Stay up-to-date with food safety and new trends in food analysis!
Content:
- Food Fraud Prevention and Effective Food Allergen Management, Rockville, MD, USA, 30 October – 1 November 2019!
- Combine your MoniQA/USP attendance in Rockville with a participation at the NIST Food Safety Workshop in Gaithersburg!
- Meet MoniQA at the DISH High Level Summit - new issues and emerging trends in food safety, Bologna, Italy, 14-15 May 2019
- Order validated milk allergen reference materials from MoniQA's authorized distributors!
- Report: University Lecture and Workshop "Reference Materials and Method Validation in Food Safety Assurance", BOKU, Vienna, Austria
- Sign-up Now! MoniQA Membership offers you a variety of benefits
- Calendar update: Meet MoniQA at the following upcoming Meetings and Events
- Imprint and Disclaimer
- Your feedback is important to us
1. Food Fraud Prevention and Effective Food Allergen Management, Rockville, MD, USA, 30 October – 1 November 2019!
https://rockville2019.moniqa.org
We warmly invite you to attend the 3rd MoniQA International Symposium on “Food Fraud Prevention and Effective Food Allergen Management”, in Rockville, MD, USA, 30 October – 1 November 2019, https://rockville2019.moniqa.org co-organised by MoniQA Association www.moniqa.org and US Pharmacopeia www.usp.org.
This meeting will follow the great successes of previous symposia in this series in Bari, Italy in 2017 https://bari2017.moniqa.org and Vienna, Austria in 2018 https://vienna2018.moniqa.org.
An exciting program with practical litigation cases, with strategies and methods for detecting and combating food fraud, are presented by renowned speakers from around the world. Join us in Rockville and meet the "Food Detectives" and get to know modern technologies that are looking for the "unknown" and learn about legal regulations and get practical advice for protecting your branded products, for correct food labeling, and ultimately to maintain consumer trust. The symposium program is currently being compiled, it will include speakers from Science and Innovation, from industry, public authorities, international organizations, law firms and food research institutions.
Submit your abstract! for oral presentation before 15 June 2019 and for poster presentation before 15 September 2019 https://rockville2019.moniqa.org/abstracts.
Become a Sponsor! and support the symposium, enhance your visibility and brand awarenes https://rockville2019.moniqa.org/sponsor. Check out who sponsored the last events in this series.
Reserve your table top exhibition space! Only a limited number of spaces are available, spaces are granted on a first-come-first-served basis, sponsors will get preferred reservations.
Online registration will open soon!
In addition to the traditional main topics related to food fraud prevention and effective food allergen management, the 3rd edition of this International Symposium will also focus on the Food Law, its implications for industry and food businesses in international trade, export and import liabilities, critical issues of food integrity and food safety related issues governed by national and international regulations and standards, impacts of international trade agreements. This symposium will address food authenticity, food fraud and the need for simple labeling as major drivers for both the food industry and companies involved in rapidly developing new analytical technologies, and putting available analytical tools in perspective of private standard requirements. While the food industry must adapt its programs addressing food safety and quality to meet the ever-changing regulatory and legal landscape, law firms specializing in food issues must also ensure their knowledge of these changes is up-to-date when defending the rights of consumers and/or food producers.
2. Combine your MoniQA/USP attendance in Rockville with a participation at the NIST Food Safety Workshop in Gaithersburg!
https://rockville2019.moniqa.org
MoniQA/USP and NIST coordinated their meetings to offer best options for attendees to attend both events in the food safety space. Only 5 miles or 10 minutes drive apart, the two meetings in Rockville and Gaithersburg will offer a diverse and complementary programme. With different approaches and aims of the two meetings you might be able to get the best of dhow to develop future strategies, training and education, networking and highly relevant practical experience how to shape the future of food safety in the different environments: food manufacturing, food control, food trade and food law.
Thus the main workshop programme of NIST is scheduled 28-30 October 2019 https://www.nist.gov/news-events/events/2019/10/nist-food-safety-workshop, with a half day each focusing on 1) microbiological contaminants, 2) chemical containants and residues, 3) food allergens, 4) food authenticity, fraud and adulteration, and 5) global food safety. On the additional day 31 October 2019 there will be a committee meeting to draft a strategic white paper.
