The project "Improving Food Safety of Pork Supply Chain in China" is co-chaired by Academician Chen Huanchun of Huazhong Agricultural University and Li Yanbin, a Distinguished Professor and Tyson Endowed Chair in Biosensing Engineering at the University of Arkansas. Other participates include researchers from China Agricultural University, South China Agricultural University, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the University of Minnesota, Iowa State University, and five scientific research institutions, as well as three pig producers, i.e., Guangxi Yangxiang Co., Ltd., Wuhan Jinlong Co., Ltd, and New Hope Liuhe Co.,Ltd.

China is the world's largest pork producer, producing more than 700 million live pigs every year and consuming 57 million tons of pork, accounting for half of the world's total consumption. The entire pork supply chain includes pig farms, processing plants, transportation channels, distribution centers and retail markets. The project will investigate the prevalence and drug resistance of major food-borne and zoonotic pathogens in each nodes of the pork supply chain, find risk points, and carry out research on the application of new biological control and sterilization technologies to eliminate risk points, and combine Biosensing technology, blockchain technology, and next-generation Internet technology to develop on-site rapid detection technology and build a real-time risk monitoring platform to quickly respond to the contamination of microorganisms and chemical substances in the chain, and carry out food-borne diseases Early warning, systematically improve the level of food safety in the pork supply chain.

The project brings together a number of experts in the pork supply chain field, and will work to promote food hygiene and safety and make the pork supply chain more sustainable. The systematic approach and multidisciplinary collaboration adopted within the project team will make the achievement of this goal more efficient.