Abstract
From March 1999 to May 2006 various research institutes, technology providers and service providers (40 partners in over six European countries) - were involved in the EUREKA project "Microbial Environmental Monitoring in the Food Industry" (MEMFOODIN). This project was aimed at supporting microbial environmental "self-control" by standardising a rapid, reliable and easy-to-use method of microbial environmental control applicalbe to any food-industry sector prone to bio risk, verifying the applicability of new methodologies to the development of microbial "self-control" to upgrade food-industry quality control management and developing new procedures that would cut the cost of certification. This article explains the importance of microbial environmental control and self-control inspections (basic prerequisites for the HACCP as underlined also by the new ISO 22000), describes the MEMFOODIN project, and summarises the main objectives achieved.