with remarkable potential. By integrating disciplines such as chemistry, microbiology, toxicology, biotechnology, veterinary science, agronomy, biology, and plant pathology, CNR-ISPA fosters a robust multidisciplinary framework. This approach is instrumental in addressing complex challenges related to the detection and mitigation of risk factors in food systems, ensuring regulatory compliance and consumer safety—core needs for Purple4Life’s development of novel bacterial ingredients.
The Institute’s commitment and leadership in food safety research will ensure that innovations emerging from this project adhere to the highest standards of quality and safety. This work contributes to a paradigm shift toward more sustainable food systems, reducing waste by valorizing industrial residues and supporting health through functional ingredients.
By carrying out rigorous safety evaluations and maintaining up-to-date regulatory expertise CNR-ISPA researchers contribute both to accelerating product development and to building public trust, a vital factor in bringing innovative foods to market. As Purple4Life innovates around the sustainable upcycling of industrial by-products into high-quality bio-based ingredients, CNR-ISPA’s role is critical in i) evaluating the safety and toxicological profiles of these new ingredients through advanced in vitro testing methods and ii) navigating and contributing to regulatory frameworks to streamline market authorization of these new food and feed ingredients.
CNR-ISPA will pursue these objectives also through its strategic position as coordinator of the EU Food Safety Platform (http://www.foodsafetyplatform.eu) empowering the project with a robust mechanism to ensure the safety assessment and regulatory compliance of the innovative ingredients under development. The EU Food Safety Platform is a multi-actor network designed to strengthen and modernize the European Food Safety System (FSS). Co-designed and released within the FoodSafety4EU project, this platform brings together key stakeholders — scientists, regulators, industry representatives, and civil society — to foster a collaborative approach to food safety. It provides a structured participatory process that enables actors across the food value chain to share knowledge, access up-to-date scientific data, and influence policy development. As coordinator, CNR-ISPA has gathered platform experts to establish a working group dedicated to the safety evaluation of the novel bacterial ingredients developed by Purple4Life.
By ensuring alignment with food and feed safety requirements set in the current regulatory framework, CNR-ISPA, also via the EU Food Safety Platform, will support innovation deployment and propose updated regulatory roadmaps for novel bio-based products, thus paving the way for smoother regulatory approval pathways. For citizens, this means access to safer, nutritious, and environmentally responsible food choices that support wellbeing. For stakeholders across the food supply chain — producers, regulators, industry innovators, and policymakers — the project offers a scientific basis for introducing novel bio-based ingredients with confidence in their safety, compliance, and consumer acceptance.