Food Innovation

The objective of the research is to analyse the effects new technologies and technical scientific innovation produce on the agri-food sector, with special attention paid to how progress can have significant consequences for the sustainability of food systems. The study focuses on the legal challenges that new technologies in the agri-food sector pose across several areas:

a) the regulation of artificial intelligence and its data (or Big Data) in the agri-food chain;

b) the regulation of new food products or innovative production techniques, specifically Novel Foods, new genomic techniques (genetic editing, CRISPR);

c) the relation between scientific uncertainty and punitive law in the agri-food sector, with reference also to the precautionary principle, which poses significant problems in terms of compatibility with the principles of legality, offensiveness and causality in the risk society;

d) the challenges generated by the use of technological innovation tools in the agri-food chain regarding labour law.

Coordinator: Francesco Mazzacuva