The Past, Present, and Future of Food Regulation: A European Perspective

Alberto Alemanno (guest instructor at the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations) will be presenting a talk at Harvard, 

The Past, Present, and Future of Food Regulation: A European Perspective, March, 21, Wednesday, 12:00-1:00.  This presentation, by telling 3 main stories, will offer a European perspective on the past, present and future of the regulation of food products and food consumption. While story 1 will illustrate the genesis, evolution and main features of EU food law and policy, story 2 will explore – by examining some of the ongoing food trade disputes – the international food regulatory regime introduced by the World Trade Organization. By looking into the future, story 3 focuses instead on the regulatory challenges related to the obesity epidemic. After discussing the EU 'regulatory mix' consisting of regulatory initiatives (e.g. labeling schemes, such as health claims) and self-regulatory mechanisms (e.g. voluntary commitments), it explores – at the time of increasing European interest for the use of nudging – the effectiveness and legitimacy of regulatory approaches aimed at integrating the findings of behavioral research into policy-making.

Food for thought Professor shares his expertise on food

Professor Neal Fortin is profiled in this article in Detroit Legal News.

"Law students get a lot to digest in Neal Fortin's classes. . . ."

EU Law Course on iTunes U

Institute for Food Laws and Regulations guest instructor, Alberto Alemanno, has posted his EU Law course online on  iTunes U and the HEC Paris page. 

If you have not had the good fortune to hear Dr. Alemanno speak, these lectures will provide a pleasant introduction to what you have been missing. He is a shining star in his field, enthusiastic in sharing his knowledge, and a gifted educator. 

H. Thomas Austern Memorial Writing Competitions

The Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) is now accepting papers for the H. Thomas Austern Memorial Writing Competitions. FDLI sponsors the  competitions to engage law students interested in food and drug law. There are two competitions - one for papers with a maximum of 40 pages, and one for papers between 41 and 100 pages. Winning papers are considered for publication in the Food and Drug Law Journal.
   
Two prizes will be awarded for each of the two competitions:

• 1st place - $4,000

• 2nd place - $1,000

All competition details and a listing of previous winners are available online. 

Deadline: May 31, 2012

With three Jimmy John's near Michigan State University, how many E. coli O26 cases will there be?

Bill Marler wonders, "In past Jimmy John’s sprout E. coli and Salmonella cases, young people – especially college students – seem to have been disproportionately hit. With at least three Jimmy John’s in East Lansing, and one student sick, I wonder how many of the 2, or 7, will be part of the count."

New Master Degree in Food Safety Law

Wageningen University is offering a new 2-year MSc Food Safety with specialisation in Food Law. The degree focuses on the legal aspects of food safety and food safety management.

2012 Law & Science Young Scholars Informal Symposium and Prize

The 2012 Law & Science Young Scholars Informal Symposium will be held at the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, on 14 May 2012.

The Symposium aims to create a forum for post-graduate scholars, PhD students, and early-career researchers working in the area of Law & Science. It will provide participants with an opportunity to present and discuss their research with senior researchers of the Law Science community in a constructive and friendly atmosphere.

Call for Abstract
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 13 February 2012
Deadline for submission of full paper: 14 April 2012
Notification of Acceptance: 30 April 2012
Symposium presentation: 14 May 2012
Official language: English
Place:  Aula Scarpa, University of Pavia (Italy)

Conference participation is free.
For registration and information please write to Scientific Secretariat.

Scientific  Secretariat:
Dott.ssa Alessandra Malerba: alessandramalerba87@gmail.com
Dott.ssa Laura Massocchi: laura.massocchi@katamail.com

Get Poisoned for Free!

Bill Marler, guest instructor for the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations, is offering to give a book to each new person who subscribes to his blog (up to 200 hardcover books).  Just subscribe here and email Mr. Marler your address at bmarler@marlerclark.com.

The book, Poisoned, is a great read.  So is Bill Marler's blog. Win Win.

Seminar: "Taking Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Training Beyond the Borders of the US with MSU as a Global Grant University”

Dr. Cholani Weebadde, assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture, will speak on Thursday, November 17^th  at 4:10 pm in A149 PSSB, Michigan State University. Dr. Weebadde's international work involves "building capacity in developing countries on agricultural development related issues, collaborative research project and program management, team building and human resource development, and institutional development and networking."  Her research areas include plant breeding and genetics and molecular breeding and genomics.  She conducts training programs in agricultural biotechnology, environmental biosafety and food safety, intellectual property rights, and technology transfer.  Dr. Weebadde earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka and her doctorate from MSU.

