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Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation

My Perspective, May 2001

IAFP tried something very new; we published a paper in a language other than English
By Jenny Scott, IAFP President

With this month’s issue of Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation, IAFP tried something very new; we published a paper in a language other than English. On page 381 you will find a paper on "The Control of Post-Processing Contamination by Listeria monocytogenes." This paper was originally published in English in DFES in August 1999 (Tompkin, R.B. et al., 1999. Guidelines to prevent post-processing contamination from Listeria monocytogenes, Dairy, Food Env. Sanit. 19:551–562). It provides a practical approach (based on many years of experience) to control of Listeria monocytogenes in a food processing plant. The authors received a number of requests for a version of the article in Spanish. Because of this, the article was subsequently translated into Spanish by staff at the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) and IAFP was approached to determine if the Association would be interested in publishing the Spanish version of the article. NFPA felt this article could be used in the United States in food manufacturing facilities that employ workers who speak primarily Spanish and it could also be used by IAFP Members in other countries where Spanish is the native language. The IAFP Executive Board recognized that the publication of an article in a non-English language would raise a number of questions.

Would IAFP Members see a benefit to this?

If we publish an article in a non-English language, how would our English-speaking Members (the majority of IAFP Members) feel about this?

Are our Members interested in seeing articles in other languages?

If we publish an article in one language, should we publish it in other languages as well?

Who would do the translation of articles?

Who would review the galley proofs to determine if language errors had been made?

Should we accept any article submitted with a translation (provided peer review deems the article appropriate for DFES) or should only specific types of articles be published in more than one language?

If only specific types of articles should appear in both English and a non-English language, what criteria should we use as a basis for articles in non-English languages?
The Board considered these questions, discussed the issue with the DFES Management Committee and our current thinking is set out below. However, we have not made a final determination on this issue and we solicit your opinion on what the IAFP position should be. The Board believes that publishing an article occasionally in another language might help demonstrate our commitment to being an international organization. However, because a majority of our Members primarily speak English, we feel it would be essential that any manuscript is published in a non-English language also be published in English. Therefore, in the future we might entertain the notion of publishing other articles in a non-English language; however we would publish both the English version and the non-English language version in the same issue of DFES. We also believe that not every article that is published in DFES is appropriate for publication in a non-English language. We feel that primarily articles on practical, applied topics would be of most benefit for publication in a non-English language. These could be used by United States food manufacturing or food service facilities that employ people who speak the chosen language. These articles could also be used in countries where that language is spoken. The author would be responsible for submitting the article in both English and the non-English language, and would be responsible for a careful review of the galley. The submitter may be asked to justify the choice of
the alternate language.

The Executive Board would like to know how you, our Members, feel about this. We provided a response form on page 396 (English) and page 397 (Spanish) for you to fill out and send back via fax. Alternatively, you may go to the IAFP Web site at www. foodprotection.org and fill out the survey. We really do want to know your thoughts on this. We want to know if you like the idea; if you don’t like it; if you have alternative approaches, such as publishing DFES papers in non-English languages only on the Web site; and we would like to know what languages you feel would be most popular for this type of information. The results of the survey will be discussed in a future issue of DFES and provided to the DFES Management Committee for their consideration. If the Membership wants to see more of this, we anticipate that the DFES Management Committee will develop guidelines to address the submission of articles in non-English languages.

You will also note that this issue of DFES is the "Pre-Annual Meeting" issue. I know that in some places this winter’s snow may still be disappearing and the lake ice is still breaking up. But when you get this issue, it will be less than three months until our Annual Meeting! Take a look at the exciting line up of symposia, technical papers and posters. Then fill out the registration form — either the one in DFES on page 443, or go to the IAFP Web site at www. foodprotection.org and register online. I’m excited about going to Minneapolis, about this year’s program, and about the social events our Minnesota Affiliate has planned for us, and I hope you are too. See you at IAFP 2001 this August!

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