IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo

The Institute for Food Laws & Regulations (IFLR) will be at the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo June 6-9. Stop by and see us at booth #602.

Thousands of food industry professionals from around the globe convene at IFT to learn about the latest developments in scientific research, technologies, new products, food law, and consumer trends. The IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo brings together decision-makers from all of the many disciplines involved in food science, technology, law, and more. The meeting packs in tremendous educational sessions as well as offering great networking for professionals in R&D and other scientific/technical positions, as well as in corporate management, purchasing, consulting, academia, government/regulatory, and technical sales and marketing.

Hope to see you in Anaheim!

Food Import Safety: Systems, Infrastructure & Governance Conference, May 26 & 27 Univ of WI - Madison

Food Import Safety: Systems, Infrastructure & Governance Conference

 

Dates: May 26 & 27, 2009 (One and one-half day conference)

Location:  University of Wisconsin – Madison, Tong Auditorium in Engineering Centers Building

Registration is free-of-charge but space is limited

To register:  http://wage.wisc.edu/events/Index.aspx?ID=527

For the Agenda and more information: go to the website above and click on “event agenda and speaker list” or send an email to chpra@engr.wisc.edu  

 

This workshop will address consumer safety from imported food by discussing supply chains, private and public regulation and future guidance for global trade.

Learn how food companies are dealing with this issue privately

·         through supplier agreements and

·         third-party oversight

Explore issues with laboratory testing of imported foods

·         including cost effectiveness

·         advancements in detection and testing limitations

Find out more about types of violations that have been caught at the border

Learn more about the European experience

Who Will Benefit

·         Representatives of the food industry (procurement, research and development, quality assurance)

·         Local, state and federal regulators with responsibilities for food safety

• Academics and students

 

Sponsors:  Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE), Engineering Professional Development (EPD), European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE), ISyE (Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering), and FRI (Food Research Institute), CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research, The China Initiative.

 

Food Import Safety: Systems, Infrastructure, and Governance\

Agenda Detail

Tong Auditorium, Engineering Centers Building

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Sponsored by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE)

May 26 and 27, 2009 (1.5 days)

 

To register: Send an email with the following information to chpra@engr.wisc.edu: Name, Title, Affiliation, Mailing Address, Telephone Number, Fax Number, and E-mail

The conference is free-of-charge but space is limited.

 

Tentative Agenda

8:15am Welcoming remarks:

Lorna Zach, Scientist, Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis; 

Steve Ingham, Administrator, Food Safety Division, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

 

Tuesday 8:30 AM:     Opening Plenary—Understanding the Scope of the Problem: 

8:30 am  Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair, China Institute, University of Alberta.  The Impact of the Chinese Development Model on Food Safety

9:15 am Joe Corby, Executive Director, Association of Food and Drug Officials.  Experiences with Food Import Violations in New York State

10:00 Break

Industry Panel:

10:30  Gale Prince, Food Product Safety Pioneer, Moderator

11:00  Dale Morton, Director of Food Safety Programs, Quaker Tropicana Gatorade and Pepsi Cola North America  

11:30  Joe Shebuski, Director, Global Food Safety Products and Processes, Department of Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs, Cargill, Inc. 

12:00  Scott Hood, Manager Microbiology Quality and Regulatory Operations, General Mills, Inc.

12:30 Lunch

 

Tuesday PM:             Issues in Detection and Enforcement

1:30  William Nganje, Associate Professor of Agribusiness Finance, Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, Arizona State University.  Intelligent Sampling of Fresh Produce

2:00  Wayne Ellefson, Senior Client Manager, Covance, Inc.  Testing and Detection Technologies.

2:30  John Spink, Research Faculty, National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Michigan State University. Counterfeit Products and Food Fraud. 

3:00  Irv Rosenthal, Senior Fellow, Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  Third-party Oversight of Food Safety.

3:30 Break

4:00  Moderated Discussion:      How to Achieve Stakeholder Cooperation 

Moderator: David Trubek, Professor, School of Law, University of Wisconsin-Madison

5:00 Adjourn

 

Wednesday AM:       The Way Forward

8:30 am

William Sperber, Global Ambassador for Food Protection, Cargill, Inc. Proposed World Organization for Food Protection

9:00  Rhodri Evans, Chief Specialist, Toxicology, Food Safety Authority of Ireland.  Experience of Food Safety Authorities in Europe

9:30  Miriam Haritz,  Faculty of Law, University of Maastricht, Netherlands.  Food Safety, Trust, and the European Union.

10:00  Neil Fortin, Director and Professor, Institute for Food Laws and Regulation, Michigan State University.  The Regulation of Food Imports: Past, Present, and Future.

10:30 Break

Belem Avedano, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, The Role of Public-Private Partnerships on Access to Fresh Produce Export Markets for Small Latin American Producers

11:30  Closing Plenary

Shaun Kennedy, Director, National Center Food Protection and Defense, University of Minnesota

12:00   Adjourn

Sponsoring organizations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE)

Center for Freight Infrastructure Research and Education

Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis

Center for International Business Education and Research

China Initiative

College of Engineering

Department of Engineering Professional Development

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

European Union Center of Excellence

Food Research Institute

Conference hotel:

            Best Western Inn Towner

2424 University Avenue

Madison, WI 53726

Phone 608-233-8778

Fax 608-233-1325

Reservations 800-258-8321
Email: info@inntowner.com

http://www.inntowner.com/

            Rooms group code FOODSFTY

 

"Better Training for Safer Food" initiative gets off to Africa

A "Better Training for Safer Food in Africa" (BTSF) initiative was launched in an effort to help developing countries improve their food safety systems for the benefit of their populations and economies.  BTSF has provided training to both European and third country officials who are responsible for checking that EU rules related to food, feed, plant health, animal health and welfare are properly applied.

