The past year has been an interesting and exciting one! The topics MoniQA covers have never been more current: food allergens, food fraud and reference materials. No matter which jurisdiction you turn to, all of them have food fraud and food allergens high on their agenda. This also became apparent during the successful MoniQA conference held in Austria, and attended not only by the food industry, patient groups, laboratories, assay providers and equipment manufacturers but also by high-level FAO representatives. And as a not-for-profit organisation, MoniQA is well-placed to address challenging aspects of these topics in an independent manner.
Richard Cantrill, the outgoing president, has clearly shown his leadership, guidance and commitment over the past year and I would like to thank him on behalf of the advisory board and the MoniQA member companies and organisations.
In the coming year, MoniQA will continue on the path, helping stakeholders to address food safety challenges. The MoniQA team is already working on a number of new initiatives.
If you like to learn more, I cordially invite you to join the organisation and help pave the road to safer foods! Wishing all members and supporters a happy and prosperous 2019!
Bert Popping