About us
EuroFIR AISBL, an international, member-based, non-profit Association under Belgian law (www.eurofir.org), was set up in 2009 to ensure sustained advocacy for food information in Europe. Its purpose is to develop, publish and exploit food composition information, and promote international cooperation and harmonisation of standards to improve data quality, storage and access. EuroFIR AISBL draws together the best available food information globally from 26 compiler organisations in Europe, USA and Canada (FoodEXplorer) as well as validated information about bioactive compounds (eBASIS).
Our values
Our Mission
Our mission is to be an independent provider of validated food composition and supporting information across Europe and beyond in cooperation with FAO Infoods. We are committed to advancing FAIRification of food-related data and fostering its application through research and commercial endeavours to support improved nutrition and health amongst citizens.
Our Vision
EuroFIR aspires to be at the forefront of delivering harmonized national food composition data and supporting resources, in partnership with national compiler organisations empowering research and policymaking to address food quality, nutrition and public health challenges in Europe.
History
The European Food Information Resource Network project (2005-10; EuroFIR) was a Network of Excellence (NoE) comprising of 48 partners from academia, research organisations and small-and-medium size enterprises (SMEs) in 27 countries. The project was funded by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme (Priority 5: Food Quality and Safety; Contract no FP6-513944).
One of its main objectives was to develop, for the first time in Europe, a single online platform with up-to-date food composition data across Europe. Another important outcome of EuroFIR NoE was the establishment of a longer-term sustainable platform to continue some of the activities set up during the project and this was achieved by the creation of a non-profit international association, EuroFIR AISBL.
In 2010, a new 2-year project was started, EuroFIR Nexus, and funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (Theme FP7-KBBE-2010-4; grant agreement No 265967). Its objective was to further integrate/refine the EuroFIR Food Platform, to improve/support the ways research is undertaken into relationships between food, diets and health in Europe. The focus was to improve the application of validated food data and tools for pan-European nutrition studies and networked usage, implementation of standards and implementation and promoting the use of standards and best practice. The revised consortium consisted of 19 beneficiaries including EuroFIR AISBL and 23 Third Parties linked through the association.
Following EuroFIR NEXUS, EuroFIR has evolved into a financially independent Association, based in Brussels (BE). Many of the original 47 EuroFIR partners are members of the EuroFIR AISBL, but we have also broadened our membership to include Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and other academic and research organisations as well as individuals including students from the food and health sector.