12 09, 2011
Global industry experts and regulatory officials gather in Singapore for Food Safety Forum 2011
The Shimadzu Global Technology Forum on Food Safety 2011 saw the convergence of food safety experts from the industry and government agencies brainstorming and hashing out strategies for effective regulation in food safety management.
Recent years have seen several cases of food safety related issues with a serious impact on the international food retail industry. As a result, regulations for product development are getting more and more stringent, complicated and global in scope.
The goal of Shimadzu - the worldwide leader in analytical instrumentation has been to enhance innovation in food quality testing/analysis and awareness. Towards this, the company organized an event focused on “Strategies for Effective Regulation in Food Safety”. The Shimadzu Global Technology Forum on Food Safety 2011, on November 11 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, was an advanced dialogue between Food Safety Experts in both public and private sector.
A full one-day event, the food summit saw the informative deliberations over three panel discussions, churning out of innovative ideas, effective regulatory strategies, insights on approaches to accelerate a research programs, information on latest advances on tools and technologies and new collaboration routes between government agencies of different nations.
International food trade is important for economy of emerging country. Emerging countries like India and China pay more and more attention to food safety; due to its great potential impact on Public health, Food security, and Trade competitiveness. The need of these nations is to establish basic domestic food safety system and infrastructure.
The first session on ‘Emerging Issues in Food Safety’ commenced with Dr. Yong-ning Wu, Director of National Key Laboratory of Chemical Safety and Health, China presenting a talk on Capability Building of Food Safety in China. He shared a detailed perspective of the issues and challenges in food safety regulations in the world’s most populated nation - China.
Goichiro Yukawa, Director, Technical Service Division from The Japan Food Research Laboratories (JFRL) gave a detailed overview of the trends in Food Safety Regulation in Japan. He also explained the case of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and the immediate measures taken against foods containing radioactive materials. He informed, “Provisional regulation values are set for radioactive materials in foods with reference to the index levels designated by the Nuclear Safety Commission. The Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) took measures to ensure that such foods are not supplied to the public to eat, and local governments have been notified and issued order of restrictions of the distribution and consumption of contaminated foods from the cities where inspection results of products surpassed the provisional regulation values.”
Emerging countries have the capability to become major food suppliers in the years to come. The single most important problem facing these nations is the highly inefficient supply chain, lack of basic domestic food safety system/infrastructure and the lack of compliance with international standards. Giving a detailed glimpse of the ‘Food Safety Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Countries’, Dr. Purwiyatno Hariyadi, Director of Southeast Asian Food & Agricultural Science and Technology (SEAFAST) Centre and a professor of Food Process Engineering at Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia mentioned, “Over 40% of all trade in food, agriculture and fisheries occurs between developing and developed countries. However, increasingly restrictive international food safety standard limit market access and incur significant export/income loss.” He stressed on the need of improving understanding and collaboration between producing country and consuming country as essential in strengthening global supply chain of safe foods.
Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez, Director of Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory, Mississippi State University, US highlighted an important aspect of globalization of food retail market and the challenges associated. He opined “With the globalization of the food chain, protecting the consumer becomes a very demanding task”. He further suggested that members of the food industry mainly - States Regulatory Agencies, Foreign Regulatory Agencies and Analytical Instrument Manufacturers should work collaboratively in protecting the consumers.
While most of the speakers shared glimpses of the regulatory scenario, Dr. V Meenakumari, Global Technology Head, Softlines & Chemicals at TUV SUD India, Dr. Frederic Aymes, Head of Nestle Quality Assurance Centre, Singapore and Dr. Sonia Chatellier, Director, Identification Group R&D Microbiology, bioMeriux, France, gave a balanced insight and an industry perspective on Food Safety Management. Dr. Frederic informed that there has been a significant increase in awareness among consumers about food safety. This resulting in the food safety certifications growing double between 2007 to 2010.
