(Vienna/Shanghai, 05/06/2010) Roland E. Poms, Coordinator of the MoniQA Network of Excellence and ICC Secretary General, highlighted key achievements of the MoniQA project in a seminar on “Research for Healthy Life” (June 6) organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health & Consumers (DG SANCO) at the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai (thematic days from June 4-6, 2010).
The central goal of the European Commission's food safety policy is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and consumers' interests in relation to food, taking into account diversity, including traditional products, whilst ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market. The Commission's guiding principle, primarily set out in its White Paper on Food Safety, is to apply an integrated approach from farm to table covering all sectors of the food chain, including feed production, primary production, food processing, storage, transport and retail sale. At the World Exhibition the “Research for Healthy Life” seminar (June 6, 2010) took a deeper look at these issues and underlined the ultimate goal of keeping our food as safe and as risk-free as possible.
Research for Healthy Life: the MoniQA Contribution
MoniQA (Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total food supply chain) is an EU-funded project which involves experts from around the globe collaborating to harmonise worldwide food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies. MoniQA focuses on the validation of and performance criteria/requirements for methods used to test staple foods and food products for safety and quality with the main focus being on rapid methods and their applicability and reliability in screening and routine testing. The MoniQA project integrates key organisations across the food supply chain from around the world to find acceptable solutions for all stakeholders including the consumers, food manufacturers, food research institutes and regulatory bodies.
At the “Research For Healthy” Life” seminar, Roland E.Poms, Coordinator of the MoniQA project and Secretary General of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC), presented concrete results and outputs of the project, including the MoniQA methods database, MoniQA Reference Materials for milk and egg allergen analysis, a tool box for socio-economic impact analysis, the peer-reviewed MoniQA Journal “QAS – Quality Assurance of Safety of Crops and Foods”, MoniQA Food Scientists Training courses and MoniQA contributions to four Experts Summits on food safety and food security. From the very beginning MoniQA was designed as a project with a truly global reach. MoniQA has established strong links with various institutions in China and other Asian countries to cross-link research activities and to establish international collaborations and networks through conferences, stakeholder meetings, capacity building workshops and interactions with policy makers.
The “Research For Healthy” Life” Seminar includes contributions by several high-level speakers, such as Bernard Van Goethem (acting Deputy Director General of DG SANCO), Antonio Di Giulio (Head of Unit "Food - Health - Well-being" – Directorate General for Research), Riitta Maijala (Director Risk Assessment, EFSA - European Food Safety Agency, Elke Anklam (European Commission’s Joint Research Centre - JRC), Huailin Li (President of the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine), Yu Tawai (Director General Food Safety – Office Import/Export - AQSIQ) and others.
Only five EU funded projects were invited to present their results in the frame of this seminar: MoniQA (Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total food supply chain), PATHOGENCOMBAT (Fighting new pathogens in the food chain), VEG-i-Trade (Impact of climate change and globalisation on safety of fresh produce), FACET (Exposure assessment to food additives, flavourings and FCM) and Q-PORK (Animal welfare/zootechnics/food quality/consumer expectation).
DG SANCO is also organising a conference on “Healthy Cities” (June 4) and a conference on “Securing Food Safety for a Healthly Life (June 5) in the context of the SANCO Shanghai thematic days.
The EU at the World Exposition 2010 in Shanghai
The Expo is a unique opportunity to expand the EU’s public diplomacy in China and to reach a large and diverse population that has for the most part limited understanding of the EU. The decision to participate in the World Exposition was made by the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, following an invitation by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The Commission shares a pavilion with Belgium, which will hold the rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of 2010. The EU exhibition is based around the theme of “Intelligent Europe” and includes “Open Europe”, “Green Europe”, and finally “Living Europe”. The EU Pavilion will also feature an extensive cultural programme, a football week (in partnership with UEFA) and science festival. The EU will use the opportunity of the Expo to develop its constructive relationship with many parts of Chinese society, including high-level policymakers, national and local authorities, academics and business representatives. There will be over 30 events in the form of conferences and seminars held at the EU Pavilion's business centre. Around 15 Commission Directorate Generals, the European Parliament and EU-funded projects in China will organise thematic events on many key topics.
MoniQA will be represented at the World Exposition 2010 in Shanghai, China, thanks to the kind invitation by the European Commission’s DG SANCO.
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