Global Food Safety and the Role of IUFoST

Judith Meech

Global Food Safety took centre stage at the International Forum on Food Safety from 20-23 April 2015 in Beijing, China. This highly anticipated meeting was held jointly by the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) and the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST). It brought together over 500 attendees, including representatives from six Chinese ministries, for presentations by more than 40 international experts on the theme Building a Safe and Healthy Food Industry Chain.

Six Years of Food Safety Forum Success

This marks the sixth year of the Forum, which Dr Joseph Jen, former US Under-Secretary of Agriculture, refers to as "probably the most influential meeting on food safety in China due to high government and industry attention." Food Safety affects everyone, in every country, at all levels - political, economic and social - arguably making it the biggest issue requiring immediate global attention. This is reflected in dramatic changes in China within the last 10 years in response to food safety concerns facing its population and external markets. At the request of the Chinese Government, IUFoST has been privileged to work alongside its Chinese colleagues, and especially with CIFST, its national scientific representative in China, to assist in improving food safety standards through education and dialogue, both of which are achieved during the International Forum on Food Safety. Through the interest of and under the auspices of China's Government Ministries and with the leadership of the CIFST, our colleagues in the World Health Organization, the International Council for Science (ICSU) in China, and many others, the Forum has made tremendous progress towards the aim of establishing a high-level food safety "think tank" in China.

Expert Speakers

The 2015 Forum continued this impressive track record, covering a wide range of topics related to food safety in China and beyond, all with global implications. High-profile expert speakers included Meng Suhe, President of CIFST; Dr Nina V. Fedoroff, Science Advisor to two US Secretaries of State, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012, Evan Pugh Professor Emerita of Penn State University; Dr Joseph Jen, former US Under-Secretary of Agriculture, Co-chair of the IUFoST International Expert Panel on Food Safety; Prof Patrick Wall, former Chair of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Co-chair of the IUFoST International Expert Panel on Food Safety; Chen Junshi, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Senior Research Professor of the China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment; and Dr Martin Cole, Chairman of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Food (ICMSF), among many other distinguished speakers from government, industry, International and national organisations and academia.

Cutting-edge Plenary Sessions

Topics addressed in plenary sessions included:

• Food and Civilisation,
• Food Safety as the Basis of Industrial Competitiveness,
• New Perspectives on Food Safety in China,
• Challenges of Restoring Consumer Confidence after Food Scares,
• Lessons for China from US Food Safety History,
• The Construction of National Food Safety Standards,
• Essential Elements for Interactive Communication on Food-related Health Risks, and
• China Food Safety Situation – Media Perspectives.

Another key element of the Forum is the Scientist and Media Face-to-Face session held each year to allow the Chinese media to address food safety-related questions to the scientists working on them.

Workshops and Concurrent Sessions 

The Forum also included workshops on

• Microbiological Safety Control in Food Producing and Marketing,
• Global Traceability and Authenticity,
   

and concurrent sessions on

• Food Safety Standard and Detection Technology,
• Food Safety Risk Communication - Cases Analysis,
• New Technologies for Detection of Food Adulteration, Fraud and Contamination,
• Shared Responsibility - Food Industry Best Practices,
• Food Safety Risk Warning and Monitoring,
• Building of Food Safety Traceability System, and
• Safety and Control of the Industrial Food Chain.
   

From the Speakers

Comments made during the Forum demonstrate its relevance and the cutting-edge nature of its treatment of food safety issues:

Wang Mingzhu, Deputy Director-General, China Food and Drug Administration, as quoted in China's national newspaper, "China Daily": "Food safety has no boundaries. The expansion of food chains has meant that food safety has become a complex global issue. A problem in a city or a country can quickly escalate into an

international incident. Working out measures to tackle food safety risks and reduce the number of food safety incidents is a major task for every country."