Dr. V Meenakumari gave useful insights on ‘Compliance with food safety and quality standards’ from an industrial-laboratory perspective. She shared, “Companies have their own GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) to tackle all possible contamination hazards in food. Though there are many regulations and fairly well-defined guidelines to estimate the contaminants and other hazards, the challenges that testing laboratories face are within the multiplicity of requirements for same or similar products and the understanding and awareness of these by the manufacturers or retailers and perhaps the consumers.”
Other spokespersons also shared experiences and explored better methods of administrating within the sector. The officials used recent food safety affairs in US, China and Japan as case studies, and discussed better ways to coordinate supervision among government departments in various countries and formulate a more effective regulation in food safety.
Ever since industrialized food production began, analytical tools and technologies have played a crucial role in ensuring food quality through accurate analysis. The Shimadzu Global Technology Forum on Food Safety would have been incomplete without the panel session titled ‘Advances in Analytical Instrumentation’. Speakers consisted some of the prominent analytical experts from the industry, academics and public investigation office.
On this topic, Dr. Heinz D Winkeler, Head of Analytics at Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office, Germany presented a talk on the very challenging task of Residue analysis of Pesticides in Food. He touched upon the tools and technologies favored in his public-law institution and called for better and more sensitive detection technologies. He mentioned, “Residue analysis in pesticides is becoming more and more challenging with the number of new pesticides constantly increasing. To overcome these problems we will need continuous development of the technologies with improved sensitivity, selectivity and screening possibilities.”
An important highlight of the event was the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Shimadzu and Nanyang Polytechnic in setting-up a Centre of Excellence in Food Safety & Laboratory Analytical Methods in Singapore. Mr. Tsuguo Kishida, Managing Director, Shimadzu Asia Pacific said, “Analytical instruments will have a crucial role to play in food safety testing and analysis in the ensuing years to come. The aim of this Centre of Excellence is to be an International Food Safety Training & Application Centre focusing on Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry techniques for food safety applications.”
Mr. Prem Anand, General Manager, Analytical Instruments Division, Shimadzu Asia Pacific commented, “It is Shimadzu’s collective efforts and thoughts to enhance innovation and awareness that will bring us closer to resolving this important issue. The summit, a first of its kind organized by an analytical instrument manufacturer was not meant to be a single event, but a starting point for the work that must be done to prevent food safety related outbreaks with a serious impact on the international food industry.”
The goal of Shimadzu - the worldwide leader in analytical instrumentation has been to enhance innovation in food quality testing/analysis and awareness. Towards this, the company organized an event focused on “Strategies for Effective Regulation in Food Safety”. The Shimadzu Global Technology Forum on Food Safety 2011, on November 11 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, was an advanced dialogue between Food Safety Experts in both public and private sector.
A full one-day event, the food summit saw the informative deliberations over three panel discussions, churning out of innovative ideas, effective regulatory strategies, insights on approaches to accelerate a research programs, information on latest advances on tools and technologies and new collaboration routes between government agencies of different nations.
International food trade is important for economy of emerging country. Emerging countries like India and China pay more and more attention to food safety; due to its great potential impact on Public health, Food security, and Trade competitiveness. The need of these nations is to establish basic domestic food safety system and infrastructure.
The first session on ‘Emerging Issues in Food Safety’ commenced with Dr. Yong-ning Wu, Director of National Key Laboratory of Chemical Safety and Health, China presenting a talk on Capability Building of Food Safety in China. He shared a detailed perspective of the issues and challenges in food safety regulations in the world’s most populated nation - China.
Goichiro Yukawa, Director, Technical Service Division from The Japan Food Research Laboratories (JFRL) gave a detailed overview of the trends in Food Safety Regulation in Japan. He also explained the case of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and the immediate measures taken against foods containing radioactive materials. He informed, “Provisional regulation values are set for radioactive materials in foods with reference to the index levels designated by the Nuclear Safety Commission. The Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) took measures to ensure that such foods are not supplied to the public to eat, and local governments have been notified and issued order of restrictions of the distribution and consumption of contaminated foods from the cities where inspection results of products surpassed the provisional regulation values.”
