Final conference: A paradigm shift in the management of quality labelled food supply chains
The final conference of the ALLIANCE project, A paradigm shift in the management of quality labelled food supply chains, took place in Brussels on 7 October 2025.
The conference was not just an occasion to present project results, but more ambitiously, it aimed to spark a discussion on emerging solutions for managing food supply chains, sharing the learnings and key recommendations from the ALLIANCE project while also opening up a broader debate and exchange with experts and stakeholders.
The gathering was opened by a keynote speech from Ana Patricia Lopez Blanco, policy officer at the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), who presented the EU vision and priorities related to agriculture and particularly to food supply chains, and provided an overview of the aims of the call under which the ALLIANCE project was funded.
Guest speaker Eva Maes of the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food subsequently presented some key lessons on data economy and data spaces in the agrifood sector, drawing on the Data4Food2030 project.
A key moment of the conference was the high level address by MEP Camilla Laureti, Member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, who delivered an inspired speech on the importance of food traceability, and shared her commitment to continue working towards ensuring targeted investments aimed at improving digitalisation and innovation in the agri-food sector, making digital traceability of European food supply chains a reality.
Substantial time was dedicated to the presentation of a selection of key insights from the ALLIANCE project. Starting with an overview of the project rationale and main achievements by coordinator Stavroula Maglavera (UTH), the audience then heard about the ALLIANCE Blockchain system for food traceability from Apostolos Apostolaras (UTH). Then, Pantelis Lappas (NetCompany) presented the ALLIANCE Early Warning and Decision Support System, while Nikola Maravić (FINS) explained the workings of the ALLIANCE Digital Knowledge Base for Food Fraud. Last but not least, Alessandra Castellini (UniBo) shared preliminary lessons learned on the ALLIANCE Solutions focussing on User Acceptance.
The roundtable with Andrea Colafranceschi (ILSI Europe - Titan project), Lotte Hallez (KU Leuven, CUES project) and Armando Menéndez Estrada (ASINCAR, Watson project), all representing projects part of the EU Cluster for food traceability and trust, saw a lively discussion on the solutions arising from the various projects, and the synergies between them and the solutions developed by ALLIANCE, highlighting the importance of continued collaboration across the projects.
In her final remarks, Stavroula Maglavera highlighted the importance of training, funding, awareness and digitalisation to ensure that innovative solutions for traceability and food verification can bring change to the sector.