Likewise MoniQA/USP scheduled their main symposium right after NIST´s main workshop, 31 October-1 November 2019, with internal committee meetings and open task force meetings ahead of the main symposium on 30 October 2019 – please see some details below:
Programme MoniQA/USP Symposium:
Wednesday, 30 October 2019
- Company Workshops
- MoniQA Task Force on Food Authenticity (open meeting)
- MoniQA Task Force on Food Allergen Reference Materials (open meeting)
- MoniQA Supervisory Board Meeting (by invitation only)
- Evening Welcome Reception
Thursday, 31 October 2019, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Main Conference Session I – Food information
- Technical session on food integrity, food authenticity, food fraud, food fraud databases, food profiling, food analysis and latest analytical innovations, reference materials.
- Requirements of public standards for allergen management and food fraud prevention.
Main Conference Session II – Food law
- Technical session on food safety and the law, litigations, trade agreements, liability, brand protection, consumer protection, export and different national laws, digital certification and blockchain.
- Conference Dinner (19:00-22:00)
Friday, 1 November 2019, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
Main Conference Session III – Managing allergens
- Technical session on food allergens and labelling, food allergen management, gluten free, economic and food safety implications, analytical methods/challenges, reference materials.
Main Conference Session IV – Allergen risk mitigation
- Different regulations, introducing different risk assessment tools for food producers, food vendors, authorities, and clinicians.
- Food allergen management in practice.
- Challenges with hand held devices for risk management by consumers, liability implications, recalls.
- Summary and Farewell
3. Meet MoniQA at the DISH High Level Summit - new issues and emerging trends in food safety, Bologna, Italy, 14-15 May 2019
The summit is jointly organized by the University of Bologna, National Food Institute - Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lund University (LU), and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), in the frame of the "DISH Global Centre for Food Safety and Quality" alliance.
The summit will take place on 14-15 May in Bologna (Italy) and it aims to raise awareness and openly discuss on the needs and expectations of relevant international stakeholders towards a safer, healthier and more sustainable food system.
Representative from academia, industry, policy makers, international bodies, NGO’s and many other key stakeholders will analyze the state of the art and the current trends about innovative technologies connected with food quality and authenticity, fraud and traceability, as well as consumer’s food choices, in order to discuss the impact of innovation in devising new strategies for the food system of tomorrow.
Participants to the Summit are scientists working across the various disciplines of the food systems, industry representatives, policy makers and representatives from relevant organizations working in the agri-food and Representatives from consumers and trade associations. They will attend the summit for a debate on how innovation can result into more effective and evidence-based policies and regulations promoting safe, healthy and sustainable food production and consumption. Furthermore, the Summit will be the occasion to advocate for co-designing and developing a safe and sustainable future proofing food system.
Participation is by invitation only. If you are interested in participating and for any other information, please contact lsb [at] unibo [dot] it
DISH is a collaboration between four universities of four different countries (Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and Hong Kong): Technical University of Denmark, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Lund University, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University; DISH is a non-profit collaborative alliance founded and owned by four universities as global leading Centre for food safety powering food safety and quality with Science and Technology.
DISH is based on the joint and synergic effort of the members, which contributes to the activities by sharing facilities, platforms, and infrastructures, in order to carry R&I Joint projects and training and educational activities in the field of food safety. Through the academic collaborative efforts in engaging the industry, government, NGOs and other stakeholders, DISH will translate into a true global effort to advance food safety, building on each partner’s networks, experiences and skills. The final goal of DISH on food safety is to create impact on society in the long period.
4. Order validated milk allergen reference materials from MoniQA's authorized distributors!
This set of internationally validated Reference Materials for Food Allergen Analysis includes testing materials for milk allergen analysis comprising a Positive Control (SMP-MQA 092014, characterized dried skim milk powder, validated protein content), Negative Control (BLANK-MQA 082015, based on a gluten free cookie), and 2 Incurred Materials: LOW-MQA 102016 (SMP incurred in gluten free cookies, milled, concentration approx. 3.5 ppm milk protein, validated) and HIGH-MQA 082016 (SMP incurred in gluten free cookies, milled, concentration approx. 35 ppm milk protein, validated).
The materials were produced by Trilogy Laboratories USA (MoniQA Member since 2013) and have been commercially available starting 01 January 2017 through MoniQA Association. All materials come with a data sheet and a reference certificate to the analytical results, a measurement uncertainty and validation information. The materials come in 5 g pouches (air tight sealed) and they are sold through MoniQA’s online shop: https://shop.moniqa.org/order-form or through MoniQA’s authorized distributors:
- Labservice analytica, Bologna, Italy, http://www.labservice.it
- R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany, https://r-biopharm.com/
- Trilogy Laboratories, Washington, MO, USA, https://trilogylab.com/
The design and production of these materials was in response to the urgent need for reference materials expressed by the food industry and food analytical laboratories, as well as providers of food allergen test kits and other methodologies, and national authorities. An international initiative (since 2013) led by MoniQA Association discussed and agreed upon the requirements for food allergen reference materials. For this purpose, MoniQA has liaised with the EU funded project iFAAM, the Prolamin Working Group, Health Canada, FARRP, Australia’s Allergen Bureau (Vital), and others. The initial group of 15 experts from the global analytical community grew over time to a group of some 50 institutions contributing to the design of the materials and giving scientific and technological input during the testing and production phase of the materials.
