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Point of View “I’m pleased to report that
by all accounts our first
Rapid Response Symposium
was a great success" If there is one consistent lesson that history teaches us– it’s to “expect the unexpected.” When it comes to the field of food safety this lesson is no exception. As a food safety professional, when it comes to managing food safety risks within your organization or area of responsibility, your success will be largely dependent on how you deal with day-to-day expected requirements. For example, you may be responsible for overseeing that the food safety management system within your organization is functioning properly, employees are being trained, HACCP checks are being conducted, or samples are being analyzed and, if necessary, the results are being acted upon. But at times during your career, your success may also be critically dependent on how you deal with an unexpected food safety challenge. You might be able to claim to be surprised with such an occurrence once, but after that you’re simply unprepared. Understanding the importance of preparing for the unexpected, last year, the IAFP Executive Board came up with the idea of developing an IAFP Rapid Response Series. We realized that some unexpected food safety issues required immediate mobilization, awareness, and education. Waiting to address them one time a year at our Annual Meeting was neither practical nor effective. Accordingly, we decided to create a process that would allow us to mobilize leading experts in the field on short notice, on any breaking and unexpected food safety issue, and position IAFP as the “go to” organization to assist with solving the critical food safety issues of our day. In October of this past year, IAFP held its first ever Rapid Response Symposium titled, Fresh Leafy Greens, Are They Safe Enough? The symposium was developed in response to the recent fresh bagged spinach outbreak in the United States. Our goal was to bring key leaders and stakeholders together to have science-based discussions on what happened, lessons learned, and what can be done to prevent similar occurrences in the future. I’m pleased to report that by all accounts our first Rapid Response Symposium was a great success. The meeting, which was held in Arlington, Virginia only 3 short weeks after the outbreak was announced, was attended by 119 professionals representing academia, industry, and regulatory. The comments we’ve received have been overwhelmingly positive and gratifying. Several of the presentations given at the Rapid Response Symposium are posted on our Web site. Please take a moment to review and share them with others. Also, a written report summarizing highlights of the symposium appears on page 942 of this edition of Food Protection Trends. Special thanks to Larry Beuchat for taking the lead role in developing the report. Clearly, putting together a symposium of this scale requires the hard work and contributions of many dedicated members and staff. Special thanks to all of the speakers for sharing their experise as well as Jeff Farber, Linda Harris, and David Tharp for their efforts in putting together the program. I would also like to thank our sponsors – bioMérieux, DuPont Qualicon, Ecolab, National Restaurant Association, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, Silliker, and the Technical Committee on Food Microbiology of the Institute of Life Sciences North American Branch for their contributions. By the time you read this message, the fresh bagged spinach outbreak should be well over. However, the final chapter in this story has yet to be written. There is still much work to be done as an industry and much to be learned in preventing future outbreaks. But when the final chapter is completed, it should read that IAFP played an important role in bringing key stakeholders together to share information and advance the safety of fresh leafy greens. Best wishes for peace, joy, and foresight during the coming New Year. As usual, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please let me know. You can E-mail me at frank.yiannas@disney.com. Until next month, thanks for reading.
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