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<< back to the 2000 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Quotations From Jack, January 2000 The Acronym Should be Said as Four Letters I-A-F-P By the time you read this column the millennium will have passed and presumably the world will not have come to an end in spite of all of the dire predictions to the contrary. As of January 1, 2000, our name has changed from the International Association of Milk, Food and Environmental Sanitarians to the International Association for Food Protection. One of the issues Members voiced when we proposed our name change was how do we pronounce the new acronym? Do we try to make a word out of IAFP e.g., eye-eh-ff-pa or do we just say all four letters I-A-F-P? Knowing that such issues can create hours of debate, the Executive Board discussed this topic and recommends that the acronym be pronounced as four letters I-A-F-P. Just as we say NFPA or USDA, we will now say IAFP, with no attempt to make the letters into some kind of word. It is important to stress that the mission of our organization has not changed. IAFP will continue "To provide food safety professionals worldwide with a forum to exchange information on protecting the food supply." We will continue to fulfill our mission through our two outstanding journals and other publications, our hugely successful Annual Meeting, our workshops and our expanding Web page. With the new name, came the need for a new Association image, including a new logo. I received some questions regarding our new logo and how it was selected. I never knew choosing a logo could be so involved. A commercial artist developed our logo after discussions with our staff in Des Moines and with the Executive Board. Several different concepts were discussed. The one chosen attempts to represent the blue of the sky and water, and the green of the plants on the earth. The colors wrap around each other to show the inter-relatedness and interdependence of the natural environment and how our organization represents a global membership working together to assure protection of the food supply. I suspect this is a bit abstract for some of us "just-give-me-the-facts" types, but we could find no simple collection of familiar objects to represent the diversity in the Association, therefore we had to think outside the traditional box. We believe the logo is quite attractive and hope you agree. Our goal is that the new name will attract new Members from around the globe. As a forum for exchange of information on protecting the food supply, we need to have the relevant professions well represented including physicians, epidemiologists, veterinarians and food inspectors as well as our core of industry, government, education and research professionals. To this end, I am requesting all our Members to identify potential new Members. Your encouragement may be just what they need to become involved with the premier food safety organization. Please join me in pursuing our goal of increasing our Membership base. With an increased number of Members, comes increased knowledge and resources for all. |