Food Protection Trends

COMMENTARY from the Executive Director
December 2006

"This has been a very busy year for IAFP”
By David W. Tharp, IAFP Executive Director

December is always a good time to take a look back at what has been achieved over the past year. This has been a very busy year for IAFP and it is hard to believe that it will draw to an end this month! We began the year with our sights set on IAFP 2006. The Program Committee and Executive Board made the trip to Calgary in February to review more than 550 submitted abstracts along with twenty-some symposia. It was exciting to have everyone together to begin preparations for the Annual Meeting program and even though it was cold, the Committee had a great time interacting in beautiful Calgary.

As we progressed towards IAFP 2006, we began work on finalizing the workshop selections. At the same time, we were completing a DVD that tells the story of IAFP’s Foundation. You may recall seeing this DVD at the Opening Session. The Foundation continues to grow and in doing so, continues to be able to support additional projects relating to IAFP’s mission. For 2006, four students’ travel to Calgary was supported allowing them a “head start” on connecting with food safety colleagues.

Last March, IAFP participated in two shows, the Food Safety Summit and the Food Safety World. Both provided opportunities for IAFP to meet with Members and potential Members in a relaxed, informal setting. We are also able to strengthen our relationships with exhibitors and sponsors.

During the year, we continued to work with the IAFP Student PDG in planning activities for IAFP 2006. The student group helped out once again by serving as monitors and assistants during IAFP 2006 sessions. We really appreciate the help they provide at the Annual Meeting! They also held their Annual Luncheon on Sunday and on Tuesday evening, held a student mixer. The Student PDG continues to grow, build momentum and serves an important function within IAFP.

In August, the Annual Meeting took place in Calgary. We didn’t know what to expect in “crossing the border” to Canada, but success followed us north! Our exhibit hall was sold out; we had more than 1,700 attendees and a record number of poster presentations. Everyone had a great time in Calgary and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Canadian Rockies!

Not too long after the Annual Meeting concluded, the US spinach outbreak occurred. This prompted IAFP to plan its first ever, Rapid Response Symposium. From the time the spinach recall was issued until the time of our symposium, only three weeks had elapsed. It was the first time to implement IAFP’s Rapid Response, but most likely not the last. As other important topics in food safety arise, look to IAFP to respond in a rapid, organized manner.

Then, to end the year, we held the IAFP European Symposium in Barcelona. We were impressed by the number of supporting companies who either exhibited or provided sponsorship support. Because this article is written about 30 days in advance of December, we do not know the final outcome of our European Symposium, but preliminary information looks like we will exceed 100 attendees in Barcelona. We are certainly happy with these results!

During the year, we increased the number of Gold and Silver Sustaining Members and our number of regular Sustaining Members too! We are delighted to have 10 Gold Sustaining Members and 9 Silver Sustaining Members. In total, we now have 86 Sustaining Members in comparison to 82 at the end of 2005 and 72 at the end of 2004. This visible support from leading companies in our field means so very much to all of us at IAFP!

Each December, we release the financial results for our fiscal year end. In this case, results are shown on page 982 for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2006. We were again successful this year in adding about $75,000 to our General Fund Balance, which now stands at $578,000. Our goal is a moving one (as our budget increases), but right now our target is to hold $1.1 million in our General Fund. This is about one-half of our operating budget.