 

Symposium: The Role of Public and Private Regulation in Detecting and Responding to Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

A symposium will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on November 21, 2011, 1:30 to 4:30pm. In this final event, a multidisciplinary team will evaluate and compare the current systems for detecting and responding to foodborne outbreaks in the U.S. and the European Union. In the context of recent, produce-related foodborne outbreaks in the EU and the US, the team will examine and compare the respective approaches, assessing challenges in surveillance, detection, trace-back and identification of a contaminated food item. Finally, we will consider lessons learned from recent outbreaks by examining issues of public health, responsibilities of industry, and comparisons of regulatory frameworks.

Those speaking include;

— Dr. Jeri Barak-Cunningham, Assistant Professor, Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin – Madison. "Fresh produce – no longer surprising but now a major source of foodborne illness." 

—  Dr. Robert Tauxe, Deputy Director, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, US CDC. "The cycle of public health:  Can we detect, investigate,and control foodborne outbreaks faster?"

— Dr. Jordi Serratosa-Vilageliu, EFSA Liaison Officer at FDA.  "Improving public health decision making with tools of risk analysis."

To register, please send an email to Lorna Zach (lzach@engr.wisc.edu) with your name, affiliation, and email contact information. A webcast may be available.

2nd EFLA EU-US Food Law Conference

The European Food Law Association (“EFLA”) 2nd EFLA EU-US Food Law Conference, "Food
Safety
 Regulations 
and 
International Trade
 of
 Food," will be held on October 24, 2011.  A copy of the conference brochure is available here.

Public Health Law Research Annual Meeting

Public Health Law Research is holding the 2012 Public Health Law Research Annual Meeting, "Public Health Law: Targets of Opportunity," January 18-20, 2012, in New Orleans. The conference will highlight research that provides evidence about how law can be used to improve population health; abstracts are being accepted until November 15, 2011.

Summary of Key Provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act

Image via WikipediaThe FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011, amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to shift the focus of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from primarily reacting to food safety problems to prevention.

A summary of key new provisions and their impact is available on the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations website here.

Still Time to Enroll in Summer Academy on Global Food Law & Policy

There are only five places left at the upcoming 3rd Summer Academy on Global Food Law & Policy planned from 25 till 29 July, Lake Como, Italy.

In the keynote speech David Byrne, the former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, will present his views about the future of EU and international food regulation and the role public authorities should play in nutritional issues. Others covers topics such as the past, present, and future of the WTO SPS Agreement, the challenge of regulatory compliance with national and transnational food & beverages regimes, and Codex Alimentarius: Waste of time or food deliberate democracy? and more.

More information is available here.

European E. Coli Outbreak Puts Spotlight on US Government Preparedness

David Acheson, Managing Director of Food and Import Safety at Leavitt Partners, pointed out in a recent CNBC interview, "You can't say it won't happen here. You have to assume it will happen. We need to ramp up our prevention controls." 

The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT), a member of the Food and Agriculture Protection Training Consortium (FAPTC), is offering DHS-certified and sponsored training at no direct cost to state and local food emergency responders. "A Coordinated Response to Food Emergencies: Practice and Execution" is designed to have an impact on limiting the devastation caused by contamination of the food supply.The course provides responders with training on food emergency response procedures with an emphasis on coordination between local, state and federal food and health officials. In the United Sates, communication among this patchwork of government agencies can lead to slow detection of illness and slow response in containing an outbreak.

"The deadly E. coli outbreak in Europe should not be a surprise. This type of outbreak could happen anywhere," said Thomas Tucker, NCBRT Director. "We are especially vulnerable here in the United States with our complex processing and distribution system and high volume of imported goods. That is why the NCBRT has gotten ahead of the game by developing and offering training to help prevent and prepare for such an incident."  

"We are pleased to support such a crucial course," says Jerry Wojtala, Executive Director with the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI). "This course is a key to preventing the devastating consequences a food contamination incident, like the one we're seeing now, can have if government, food industry and public health officials are unprepared."