5. Report: University Lecture and Workshop "Reference Materials and Method Validation in Food Safety Assurance", BOKU, Vienna, Austria
Again this year Roland Poms, Secretary General of the MoniQA Association gave lectures on "Reference Materials and Method Validation in Food Safety Assurance" at BOKU - University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources, Vienna, Austria, http://www.boku.ac.at/en/, in the week from 25 February to 1 March 2019, 12:30-16:30 each day. The lectures were specifically designed for international students to meet their curricula requirements for their Master Studies “Safety in the Food Chain” and for PhD students in the areas of food safety, food analysis, reference materials and measurements, and quality control. Participation in the course and passing a final written or oral exam were awarded with 3 ECTS. This course offers theoretical and practical content and is perfectly fit to complement your CPD (continued professional training) for QC personnel in food industry and auditors. In addition to enrolled MSc and PhD students at BOKU – the University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, students of the European Master Studies “Safety in the Food Chain” and international exchange students, there are a maximum of 10 places reserved for MoniQA members (discounted fee for the one week course is € 120,-) .
The aim of the course/workshop on "Reference materials and method validation in food safety assurance" is to describe the issues and challenges involved in the international comparability and validity of analytical results in the assurance of food safety and quality. On the basis of practical examples the focus was on current hot topics, such as mycotoxins, food allergens, authenticity testing, pathogenic micro-organisms, GMOs, etc., the analytical possibilities (including rapid methods), and the corresponding EU regulations. Additionally, an overview of international standardization bodies and examples of international validation studies was to be given.
The course was offered in the framework of the international Master programme “Safety in the Food Chain (SIFC)”, http://www.safetyinthefoodchain.com/, which includes 5 participating universities across Europe. This international Master programme was developed to provide a profound academic MSc programme concerning all areas of food safety. It offers a high level study course by combining all the existing expertise of European universities. The content of the curriculum is focused on the whole spectrum of the food chain (regarding supply and production).
The course is offered in English and was originally compiled in the EU funded MoniQA Network of Excellence FOOD-CT-2006-036337 and further developed by Dr. Roland Poms at BOKU and MoniQA.
Location:
BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna
Muthgasse 62
1190 Vienna
Austria
6. Sign-up Now! MoniQA Membership offers you a variety of benefits
Sign up for Membership in MoniQA today and start benefiting from the association’s international network and a variety of activities and services: www.moniqa.org/about/association. To date more than 40 institutions from some 20 countries from 5 continents are members of the association and some 8000 professionals from over 80 countries are linked to the association’s activities, providing a global network which has established an efficient and effective collaboration culture. Membership is open to institutions involved in food safety http://www.moniqa.org/membership/signup.
MoniQA has a special offer for consultants and for micro-companies! A special membership category was initiated in 2016 to better meet the needs of small companies (one-man-company, consultants, company with max. 2 employees). Micro-companies can enjoy the full suite of benefits of a regular membership in MoniQA at half price (500.- € per year) including all services listed at http://www.moniqa.org/membership/signup.
The MoniQA Association undertakes research, coordinates and manages various working groups in areas such as food authenticity, food allergens, chemical and processing contaminants, mycotoxins, and microbiological contaminants. MoniQA Association is a publisher of harmonized protocols, new methods and food safety research results. MoniQA’s training programme includes workshops and courses, eLearning and webinars. MoniQA Association provides validated information, databases and on-line tools, training and continuous professional development, and a network of highly qualified institutions dealing with food safety research and assessment. The partners have successfully worked together on method validation studies, ring trials and proficiency tests, production of reference materials and advising CEN and ISO and the European Commission in food safety issues. Since 2008 MoniQA has been the official organiser of the technical training session for the delegates of the yearly meeting of the joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Committee on Methods and Sampling. Additionally, MoniQA provides robust policy support and socio-economic impact assessments. MoniQA has contributed to several high-level events, such as the World Expo in Shanghai (2010) and in Milan (2015). MoniQA has a very effective and efficient dissemination network (not least with other EU projects).
