OCT/NOV/DEC 2015

FOCUS ON MICROBIOLOGICAL FOOD SAFETY

EVENTS UPDATE 

4th Asia Pacific International Food Safety Conference &
7th Asian Conference on Food and Nutrition Safety
 

In 1991, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) organized the inaugural Asian Conference on Food and Nutrition Safety, which was at the time the first major conference to discuss food safety in Asia. Since then, a further six conferences have been organized in Thailand (1994), China (2000), Indonesia (2004), Philippines (2008) and Singapore (2012). Next year, ILSI will team up with the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and its newly established regional affiliate, the Southeast Asia Association for Food Protection (SEA AFP), to organize the 4th Asia Pacific International Food Safety Conference and 7th Asian Conference on Food and Nutrition Safety. The conference will be held in Penang, Malaysia, in September 2016, a beautiful and vibrant city with a rich heritage and food culture. ILSI Southeast Asia Region and the SEA AFP look forward to welcoming you to this joint conference next year! To follow updates on the conference, please go to the website here.

NEWS AND RESEARCH

Food Safety Modernization Act Final Rules Published by US FDA
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently published several Final Rules to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), including on Risk-based Preventative Controls for Human Food, Risk-based Preventative Controls for Animal Food, Produce Safety, and the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP). To facilitate understanding on the key requirements under these Final Rules, the US FDA has organized a series of publicly-available webinars on the Final Rules relating to preventative controls for human and animal food; and on the Final Rules in relation to produce safety and the FSVP. For the FSVP, the FDA has also produced an information sheet / flow chart to help food importers determine whether they would be subject to this program, which is available here.

 

Special Issue of Food Control on Development of Microbiological Criteria for Food
The journal Food Control has recently published a special issue on  the Development of Microbiological Criteria for Food. The special issue consists of a series of papers providing illustrative examples of how microbiological criteria can be established and applied under various contexts and for different purposes, based on the recently revised Codex Alimentarius Guideline on Principles and Guidelines for the Establishment and Application of Microbiological Criteria Related to Foods (CAC/GL 21-1997 revised in 2013). These papers are a collaborative effort supported by the Codex Trust Fund (CTF) and were coordinated through a technical team comprising the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), Codex Alimentarius secretariat and Codex Trust Fund secretariat. Examples described in each paper were developed through working groups participated and led by Codex members and Codex observers.
 

ILSI North America at IAFP 2015
ILSI North America participated at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection that was held in Portland, Oregon, from July 25-28, 2015. The ILSI North America Food Microbiology Committee hosted several scientific symposia during the meeting, including on the role of whole genome sequencing in food safety ('Rise of the Genomes II: Practical Integration of Whole Genome Sequencing into Food Safety'); validation of process controls for foodborne pathogens (''How do I Validate That? Assuring Credibility of Process Controls for Pathogen Reduction'); and a roundtable discuss on current food safety issues ('Current Perspectives in Food Safety Roundtable'). The ILSI North America Food & Chemical Safety Committee also hosted a symposium at IAFP 2015 on 'Metals Exposure in Foods'. Videos of all the presentations from these sessions can be viewed on the ILSI Youtube channel or through here.

ILSI Europe and IAFP Webinar on 'Relevance of Microbial End-Product Testing in Food Safety Management'

The ILSI Europe Risk Analysis in Food Microbiology Task Force, in collaboration with the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), recently organized a webinar on 'Relevance of Microbial End-Product Testing in Food Safety Management' on November 25, 2015. The webinar provided an overview of the role and uses of microbial testing for risk-based food safety management, and is based on the paper published in the journal Food Control by the ILSI Europe Risk Analysis in Food Microbiology Task Force (available here) and the paper by Buchanan & Schaffner (2015) in Food Protection Trends on 'FMSA: Testing as a Tool for Verifying Preventive Controls'. The webinar presentation will be made available on the ILSI website here.
 

9th International Conference on Predictive Modeling in Food
The 9th International Conference on Predictive Modeling in Food was recently concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 8-12, 2015. The conference was organized by the International Committee on Predictive Modelling in Food (ICPMF), which is a subcommittee of the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS), together with Elsevier and the University of Campinas in Brazil. The conference discussed a number of topics related to the practical impacts that predictive and risk modeling can have on the food industry and public health in general. The proceedings from previous (8th) edition of the conference can be found here.