Food fraud and safety problems are global issues, according to Patrick Wall, as quoted in China's national newspaper, China Daily: "Many places in the world have food safety problems. It happens in every country, not just in China. The global food supply chain has changed; it means that our food on the table can possibly come from any corner in the world. Food safety has become a global public health problem." He also said that it is important to restore consumers' confidence after food safety scandals. "Chinese consumers believe imported infant milk formula is safer. Rebuilding faith in the regulatory authorities and restoring brand loyalty requires powerful, highly visible risk-management strategies and effective communication." He added that actions speak louder than words. "No amount of communication, no matter how innovative, will achieve results if it is not associated with strategies to reduce the risks or eradicate them completely."

Nina V. Fedoroff, speaking on Food and Civilization: "I take a historical view of food production over human history and glance at current trends to ask what we need to do to produce enough food for the more than 10 billion expected for dinner before century's end and do it sustainably."

"...The Green Revolution was based on mutations, genetic changes that let crops take advantage of fertiliser, doubling and tripling yields. This is genetic modification - GM - today we vilify it.

...Although we have been modifying plants to suit our food needs for millennia, crops modified by molecular techniques are the only one's called "genetically modified" (GM) or "genetically modified organisms" (GMOs).

...Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring started the environmental movement in the USA, dreamed of a day when we could use biology, rather than chemistry, to control pathogens and pests. Now we can, but ironically, environmentalists are among the most vocal opponents of today's molecular technology.

...In 2010, the EU issued a report summarising 25 years of biosafety research costing upward of €300 M. Its main conclusion? Crop modification by GM techniques is no more dangerous than crop modification by other methods. Every credible scientific body that has looked at the evidence has come to the same conclusion. But the GMO wars rage on, fueled by electronic gossip and organisations that exploit GMO fears for profit..

..I'm doubtful that we'll manage to dismantle the regulatory tangle we've created around transgenic organisms, but the new gene-editing technologies offer an opportunity to ease agricultural biotechnology out of the costly regulatory bind it's in and make regulation product and not process based."

Meng Suhe speaking on Food Safety as the Basis of Industrial Competitiveness: "The growth rate of China's food industry has been falling for three consecutive years. This means that the industry is experiencing the most difficult and relatively long transformation in the recent period of nearly 30 years. In the transformation, the most important will be the change in the competitive mode of the industry: the terminal competition that relies mainly on the "price war" will give priority to a brand competition which will pay more attention to good faith and innovation and a value competition that will feature the safety of the industrial chain. Food safety has become the foundation of competition in the industry."

Shawn Arita, Ph.D. Economist with the Economic Research Service, USDA, speaking on Lessons for China from U.S. Food Safety History: "China is not the only country with all those food safety issues. Similar situations happened in other countries, including the UK and USA, when they were in the same stage of economic and social development."

Yoko Niiyama, Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, speaking on Essential Elements for Interactive Communication on Food-Related Health Risks: "We need to know characteristics of public risk perception to understand public knowledge and questions about the health effects and to provide occasions of risk communication responding to their status. A key is that the following processes are incorporated: public questions are probed, full scientific information that addresses those questions is prepared by a team of experts, and the occasions of elaborate information processing for the public are provided."

Wang Zhian, Professional Commentator, CCTV, speaking on China's Food Safety Situation - Media Perspectives: "Improvements in the overall food safety situation in China are inseparable from the involvement of media, despite errors in food safety reporting. To build a better food safety industry, the watchdog role of media, especially that with a scientific and rational spirit, should be given full play."

For the full (Chinese and English) list of distinguished international and Chinese speakers and complete program for the Global Traceability and Authenticity Workshop and IFOFS Forum, please use this link:

http://iufost.org/fofs-workshop-global-traceability-and-authenticity-programme-and-ifofs-conference-programme

Ms Judith Meech is Secretary-General / Treasurer of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST), 112 Bronte Road, Oakville, Ontario, Canada L6L 3C1; e-mail: secretariat@iufost.org