Food Protection Trends - October 2009 - 721

Food Chemical Hazards and Food Allergy PDG Members Present: Peter Slade (Chair), Linda Leake (Vice Chair), Richelle Beverly, Ken Davenport, Tong-Jen Fu, Gale Prince, Thomas Schwarz and Pamela Wilger. New Members Present: Susanne Keller, Tony Flood, Craig Henry, Dojin Ryu, Patrice Arbault, Chuck Czuprynski,Vanessa Teter and Maria Christina Tirado. Visitors/Guests Present: Yvonne Chan, Charles Papa and Annette Langenbacher. Board Liaison Present: Isabel Walls. Meeting Called to Order: 9:00 a.m., July 12, 2009. Recording Secretary of Minutes: Linda Leake. Old Business: Following welcome to all by Peter Slade, self introductions of all present, and a brief review of the minutes of the 2008 PDG meeting, a discussion was conducted regarding the outcome of symposia proposals generated by this PDG at the 2008 annual meeting. Tong-Jen Fu reported that the proposals she had developed with others had been accepted and scheduled either as proposed or in a modified version. These 2009 symposia are S13 - Best Practices for Cleaning and Validation, S18 - Looking for Thresholds: A Multi-disciplinary Key Events Approach and S24 - Emerging Chemical Hazards in Food. Linda Leake stated the proposal on diacetyl as an inhalant chemical hazard had not been accepted. Isabel Walls was asked if the board had made any decisions about developing a packaging PDG, which had been recommended by this PDG in 2008, and she promised to follow up and report the outcome to us. A brief discussion was conducted on how to reinstate recent previous efforts to get toxicologists, especially members of the Society of Toxicology, to join IAFP, attend the annual meeting and get involved with this PDG. Possibly using again a flyer developed in 2007 by this PDG was discussed, as was the plan to keep this general recruiting effort in the loop of ongoing activities. New Business: Board Liaison Isabel Walls provided an update on the new deadline for submitting symposium proposals, which is October 19. Notification of the program committee’s decision about acceptance or rejection of proposals will be December 4, and final outlines of accepted proposals will be due February 3, 2010. Dr. Walls encouraged the PDG to consider creating articles for Food Protection Trends and stated that articles from symposium speakers based on their presentations would be welcome and encouraged by the board. She mentioned IAFP would financially support conference calls conducted by PDG members to discuss PDG activities and issues. Extensive and lively discussion was conducted by the group about hot topics of interest relative to food allergens and food chemical hazards, and how best to proceed with programs to address them, including possible symposia, round table discussions, workshops, webinars, etc. It was a consensus that, relative to any specific topic, it would be of greatest appeal to the general IAFP membership to address global ramifications, and where appropriate, a farm to fork approach, including production, processing, retail, laboratory, regulatory and scientific/research/academic components and inputs. Moreover, discussion included the possibilities of approaching and engaging various other PDGs to collaborate in the development of symposia and other potential programs and activities of mutual interest. Members that volunteered to approach other PDGs, especially Fruit and Vegetable Safety and Quality, Food Hygiene and Sanitation, Applied Laboratory Methods and Dairy Quality and Safety, included Tong Gen Fu, Susanne Keller, Ken Davenport, Pam Wilger and Yvonne Chan. Volunteer teams were formed to pursue development of several specific topics: (1) Susanne Keller proposed a symposium devoted to nuts, potentially including, but not limited to, an overview of the nut industry, mycotoxin contamination/new testing methods, sanitation issues, allergen control issues and new legislation. She will assume leadership, and Linda Leake will assist; (2) Representing herself and Arun Bhunia (not present) as codevelopers and potential co-convenors, Linda Leake outlined the details of a symposium proposal well underway relative to advances in testing technologies for chemicals to address food safety and food defense needs; (3) Chemical hazards relative to packaging, including nanotechnology for detection will be developed by Tony Flood and Linda Leake; (4) Craig Henry and Gale Prince will follow regulatory developments relative to BPA and viable alternatives to BPA in packaging. If approval of the IAFP Board can be procured, they will pursue development of a possible IAFP symposium and perhaps a one-day meeting in the Washington, D.C. area for key stakeholders, which might be held in early 2010; (5) Tony Flood, Patrice Arbault,Vanessa Teter and Linda Leake will pursue differentiating wheat allergy and gluten issues and the global picture of celiac disease; (6) Christina Tirado will develop a proposal on benefit analysis and methodologies regarding the effect of environmental contaminants on various food production systems, including trade-offs of various practices and (7) Yvonne Chan will spearhead a farm to fork overview of melamine issues and updates. Linda Leake briefly shared highlights of a memo from a Canadian food safety consultant to Mark Moorman (not present) asking for input on the availability of food allergen icons for such specific products as shellfish and sulphite. Prior to the PDG meeting, Mark had emailed Peter Slade and Linda Leake asking if this PDG might be willing assume leadership for clarifying/updating/ creating an allergen icon specific to crustaceans, as the Canadian consultant had expressed concern about confusion of defining and recognizing fin fish, shell fish and crustaceans individually. Linda volunteered to contact both the Canadian consultant and Mark Moorman after the IAFP meeting to discuss how best for the PDG to proceed with this project. She will then share details with the group, at which time a consensus can be determined as to if and how we should proceed with such a project. Recommendations to Executive Board: 1. Pamela Wilger suggested this PDG ask the board about what specific financial support would be available for any webinars and recording of webinars and other programs. Also, she was interested in knowing to what extent the board would support the PDG asking industry for financial support of our PDG programs, such as webinars, etc. Next Meeting Date: August 1, 2010. Meeting Adjourned: 10:59 a.m. Chairperson: Peter Slade. Food Hygiene and Sanitation PDG Members Present: Todd Rossow, Dennis Bogart, Dale Grinstead, Jill Kuzo, Fred Reimers, Thomas Schwarz, O. Pete Snyder, Sharon Wood, Rocelle Clavero, Ken Davenport, Kenneth Janes, Jeffery Kornacki, Donald Lane,Yale Lary, Zeb Blanton, Charles Glambrone and Y. Jennifer Lee. OCTOBER 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS

Food Protection Trends - October 2009

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