CF attended the 4th APAC Int. Food Safety Conference that was held together with the 7th Asian Conference on Food and Nutrition in George Town, Malaysia. The event was organised by ILSI and SEA AFP, with over 400 delegates attending from 10 ASEAN countries and around the globe.
The Conference was very intense with every oral presentation being of high standard from either an authority in the field or a scholar. The major theme on the conference in my opinion was the shift in management of risk assessment from the probabilistic models of acceptable level of risk towards protection and food safety objectives (FSO) expressed as Ho–R+I≤FSO.
A very impressive research work was presented by Dr. Ibrahim from the Malaysia Palm Oil Board on MCPD Esters, which was on reduction of esters by cost effective process implemented by manufacturers and approved by the stringent EU market. This is a great achievement of ILSI as they were the first international organisation that brought the issue of MCPDE to the attention of food safety specialists in 2009 and now we see the practical results.
Several international observers, Chinese Government and Chinese industry presenters reported on food safety issues in China. The attendees appreciated this frank and open discussion as the correct way to address and overcome these issues in the country of such scale as China.
The global perspective on food safety and nutrition was presented by The Future Earth (FE), www.futureearth.org, with the primary global objectives being elimination of hunger and poverty. Realising the limitations on unilateral approaches to planetary problems, this unique organisation is attempting to resolve global problems by education, engagement and example. Sustainability and food security are important areas of the FE goals. In my opinion we always need to consider the planetary perspective when dealing with food safety incentive, for instance by “sterilising” food we are eliminating good microflora and that can lead to adverse health effects.
The conference was also attended by ICAAS (www.icaas-org.com) and GAIN (www.gainhealth.org) who are working in hot spots of the planet by providing immediate humanitarian relief by food fortification and supplementation.
The conference was supported by CSIRO Australia and they also had a booth at the exposition; it was great to meet a few Aussies and discuss cutting edge innovations from the first hands. The presentation by Dr. Turner from Queensland University got the top conferences’ award for the control of microbiological safety of Ready-To-Eat salads by, surprisingly, probiotics.