Jointly with the African Union Commission (AUC), a specific programme targeted at Africa has been now set up, with the view to promoting compliance with international Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures as key to bilateral trade, both within Africa and with the rest of the world, and to increasing the protection of citizens. Under "BTSF-Africa" the EC and the AUC will jointly coordinate the implementation, from 2009 to 2010, of seven capacity building activities worth around €10 million. The key objective is to support food safety mainly by the transfer of technical expertise and policy advice in areas of food safety and quality across Africa.

More information is available here and here.

Call for Papers: Risk Policy & Law

The Society for Risk Analysis annual meeting will take place on 6-9 December 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland.  More information is available here.

Abstract and symposium proposals are due by Monday, May 25.

Just as a starting point, here are some ideas:

• The future of Regulatory Oversight : towards a New Executive Order?

• The WTO as a Global Risk Regulator: the role of Risk assessment in WTO/GATT Decisions (following Hormones II, etc.)

• Proposals for US food safety reform (new powers for the FDA?, rules of origin?, how to improve import safety?, etc)

• International Regulatory Cooperation on impact of regulation

• International cooperation on import safety (see, i.e., Interagency Working Group in Import Safety (IWG))

• Policy Implications of the New Science of Risk Perception (neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, etc.

• Effect of E-Rulemaking on Risk Assessment Quality

• The implementation of REACH and the establishment of the European Chemical Agency

Seminar - Food Import Safety: Systems, Infrastructure, and Governance

A seminar titled, Food Import Safety: Systems, Infrastructure, and Governance, is sponsored by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) at University of Wisconsin – Madison, Tong Auditorium in the Engineering Centers Building, May 26 and 27, 2009 (1.5 days).

To register, send an email to chpra@engr.wisc.edu with the following information: Name, Title, Affiliation, Mailing Address, Telephone Number, Fax Number, and E-mail. More information is available , here, and here. The conference is free-of-charge but space is limited. For a map of the UW campus, see http://www.map.wisc.edu/

Tentative Agenda

8:15am Welcoming remarks:

Lorna Zach, Scientist, Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis;

Steve Ingham, Administrator, Food Safety Division, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

Tuesday 8:30 AM: Opening Plenary—Understanding the Scope of the Problem:

8:30 am Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair, China Institute, University of Alberta. The Impact of the Chinese Development Model on Food Safety

9:15 am Joe Corby, Executive Director, Association of Food and Drug Officials. Experiences with Food Import Violations in New York State

10:00 Break

Industry Panel:

10:30 Gale Prince, Food Product Safety Pioneer, Moderator

11:00 Dale Morton, Director of Food Safety Programs, Quaker Tropicana Gatorade and Pepsi Cola North America

11:30 Joe Shebuski, Director, Global Food Safety Products and Processes, Department of Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs, Cargill, Inc.

12:00 Scott Hood, Manager Microbiology Quality and Regulatory Operations, General Mills, Inc.

12:30 Lunch

Tuesday PM: Issues in Detection and Enforcement

1:30 William Nganje, Associate Professor of Agribusiness Finance, Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, Arizona State University. Intelligent Sampling of Fresh Produce

2:00 Wayne Ellefson, Senior Client Manager, Covance, Inc. Testing and Detection Technologies.

2:30 John Spink, Research Faculty, National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Michigan State University. Counterfeit Products and Food Fraud.

3:00 Irv Rosenthal, Senior Fellow, Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Third-party Oversight of Food Safety.

3:30 Break

4:00 Moderated Discussion: How to Achieve Stakeholder Cooperation

Moderator: Vicki Bier, Professor, School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

5:00 Adjourn

Wednesday AM: The Way Forward

8:30 am

William Sperber, Global Ambassador for Food Protection, Cargill, Inc. Proposed World Organization for Food Protection

9:00 Rhodri Evans, Chief Specialist, Toxicology, Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Experience of Food Safety Authorities in Europe

9:30 Miriam Haritz, Faculty of Law, University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Food Safety, Trust, and the European Union.

10:00 Neal Fortin, Director and Professor, Institute for Food Laws and Regulation, Michigan State University. The Regulation of Food Imports: Past, Present, and Future.

10:30 Break

Belem Avedano, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, The Role of Public-Private Partnerships on Access to Fresh Produce Export Markets for Small Latin American Producers

11:30 Closing Plenary

Shaun Kennedy, Director, National Center Food Protection and Defense, University of Minnesota

12:00 Adjourn

Conference hotel: Best Western Inn Towner, 2424 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726; Reservations 800-258-832.

Call for Papers - International Symposium on Agricultural Research

The 2nd International Symposium on Agricultural Research  will be held 8-31 August 2009 in Athens, Greece. The Environment and Agriculture Research Unit of the Athens Institute for Education and Research organizes an International Symposium.  For more information visit the conference website at:  http://www.atiner.gr/docs/Agriculture.htm.

Commencement and the Flu

From MSU’s health professionals:

In light of the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak, MSU wants your help in keeping your fellow Spartans and guests safe during this busy week on campus.  At this time MSU’s health professionals advise that all classes, commencement activities and business operations continue as scheduled.  However, they do recommend taking one simple but prudent preventative measure – avoid shaking hands. 

For updates regarding MSU and the flu outbreak, visit, http://special.news.msu.edu/swineflu/index.php

If you have questions regarding commencement, please call 353-3993, www.commencement.msu.edu

Thank you for your cooperation.