On the occasion of the FOOD 2030 High-Level Conference, the European Technology Platform (ETP) ‘Food for Life’ has published its 2018 Implementation Action Plan (IAP). Taking its 2016 Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) as a starting point, the ETP ‘Food for Life’ highlights in this new publication how the Research and Innovation (R&I) actions listed in the SRIA should be executed, as well as what tools and instruments will make it possible.

The objective of the Implementation Action Plan is to provide the roadmap for shifting from a conventional mass production model to a more personalised and customised model, involving and engaging consumers while simultaneously promoting flexibility and resource efficiency. The IAP therefore takes up the main Research and Innovation (R&I) targets described in the SRIA and focuses on how research, innovation, training & education, and communication & dissemination can provide solutions to the critical global challenges that the European food and drink sector is currently facing.

Progress towards the ETP ‘Food for Life’ vision for the European food and drink sector will only be made through a joint effort of different public and private stakeholders following a food system approach, at different geographical levels and from different sectors of activity and with a genuinely consumer-centric focus.