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What is FERA Sciences Ltd?
Our science
• National and international
centre of excellence for
interdisciplinary investigation
and problem solving across plant
and bee health, crop protection,
sustainable agriculture, food and
feed quality and chemical safety
in the environment.
• Remote, faster, early-warning
diagnostics and interventions
• Discovery technology across the
agri-food chain
• Smarter surveillance data and
risk analysis
• Sustainability in the agri-food
chain, increasing output and
reducing waste
Translating science
• New technologies to identify
and counteract emerging
threats
• Risk analysis and customer
assurance, for regulatory and
business needs
• Integrating detection,
diagnostic and surveillance
capabilities
Sustainability and Growth
Sustainable
productivity &
environmental
protection
Chemical
safety &
stewardship
Food safety &
authenticity
Proficiency
testing
Crop health
protection
Targeted
knowledge for
informed
decision
making
Food
packaging &
migration
Novel
foodstuffs
From Farm to Fork
Adding value across the agri-food chain
Sustainability Goals
• Reduced Energy consumption
• Conserving water
XX% Reduction (per unit of finished production)
Safely return XX% of waste water and to replenish water used in final
products in water stressed areas
• Improved use of solid waste
Increased recycling and reuse of waste
• Alternative packaging
Reduced weight, Increased recyclability
• Lowering GHG emissions
Factors affecting Business Growth
• A rapidly increasing global population
• New Product Development
• Emerging markets
• Consumer buying preferences
• Quality differentiation
• Reduced costs of production
• Avoiding “Shock events”
How can this be achieved?
Growing more, using less, protecting the
environment
• Robust systems for identifying and managing risks
• Measurement sciences, to “detect change”
• Multi disciplinary collaboration
(across the whole food production chain)
• Better use of data
Robust systems for identifying and managing risks
An increased risk of future
epidemic events Crop biosecurity, a one-world global challenge
Climate
change
Human
movement Trade
A history of big pest events Shock events drive poverty, manageable pest
drive markets
Cassava Mosaic Disease
Cassava Brown Streak Disease
Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease
Banana Xanthomonas Wilt
Coconut Lethal Yellowing Disease
Fusarium Tropical Race 4
Chemical Risk to food
Toxicity Chronic vs. Acute, High exposure groups
Occurrence
Usage data
Frequency and concentration in food
Data? ‘Known’ or ‘Unknown’ chemical
Knowledge?
Intelligence e.g. a Food Integrity toolkit
Allergen
Labelling
Microbial Chemical
Contaminants
Measurement Sciences
Measure change…..?
• (Bio)chemists historically “profile” the target analyte
(chemical/biological entity)
• Newer strategy is to profile food / agricultural
products and measure change in profile
Profile normality
Identify change
Identify cause
Smarter measurements
Data
Typical or Atypical?
Smart surveillance - example
Data from multiple samples
Sample No. 1
Sample No. 25
Sample No. 5
Atypical…
Variation in
production
processes or
new chemical
risk?
Multi disciplinary collaboration
(preferred bidder status)
The Centre for Crop Health and Protection
An international gateway for innovation that unites
industry and non-industry partners to revolutionise
how global farming deals with biotic crop threats like
pests, pathogens and weeds.
15 Grand Challenges
CIEL industry
Industry driven
research needs
CIEL relationships
Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL)
(preferred bidder status)
CONSUMERS
Final thought - Better use of data?
Conclusions
• Successful growth and sustainability is heavily dependent
upon measurement sciences and other reliable data sources
• New technologies using chemical and molecular biological
profiling to measure change will provide a game changing
environment for: • Business growth
• Improved control (and traceability) of the Agri-food chain
• Better quality products
• Enhanced customer experience
• Reduced agricultural inputs, increased outputs
• Timely business decisions
• After all … if you can’t measure it….
…… you can’t manage it!
