|
|
<< back to the 2004 archive listing << Food Protection Trends COMMENTARY from the executive director “We all benefit from international involvement and welcome more of
the same!” In President Paul Hall’s column this month, Paul discusses many global food safety issues and how IAFP assists in bringing Members together to address such issues. I want to expand on this topic and give some specific examples of IAFP involvement in the international marketplace. For the past five to ten years, IAFP’s Annual Meetings have attracted about 10% of our attendees from outside of North America. Another 8% attend from North American countries outside of the United States (Canada, Mexico, and other Central American countries). That brings almost 20% of our attendees to the Annual Meeting from countries other than the United States. This type of interaction between food safety professionals is invaluable when addressing issues of international food safety. Our international attendees see the value in sharing information on protecting the world’s food supply and give many presentations at IAFP’s Annual Meetings. There are a large number of repeating attendees and presenters from outside of the United States and North America. This international involvement brings great value to the Annual Meeting and we are truly fortunate to have this type of participation. One example of international participation, which goes beyond our dreams, can be pointed to through our Korean Affiliate Members. For the past two years, Korean Members attending the Annual Meeting have exceeded 30 Members. They have had such a large attendance that they have scheduled time to hold their own Affiliate meeting during the IAFP Annual Meeting. It is wonderful to see this active connection of food safety professionals. Two years ago a group from the United Kingdom met at the Annual Meeting in San Diego to explore interest in establishing an Affiliate group. The following year, they met the requirements and received an Affiliate Charter as the United Kingdom Association for Food Protection. They also have a large participatory group that attends each Annual Meeting giving presentations and taking part in topic discussions. As Paul touched on, we also have international Affiliates established in Mexico, Brazil and Portugal. Additionally, we have four Affiliate Associations in Canada. Each of these Affiliates has active IAFP Members who contribute to the Association and the Annual Meetings. We all benefit from international involvement and welcome more of the same! Along with this inter-national participation, many of these Affiliate groups have an active student element. Certainly, it is easy to see that we must have students and other young Members involved to keep the Association alive. All of us MUST do everything in our power to assist students and young professionals in their development. For those of you “seasoned” professionals, think back to your younger days. Maybe you had a mentor; maybe you had someone you secretly looked up to or someone that you modeled your career after. Most everyone had someone to help give his or her career a boost. Wouldn’t you feel good if you knew that your assistance was able to make an impact on a young professional? Look around you, be alert for this opportunity, help mentor a young professional and improve the world of food safety! Paul mentioned articles authored by international authors and that is one thing that we are especially proud of. We have close to 50% of articles published in the Journal of Food Protection that are submitted by authors outside of the United States. This helps to give a worldwide perspective of food safety to the readers of JFP. In addition, non-US authors write many of the articles presented in Food Protection Trends. As you most likely are aware, we have full-text articles for the Journal of Food Protection available through JFP Online. There are three full years of Journals available online and we are now beginning our fourth volume (2004). This helps to make important research available to readers around the globe immediately and reduces the dependency on our mail and delivery services. Recently, the IAFP Executive Board, acting on a recommendation from our Student PDG, approved a Student Membership type of “JFP Online Only” for students who want to receive access to JFP Online and have other benefits of Membership. This was an effort to make Membership easy for those students residing outside of North America and to make access to JFP articles instantaneous. Student Members within North America may also hold JFP Online Only Memberships, but the international students really benefit by quicker access and reduced cost because of the high costs to ship JFP internationally. These are a few examples of how IAFP is working to address the needs of our international Members. If you have ideas or suggestions on additional ways we can improve communication bet-ween international food safety professionals, we would be most interested in hearing from you! |