SOMOS: Technical Standards for Safe Production of Food and Feed from marine plants and Safe Use of Ocean Space

Framework for a safety assessment

The project was purposefully set up to be multidisciplinary, as economic, environmental, marine, social and food aspects of safety need to be addressed to develop a comprehensive framework for a safety assessment of this combination of activities at sea. As we are using our oceans and seas more intensively, can different types of use be sustainably integrated in order to have a true multiple and safe use of our sea space? In the SOMOS project, a framework will be developed that will assist in developing this co-use of the seas, integrating different uses such as renewable energy production and novel food and feed production from seaweed, in a safe way by developing standards and safe operational practices. In this way, the project will address the global challenges of producing food, energy and efficient use of our waters to cater for the needs of the world population of 2050.

The safety aspect in the project concerns feed and food safety hazards of marine production, safety of people and property at sea, marine interactions such as competition between alternative uses and cumulative effects such as pollution. Safety is at the core of Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s mission, and they want to enhance the development of safety standards and regulations on food within the maritime field.

Find multi-use solutions

The project will deepen its understanding by means of a practical case study in which multi-use and safety aspects will be examined. The North Sea is one of the most crowded seas in the world and as such faces the challenge to find multi-use solutions. Moreover, different parties such as government and industry consider offshore production of seaweed a promising commercial activity in this area where many offshore wind farms are built: a clear opportunity for multi-use.

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation has been strongly involved in the development of the project with Wageningen University & Research and TNO and will continue to provide feedback, as Vincent Doumeizel, Vice President Food, Beverage & Sustainability of the LR Group, will help steer the project by joining its Advisory Board. He comments: “This is the first project targeted at the food sector to be funded by the foundation, and I am honoured to be joining the advisory board. The current reliance on meat and soya has a significant impact on the environment and will become unsustainable as diets become richer. Marine plants could be a sustainable source of protein, fresh water and energy for the growing global population. It is exciting to be involved in research into viable alternatives.”

Public understanding and impact

The public understanding and impact of the project is of utmost importance to the funding body as well as all researchers in the project. The aim is to translate vision into practical solutions. The project will deliver a practical framework with standards and skills as well as a set of so-called ‘recommended practices’. The framework will be developed in co-production with relevant authorities, certifiers and operators. This is done in order to enhance education and skills development within this growing community including, of course, engineers and scientists themselves.

Objective

Safety of Marine Food and Feed Ingredients aims to acquire detailed knowledge on the possible food safety hazards of marine food and feed ingredient production, their likelihood of occurrence and proper ways to control them. The activity focuses on identifying relevant feed/food safety hazards with marine production, including pathogenic micro-organisms, chemical contaminants and physical hazards, as well as potential control options for the identified safety issues. It identifies which public and private standards for food and feed safety are relevant for marine production in multi-use settings, evaluates the applicability of these standards based on both state-of-the-art scientific knowledge and a case-study, and proposes adapted or new standards where needed.

Objective

Safety of people and property in multi-use of maritime locations aims at demonstrating that using specific locations at sea for various activities simultaneously can be done in a sufficiently safe fashion with respect to people and property. The recommended practice on a safe approach towards the multi-use of oceans’ and marine space will cover both design/manufacturing and operations. The formulation will be fit for use by regulatory bodies, e.g. IMO. This Work Package focuses on site specific issues.

Objective

A meaningful safety assessment and controlling safety of multiple simultaneous activities at a shared location at sea should be possible. The proposed action will devise the necessary tools for this, test the tools and build capacity among policymakers, certifiers and operators to use the tools to increase safety at sea.

Objective

This work package aims to develop a generic method for safety assessment for multiple usages of the sea. It is about generalising the safety assessment methods pertinent to dedicated domains, such as in this project, location fixed offshore food/ feed production and maritime operations. When successful, results from the domain dedicated safety considerations can be brought together and assessed simultaneously with a balanced weighting of the importance and vulnerability of each domain. Moreover domain dedicated safety assessors will be able to take parameters into account from other domains which are relevant to their domain, in this way tackling the identified interactions. The ultimate goal is to arrive at a common risk denominator shared by the various domains involved. Although there is an ambition to be generic, there will still remain a large degree of domain restriction i.e. location bound maritime activity.

Objective

This work package aims to develop a generic method for safety assessment for multiple usages of the sea. It is about generalising the safety assessment methods pertinent to dedicated domains, such as in this project, location fixed offshore food/ feed production and maritime operations. When successful, results from the domain dedicated safety considerations can be brought together and assessed simultaneously with a balanced weighting of the importance and vulnerability of each domain. Moreover domain dedicated safety assessors will be able to take parameters into account from other domains which are relevant to their domain, in this way tackling the identified interactions. The ultimate goal is to arrive at a common risk denominator shared by the various domains involved. Although there is an ambition to be generic, there will still remain a large degree of domain restriction i.e. location bound maritime activity.

Other output: see 'Workshops' and 'News'