The RAF Regions project successfully organized the “Mind Your Food!” International Conference. More than 160 participants from 14 countries across Europe participated in the Conference. The Conference hosted the 5th Food Cluster Initiative Meeting and it was adjoined to the 3rd International Organic Food Products Fair, Biologica 2010. It was held in March 05-07, 2010 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

During the first day of the Conference, the RAF Regions project results were presented with a focus to the results of SWOT analysis in the 3 participating regions of Central Macedonia, Puglia and Pazardjik and the Action Plan which is under development. International trends in Food Innovation were discussed, as well as the European policies and initiatives for clustering food research and industry and promoting innovation in regional food systems. Finally the possibilities for internationalization of the Greek organic food products industry were presented.

During the second day of the Conference, parallel workshops were organized with an emphasis to supporting the participation of research entities and the industry in European funded research and innovation projects; funding instruments such as FP7, CIP, Structural Funds, Territorial Cooperation Programmes etc. were discussed. The final plenary session related to the furthering of the activities of the Food Cluster Initiative and the next meeting which is scheduled for the 8th, 9th and 10th of December 2010 in Ghent, Belgium.

All FEED-TO-FOOD beneficiaries participated at the International Conference “Mind Your Food!”. It was a forum for the exchange of know-how and experience, as well as a chance for the elaboration of new ideas for research projects. All participants had opportunity to talk about international co-operation, networking and clustering.