Emerging countries have the capability to become major food suppliers in the years to come. The single most important problem facing these nations is the highly inefficient supply chain, lack of basic domestic food safety system/infrastructure and the lack of compliance with international standards. Giving a detailed glimpse of the ‘Food Safety Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Countries’, Dr. Purwiyatno Hariyadi, Director of Southeast Asian Food & Agricultural Science and Technology (SEAFAST) Centre and a professor of Food Process Engineering at Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia mentioned, “Over 40% of all trade in food, agriculture and fisheries occurs between developing and developed countries. However, increasingly restrictive international food safety standard limit market access and incur significant export/income loss.” He stressed on the need of improving understanding and collaboration between producing country and consuming country as essential in strengthening global supply chain of safe foods.
Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez, Director of Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory, Mississippi State University, US highlighted an important aspect of globalization of food retail market and the challenges associated. He opined “With the globalization of the food chain, protecting the consumer becomes a very demanding task”. He further suggested that members of the food industry mainly - States Regulatory Agencies, Foreign Regulatory Agencies and Analytical Instrument Manufacturers should work collaboratively in protecting the consumers.
While most of the speakers shared glimpses of the regulatory scenario, Dr. V Meenakumari, Global Technology Head, Softlines & Chemicals at TUV SUD India, Dr. Frederic Aymes, Head of Nestle Quality Assurance Centre, Singapore and Dr. Sonia Chatellier, Director, Identification Group R&D Microbiology, bioMeriux, France, gave a balanced insight and an industry perspective on Food Safety Management. Dr. Frederic informed that there has been a significant increase in awareness among consumers about food safety. This resulting in the food safety certifications growing double between 2007 to 2010.
Dr. V Meenakumari gave useful insights on ‘Compliance with food safety and quality standards’ from an industrial-laboratory perspective. She shared, “Companies have their own GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) to tackle all possible contamination hazards in food. Though there are many regulations and fairly well-defined guidelines to estimate the contaminants and other hazards, the challenges that testing laboratories face are within the multiplicity of requirements for same or similar products and the understanding and awareness of these by the manufacturers or retailers and perhaps the consumers.”
Other spokespersons also shared experiences and explored better methods of administrating within the sector. The officials used recent food safety affairs in US, China and Japan as case studies, and discussed better ways to coordinate supervision among government departments in various countries and formulate a more effective regulation in food safety.
Ever since industrialized food production began, analytical tools and technologies have played a crucial role in ensuring food quality through accurate analysis. The Shimadzu Global Technology Forum on Food Safety would have been incomplete without the panel session titled ‘Advances in Analytical Instrumentation’. Speakers consisted some of the prominent analytical experts from the industry, academics and public investigation office.
On this topic, Dr. Heinz D Winkeler, Head of Analytics at Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office, Germany presented a talk on the very challenging task of Residue analysis of Pesticides in Food. He touched upon the tools and technologies favored in his public-law institution and called for better and more sensitive detection technologies. He mentioned, “Residue analysis in pesticides is becoming more and more challenging with the number of new pesticides constantly increasing. To overcome these problems we will need continuous development of the technologies with improved sensitivity, selectivity and screening possibilities.”
An important highlight of the event was the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Shimadzu and Nanyang Polytechnic in setting-up a Centre of Excellence in Food Safety & Laboratory Analytical Methods in Singapore. Mr. Tsuguo Kishida, Managing Director, Shimadzu Asia Pacific said, “Analytical instruments will have a crucial role to play in food safety testing and analysis in the ensuing years to come. The aim of this Centre of Excellence is to be an International Food Safety Training & Application Centre focusing on Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry techniques for food safety applications.”
Mr. Prem Anand, General Manager, Analytical Instruments Division, Shimadzu Asia Pacific commented, “It is Shimadzu’s collective efforts and thoughts to enhance innovation and awareness that will bring us closer to resolving this important issue. The summit, a first of its kind organized by an analytical instrument manufacturer was not meant to be a single event, but a starting point for the work that must be done to prevent food safety related outbreaks with a serious impact on the international food industry.”
