6-8 October 2008 (Consortium Meeting)
8-10 October 2008 (Conference)
Rome, Italy
MoniQA event
The MoniQA Six-month Consortium Meeting took place in Rome, Italy (October 6-8, 2008) and brought together the 32 project partners to review the progress made and discuss any open issues. All ten work packages were reviewed and a special workshop was held on sustainability issues. The meeting also provided an opportunity for the working groups on food safety issues and the MoniQA management board to convene.
After the Consortium meeting finished, the First International MoniQA Conference (October 8-10) was opened, which brought together a global audience of more than 200 food safety scientists, socio-economists, regulators, industry and trade representatives as well as media correspondents. The participants had the opportunity to discuss the most recent challenges in avoiding and controlling unwanted substances in the food production chain as well as to obtain information on the newest developments and innovations in rapid and reliable analysis of food contaminants. Speakers include representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Commission (EC) as well as experts on food safety issues. The conference was jointly organised by INRAN (Italian National Institute of Research in Food and Nutrition) and ICC (International Association for Cereal Science and Technology) on behalf of MoniQA. ICC is also the coordinator of the MoniQA project.
The conference was divided into sessions based on the MoniQA working groups, namely: Food Authenticity; Food Additives; Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins; Food Allergens; Chemical Contaminants; Microbiological Contaminants; and Horizontal Issues. Other features were poster presentations and a Best Poster Award as well as a plenary lecture on "Food Quality/Safety Control: FP7 Research Challenges". In addition, two side events, a MoniQA Food Scientist Training (MFST) workshop on science communication and an international expert workshop on cost-benefit of food safety regulations were held.
The presentations given at the Conference are available here.
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