Location:
ESR – Institute of Environmental Science and Research
27 Creyke Road, Christchurch, 8041, New Zealand, www.esr.cri.nz
Aim:
The aim of the workshop is to illustrate the progression from disaster to prevention. Looking at incidents of chemical contaminants in food and feedstuffs, the workshop will generate more robust and comprehensive assessments of the economic, environmental, social and political impacts of such incidents. The workshop will help to get a better appreciation of the magnitude of the impacts and the importance of monitoring for food safety. The workshop will bring together experts from socio-economics and food safety assurance and will be useful to food industry and food regulators, as well as food scientists and consumer representatives.
Registration is now open at
https://www.moniqa.org/chemical_contaminants/registration
alternatively you can also fax the attached registration form.
On site participation is limited to 30 people.
Who should attend:
The workshop will bring together experts from socio-economics and food safety assurance and will be useful to food industry and food regulators, food traders (retail, export, import), as well as food scientists, food analysts and consumer representatives.
Short outline
Chemical contaminants are unwanted chemicals in food and feedstuffs, and include pesticide and veterinary drug residues, fungal toxins (mycotoxins), food ingredients, environmental contaminants and natural toxins.
Defining cause and effect of exposure to a chemical is problematic, exacerbated by the usual delay between exposure and onset of symptoms. However there are reports of adverse health effects following a number of incidents of high exposure to particular chemicals and also a number of instances where episodically high concentrations of chemical contaminants were detected and traced back to a particular event.
The impact on society of incidents of chemical contamination of food or feed may be economic, environmental, social or political. The cost may range from a few thousand Euros, to meet the direct cost of compliance or monitoring analysis, to many millions of Euros for court prosecutions, bankruptcy, product disposal, food legislation, monitoring and surveillance, damage to brand or reputation of the product or country, decline in tourist income, or loss of life.
In recent years monitoring and surveillance schemes have been implemented in many countries including the European Union. These have potentially prevented/reduced economic, environmental, social and political impacts of such incidences. The recent establishment of EFSA, the RASFF system, and global harmonisation efforts in food safety monitoring and assurance (e.g. MoniQA), have substantially contributed to improved effective consumer protection, even though this comes at a high price.
Learning from the past and appreciating the magnitude of potential impacts will guide us to continuously refine and improve food safety assurance measures into the future.
Fees/costs:
Participation in this event is free, travel and accommodation must be covered by participants.
Contact
Sue Paulin, ESR, NZ
susan [dot] paulin [AT] esr [dot] cri [dot] nz
More information and draft programme: see attached pdf
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 workshop_flyer.pdf | 256.87 KB |
| programmeregistration.pdf | 314.03 KB |
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