Food spoilage leads to significant wastes and losses, and is an important economic issue in food industry. In the case of meat, a large part of spoilage is the consequence of bacterial growth and subsequent metabolic activities causing organoleptic spoilage of the final product (defects in texture, color, odor, or aspect), leading finally to products that are lost because they do not fit the quality standards. In addition, meat production chain requires energy, water and cost consuming operations (i.e. animal breeding, slaughtering, and transformation and storage which are usually performed at low temperature). Therefore meat product spoilage that appears at the end of the process or during shelf life affects the whole production chain performances as well as the sustainability label of the meat sector. The objective of the project is to reduce food losses by predicting, early in the production process, the onset of bacterial spoilage during storage in order to propose decision-support tools for directing process. Pork and poultry meat, the two main meats consumed in France will be studied. The economic impact of losses of these products will be assessed. Dynamics of bacterial communities will be monitored during processing steps (from primary cuts to end products at use-by-date and beyond) and various descriptors of spoilage will be measured. The natural variability between batches and that associated with production processes will be considered. Data will be used to identify accurate spoilage markers and to compute innovative mathematical models for predicting spoilage occurrence as a function of the initial composition of the microbiota (diversity and abundance) and some abiotic parameters (storage temperature, modified atmosphere packaging). The models will be validated on meat products, including the economic aspect in order to propose decision-support tools for the food producers.

Antimicrobial resistance in livestock is a public health threat due to the risk of zoonotic transmission to humans and its negative consequences on animal health and welfare when diseases cannot be treated. AVANT is a multi-actor inter-sectorial project aimed at developing alternatives to antimicrobials for the management of bacterial infections in pigs, especially diarrhoea during the weaning period, as the major indication for antimicrobial use in livestock in Europe. Antimicrobial treatment options for pigs are increasingly limited because of planned restrictions in the use of colistin and zinc, two current choices for treatment of post-weaning diarrhoea. The AVANT portfolio comprises a variety of alternatives for treatment or prevention of diarrhoea and/or respiratory infections, namely (i) gut-stabilizing interventions based on a symbiotic (pre- and probiotic) product and faecal microbiota transplantation; (ii) novel veterinary medicinal products containing bacteriophages and polymers for targeted treatment of enterotoxigenic E.coli infections; (iii) immuno-stimulating injectable and feed additive products, and (iv) alternative feeding strategies targeting sows and piglets. During pre-clinical studies, efficacy, toxicity, and mode of action of these interventions is tested, and their dosage and formulation optimized. The results and a survey for veterinarian-, farmer- and consumers perception of antimicrobial alternatives, will be used together with legal and economic considerations to select three interventions for large-scale farm trials, assessing clinical efficacy and impact on antimicrobial use. All steps are supported by regulatory advice for quick market entry post-project. Generated and existing data on antimicrobial use, pig demographics and projected consumption of pork, will be used in mathematical modelling to estimate the reduction in antimicrobial use that could be achieved by 2030 if the AVANT alternatives were widely adopted in pig production.