7. Calendar update: Meet MoniQA at the following upcoming Meetings and Events
DISH High Level Summit
New issues and emerging trends in food safety
Bologna, Italy
14-15 May 2019
https://www.moniqa.org/sites/moniqa.org/files/img/2019/DISH-SUMMIT-BOLOGNA-2019_preliminary-agenda.pdf
IMEX
The worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events
Frankfurt, Germany
21-23 May 2019
https://www.imex-frankfurt.com/
31st IAM – Inter Agency Meeting
Budapest, Hungary
26 May 2019
Ahead of the 40th Session of CCMAS
http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/meetings/detail/en/?meeting=CCMAS&session=40
(For questions or to receive an invitation please contact Gina Clapper gina [dot] clapper [at] usp [dot] org or Richard Cantrill richard [dot] cantrill [at] gmail [dot] com)
AOAC Europe NMKL NordVal International Symposium
Speeding towards -omics...chemical and microbiological methods, rapid methods, multi methods and hand-held instrumentations
Oslo, Norway
3-4 June 2019
http://aoaceurope.com/index.php/8-home/34-symposium-2019
133rd AOAC Annual Meeting & Exposition
Denver, CO, USA
6-7 September 2019
http://www.aoac.org/AOAC_Prod_Imis/AOAC/Mtgs/19AM/AOAC_Member/MtgsCF/19AM/AM_Main.aspx?hkey=095327d8-9027-48b3-8fc9-3858a7df480d
33rd Meeting of the Working Group on Prolamin Analysis and Toxicity
Urbina, Italy
10-12 October 2019
(By invitation only, for questions please contact Peter Köhler peter [dot] koehler [at] tum [dot] de)
NIST Food Safety Workshop
Gaithersburg, MD, USA
28-31 October 2019
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/events/2019/10/nist-food-safety-workshop
MoniQA Task Force Meetings
Food Allergen Reference Materials and Food Authenticity
Rockville, MD, USA
30 October 2019
(to obtain an invitation please contact Roland Poms roland [dot] poms [at] moniqa [dot] org)
3rd MoniQA Symposium on Food Fraud Prevention and Effective Food Allergen Management
Rockville, MD, USA
30 October-1 November 2019
https://rockville2019.moniqa.org/
8. Imprint and Disclaimer
MoniQA eNewsAlerts and Newsletters are published by MoniQA Association quarterly and additional issues may be distributed based on demand. Traditionally the eNewsAlerts are written by the Secretary General. MoniQA’s eNewsAlerts reach close to 9000 contacts in over 85 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas and Australia-New-Zealand. As international and interdisciplinary network of professionals from institutions working in food research, regulatory bodies and trade, MoniQA aims at providing solutions to promote a safer and secure food supply worldwide. MoniQA facilitates international research collaborations to enable services and products for food safety & quality assurance. MoniQA contributes to the development and validation of analytical methods, provides training and continuous professional development (CPD), consultancy and socio-economic impact assessment.
You can view and download the full newsletter at www.moniqa.org/enews-alert-2019-05-08
9. Your feedback is important to us
We value and appreciate your feedback and suggestions in order to improve our services and the way we communicate. Please feel free to send us your thoughts and suggestions to moniqa [at] moniqa [dot] org.
Stay connected with MoniQA and enjoy reading this MoniQA eNews Alert 2019-05-08!On behalf of the MoniQA Association
President:
Bert Popping, FOCOS, Germany
Vice President:
Linda Monaci, ISPA-CNR, Italy
Secretary General:
Roland Poms, MoniQA Association, Austria
Elected Supervisory Board (SB) Members:
Richard Cantrill, USP/MoniQA/IND, Canada (2018-2020)
Bert Popping, FOCOS, Germany (2018-2020)
Thomas Gude, SQTS/MIGROS Switzerland (2018-2020)
Linda Monaci, ISPA-CNR, Italy (2019-2020)
Sabine Baumgartner, BOKU, Austria (2017-2019)
Scientific Advisory Panel:
Sigrid Haas-Lauterbach, R-Biopharm, Germany
Paul Dewsbury, Thermo Fisher, United Kingdom
Samuel Godefroy, Laval University, Canada
Association Auditors:
Carmen Diaz, FOCOS, Germany
Gerhard Schleining, BOKU, Austria
© 2019, MoniQA - International Association for Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the Total Food Supply Chain, General Secretariat, Europastraße 1, 7540 Güssing, Austria, www.moniqa.org. Email: moniqa [at] moniqa [dot] org.