About Act4Food
A closer look into our story, objectives and funding
Our story
The trust
Food supply chains have always depended on trust: that processes run safely, records are accurate, and products reach people as intended. Over the past years, that trust has become increasingly tied to digital systems. From connected sensors and automated controls to traceability platforms and data-driven logistics, technology now sits at the heart of how food is produced, processed, and delivered.
The risks
This transformation brings efficiency and transparency, but it also introduces new cyber risks. Attacks can interrupt operations, manipulate critical information, and undermine food safety and availability. While the sector has long used approaches like Threat Assessment and Critical Control Points (TACCP) to protect against intentional threats such as fraud or sabotage, these frameworks were not designed for today’s cyber-physical reality.
ACT4FOOD was created to close that gap.
By modernising food defence for the digital era, the project develops a secure-by-design, analytics-enabled cybersecurity framework that helps food producers, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics providers prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats, aligned with EU regulations and standards.
Our objectives
Objective 1
Safeguarding
Operational Technology
Protect the industrial systems that run food production and logistics, including ICS, SCADA, and IoT devices, by moving from basic isolation measures to real-time monitoring, intrusion detection, and AI-based analytics that spot complex attack patterns early.
Objective 2
Facilitate accurate information exchange and secure data sharing
Enable food sector actors to share critical cybersecurity insights and supply chain information safely, using privacy-preserving techniques (anonymisation, secure aggregation, differential privacy), a blockchain-based Information Exchange Platform, and a real-time Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) feed that extends RASFF with cybersecurity alerts.
Objective 3
Strengthening traceability
and supply chain transparency
Improve the reliability of traceability data by adding a validation layer that checks input credibility before records are stored, supported by AI-driven anomaly detection and cyber threat intelligence (CTI), helping prevent fraud, counterfeiting, and data manipulation across production and logistics.
Objective 4
Ensuring Compliance with regulations (NIS/2) and Industry standards
Make compliance easier and more practical for food businesses by integrating automated risk assessments, real-time monitoring, and incident reporting aligned with NIS2 and relevant standards, supported by a Forensics and Food Defence tool with guidelines and best practices.
Objective 5
Towards TACCP 4.0: The Next Evolution of Threat Assessment
and Critical Control Points
Modernise Threat Assessment and Critical Control Points by developing TACCP 4.0, a next-generation food defence framework that integrates cybersecurity and cyber-physical risks, including AI-supported risk ranking and guidance for secure digital operations across the food chain.
Objective 6
Cybersecurity
preparedness and resilience
in the food industry
Shift the sector from reactive security to proactive readiness through AI-powered security testing and monitoring, plus a Cyber Arena that supports realistic attack simulations, hands-on training, and practical roadmaps for improving cyber resilience in food systems.
Objective 7
Ensuring business integrity
and continuity
Help food businesses stay operational during cyber incidents by strengthening digital infrastructure resilience, improving early detection and incident response, securing sensitive data, and reducing the risk of downtime, fraud, and reputational damage.
Objective 8
Raising awareness and building a cybersecurity culture
Increase awareness and skills across the food ecosystem through training, demonstrations, cross-industry knowledge sharing, and adoption guidance, supporting a cybersecurity-first mindset that strengthens public trust and long-term sector resilience.
EU project
Our funding
ACT4FOOD is funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), call DIGITAL-ECCC-2024-DEPLOY-CYBER-07.
Granting authority: European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre.