Project meetings

To ensure progress and enable optimal communication between participants, formal project meetings will be held every six months, beginning at the official start of the project. Individual participants will host each meeting in rotation. Preparation of the first meeting will start during the negotiation period with the Commission and will be held right after the signing of the Contract. It will be focused on confirming the contractual obligations of all partners and streamlining and optimizing the technical and managerial methodology of the project.

Workshops

In order to obtain a standardized application of experimental and analytical methodologies within the project and to allow all participants to benefit from expertise previously build up by individual groups, half or one-day workshops will be organized in relation to four of the six project meetings. To improve the scientific content and to strengthen contact and collaboration between project participants and public, each workshop will be organized in collaboration between two or more participants.

The Workshops could be open to attendance by interested parties from local and European meat industry, scientists and public authorities. The last Workshop will be in conjunction with the final project meeting and will be extended to include an overall presentation of the project results to the public (industry, scientists and public authorities).

Workshop, topic, responsible partner/assistant partner

The 1st SMAS Meeting was held in Athens at the National Technical University of Athens, February 11, 2003.

On Tuesday, September 30, 2003, the 2nd SMAS project Meeting took place in Hersonissos-Heraklion, Crete, GREECE. The Meeting was hosted by Participant 7, CRETA FARM. The venue was the Convention center at Creta Maris Hotel.

The SMAS meeting was attended by 21 scientists from all project Participants and the two Subcontractors.

During the meeting a review of progress in the first three work packages of the project was presented by each Participant and discussed by all attendees. The remaining three work packages are not yet scheduled to begin although some participants have begun work on some aspects. WP6 that seeks consumer information relating to use of TTI devices was separately discussed and the timetable for this WP will be brought forward.

Progress was in generally assessed as being satisfactory. Goals and deliverables for the current Semester were confirmed.

Dissemination activities were also discussed. The Coordinator presented the informative 4 page colour leaflet of the SMAS project. One hundred copies were distributed to each Participant for dissemination to Consumers, Universities, Industry and Food Authorities of European countries.

In the morning of Wednesday, 1-10-03, the Workshop on Mathematical modelling on safety and spoilage of meat was organized by the project in conjunction with the International Symposium on the Epidemiology and control of Foodborne Pathogens in Pork, SAFE PORK (1-4 October,2003), Crete.

The Workshop was successfully held at Creta Maris Hotel, Hersonissos, Heraklion, Crete.

The Workshop was free for attendance by interested participants from Universities, Industry and Regulatory Authorities. It was attended by an international audience of 80 participants. Presentations and following discussions were very well received. Microbial modeling and in particular the ComBase tool and the SMAS project were the focus of attention.

1st WORKSHOP PROGRAMME "Mathematical modelling on safety and spoilage of meat" Wednesday, 1-10-03, Heraklion, Crete, GREECE 9:00 a.m Welcome by Project Coordinator and Prof. Genigeorgis, Chairman of Organizing Committee of the Symposium. 9:05 a.m Microbial Modelling Fundamentals J. Baranyi (40 min) Powerpoint Presentation (.zip) - Paper (.pdf) 9:45 a.m Mathematical modelling of safety and spoilage of meat K.Koutsoumanis (25 min) Powerpoint Presentation (.zip) 10:10 a.m Presentation and Demonstration of Combase, a comprehensive microbial modelling tool J. Baranyi and co-workers (150 min with a 10 min break) Powerpoint Presentation (.zip) 12:50 p.m Presentation of SMAS project P.Taoukis (25 min) Powerpoint Presentation (.zip) Photos from the Workshop

3rd Meeting (12 month) February 6,2004- Venue: Norwich, IFR- Host:
P6- Workshop (none)

4th Meeting (18 month-Midterm) June 16 ,2004- Venue: Dublin, NFC- Host: P4- Workshop (none)

5th Meeting (24 month) February 17 and 18, 2005 - Ede, Netherlands- Host: TNO (P5)
Workshop 2 (Safety and shelf life assessment of meat products in Europe")

Planning for next Meetings and Workshops:

• 7th Meeting (36 month-FINAL) Thursday, 15/12/2005 - Venue: Athens, AUA- Host: P3-
  Workshop FINAL (Quality Management of the Chill Chain/Final Workshop)