The Food and Agriculture Protection Training Consortium (FAPTC), is comprised of eight university-based training centers along with the International Food Protection Training Institute.  It is focused on developing and delivering food protection training primarily to U.S. government regulatory officials at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels along with others responsible for safety of the U.S. food supply, such as industry, third party auditors and regulatory officials in other countries.  

FAPTC provides sustainable, standardized, current, peer-reviewed, on-demand training both domestically and internationally essential for the coordinated prevention and response to food safety incidents impacting the U.S. food supply and citizens. More information on FAPTC can be found at www.faptc.org. 

NCBRT Contact:

Julie Cavin

Public Affairs & Outreach Coordinator, NCBRT

(225) 578-0619

jcavin@ncbrt.lsu.edu

IFPTI Contact:

Jerry Wojtala

jerry.wojtala@ifpti.org 

Language and Culture Day Camps at MSU

Every summer, MSU offers language and culture day camps for children ages 7-12 on campus. They take place for one week (Monday-Thursday or Friday) from 9 am - 4 pm. Morning-only options are available for all camps. No previous knowledge of the language is necessary and children of higher proficiency levels can be accommodated. For more information, visit http://cls.celta.msu.edu/camp.php.

FDA Public Meeting on the Food Safety Modernization Act: Inspection/Compliance

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an advance notice of Registration to attend the Public Meeting entitled, "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act: Focus on Inspection and Compliance Provisions." 

The public meeting will be held on Monday, June 6, 2011, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET, with registration open at 7:30 a.m. The meeting location is on the FDA White Oak Campus, The Great Room, Building 31, Room 1503, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993. This is the third public meeting FDA has held on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The previous meetings, held on March 29 and April 20, 2011, focused on the import and preventive controls provisions under FSMA.

The Federal Register notice announcing this meeting is expected to publish soon.

The purpose of this public meeting is to provide interested persons an opportunity to discuss implementation of the inspection and compliance provisions of the recently enacted FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The public will have an opportunity to provide information and share views that will inform the development of guidance and regulations and/or the implementation of: Enforcement Authorities; Frequency and Targeting of Facility Inspections; Manner of Inspection in a Preventive Controls Environment; and Enhancement of the Reportable Food Registry (RFR).

FDA officials scheduled to speak include:

• Michael Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods
• Dara Corrigan, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs
• Barbara Cassens, Chair, Implementation Team for Inspections and Compliance
• Howard Sklamberg, Vice Chair, Implementation Team for Inspections and Compliance
• Roberta Wagner, Vice Chair, Implementation Team for Inspections and Compliance

Meeting participants will be able to attend three of four breakout sessions addressing Enforcement Authorities, Frequency and Targeting of Facility Inspections, Manner of Inspection in a Preventive Controls Environment, and Enhancement of the Reportable Food Registry (RFR). Each breakout session will be 75 minutes.

Registration for this meeting is currently available. You can pre-register to participate at the meeting on location or pre-register for the Webcast at:http://www.blsmeetings.net/FDAInspection&Compliance. Seating is limited, please register early.

Seminar: Reinventing Transnational Governance to Improve the Safety of the Global Food Supply

On Wednesday, April 27th, Neal Fortin will present the Malcolm Trout lecture at 4:00 pm, 1135 S. Anthony Hall. (This room is located to the south of the Dairy Store in Anthony Hall on the Michigan State University campus.) The title of his talk is "Reinventing Transnational Governance to Improve the Safety of the Global Food Supply."

Call for Proposals

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research program has announced a call for proposals for studies aimed at building the evidence base for strengthening the use of regulatory, legal, and policy solutions to improve public health. The deadline for submitting a preliminary proposal is April 20, 2011. For more information, visit here. 

RWJ Health Impact Project Issues Call for Proposals

Health Impact Project: Advancing Smarter Policies for Healthier Communities Application Deadline: June 1, 2011 5:00 PM EDT The Health Impact Project is a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts advancing the use of health impact assessment (HIA), which provides sound, objective data than can help decision-makers identify the health ramifications of proposals in a range of sectors that do not traditionally focus on health outcomes, and make recommendations that enhance health benefits and minimize adverse effects and associated costs. A new call for proposals has been issued to help demonstrate the effectiveness of HIAs and promote their incorporation into local, state, tribal and federal decision-making.  More details and how to apply.