Seafood has been recognized as a high quality, healthy and safe food item. However, like any other food product, seafood can accumulate environmental contaminants potentially affecting human health. Since limited information is available for non-regulated priority contaminants in seafood, such as emerging biotoxins from harmful algal blooms, marine litter, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, ECsafeSEAFOOD will provide scientific evidence to serve as a basis for further development of common food safety, public health and environmental policies and measures. In order to increase seafood safety to consumers and reduce human health risks the aim of ECsafeSEAFOOD is to establish a quantitative link between the contamination of the marine environment and that of seafood.

The specific objectives of the ECsafeSEAFOOD project will be addressed by eight Work Packages (WP):

• WP1. Database and selection of priority contaminants – elaborate a database with relevant information required for risk assessment gathered from literature and national monitoring programs.
• WP2. Monitoring priority contaminants in seafood - monitor the presence of priority contaminants in the environment and seafood and prioritize those that can represent hazards for human health.
• WP3. Risk assessment / modeling of consumer exposure and mitigation strategies to reduce health risks - assess the effect of processing/cooking on the behavior of priority contaminants in seafood. Perform risk assessment to measure the potential impact of seafood contaminants on public health, using in-depth probabilistic exposure tools. Develop mitigation measures for risk managers, such as an online tool for different stakeholders, guidelines, phytoremediation and processing.
• WP4. Development of fast screening methods to detect priority environmental contaminants in seafood - develop, validate and provide new, easy and fast tools to assess the presence of environmental contaminants in seafood; optimize methods for the detection and quantification of emerging toxins from harmful algal blooms.
• WP5. Toxicological impact of priority chemical contaminants in public health - understand the public health impacts of these chemical hazards, through toxicological characterization in realistic conditions.
• WP6. Transfer of relevant priority contaminants from the marine environment to seafood and the effect of climate changes - quantify the transfer of relevant priority contaminants between the environment and seafood, taking into account the effects of climate change.
• WP7. Dissemination, knowledge transfer and IPR management - investigate what information is needed and how it should be disseminated to consumers in order to reduce public health risks from seafood consumption, taking into account the possible impact on public opinion in coordination with risk managers. Confirm/refine the European Maximum Reference Levels in seafood for contaminants that can represent a risk and for which no legislation exists, or information is still insufficient.
• WP8. Project management – assure the deployment of management best practices, particularly strengthening the cooperation between research and industry for the development of new tools and to ensure more confidence of consumers in the safety of seafood products.

The ECsafeSEAFOOD project consortium comprises 18 institutions from nine European member states (Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands) and one associated country (Norway). All partners were selected according to their expertise and competence, in order to provide an equitable balance of complementary partners and resources required to undertake a multidisciplinary project such as ECsafeSEAFOOD.