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<< back to the 2003 archive listing << Food Protection Trends Thoughts from the President This is also your association publication, and we would also like to hear
from you In October 2002, I had the opportunity to participate in the International Seminar on Microbiological Food Safety, held at the University of São Pãulo, organized by members of our new affiliate, the Brazilian Association for Food Protection (ABRAPA, Associacao Brasileira de Protecao de Alimentos). The two-day meeting was held in collaboration with the Brazilian Society for Microbiology and the Iberoamerican network for food quality and safety, RICSA. ABRABA President Mariza Landgraf, in her opening remarks, noted that the new IAFP affiliate in Brazil “was only a baby, but with lots of opportunity to grow.” The meeting program was timely and comprehensive, featuring speakers that addressed such topics as microbiological sampling plans, food safety objectives, food traceability, the microbiological safety of foods of vegetable origin, and the epidemiology of foodborne diseases in Latin America. I congratulate our new affiliate members for a very successful first meeting and for attracting a very enthusiastic audience. I suspect this “new baby” will mature rapidly to provide leadership contributing to the IAFP mission and activities in promoting and ensuring food safety throughout the Latin American countries. After Brazil, my travels in South America continued on to a beautiful location
in the southern part of Chile, the town of Pucon, situated only 14 kilometers
from an active volcano, Volcan Villarrica. The purpose of this part of the journey
was a working meeting of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications
for Foods (ICMSF) to discuss, debate and write about some of the current issues
in the management of food safety for international trade. This was then followed
by the VII Latin American Congress of Food Microbiology and Hygiene, held in
Santiago, Chile, where I participated as a speaker in an ICMSF symposium on
“HACCP and Food Safety Objectives”. This also proved to be an excellent
forum to present, discuss and debate some of the current developments in our
field. Other speakers at the Congress included IAFP Past President Robert Gravani
(1989), Professor of Food Science at Cornell University. IAFP has Bob to credit
for starting the tradition of writing this monthly President’s column.
Although sometimes a challenge to keep up with our Production Editor Donna Bahun’s
deadlines for copy, it is a great way to communicate with our membership, and,
in Bob’s words, “write about whatever you want!” (which prompted
me to contemplate writing about some people’s lack of “conference-call
etiquette”, which drives me crazy… is there no “Emily Post”
to instruct people about this?… but that topic is However, this is also your association publication, and we would also like to hear from you. We look not only for peer-reviewed articles on applied food safety issues but also invite your perspectives for our commentary page and any other contribution that would help to inform the broad audience that reads this publication. I hope you like the new look and name of this publication. Much deliberation went into deciding upon the name Food Protection Trends by the (formerly known as) Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Management Committee and the IAFP Executive Board. It is hoped that the new name reflects the intent of having a publication that is timely and informative about current happenings in our field. Your contributions will help to make that happen! |