Food Protection Trends - November/December 2017 - 390

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Mickey E. Parish

As the season changes and
summer slips into autumn (in the
northern hemisphere), I am reminded
of the privilege to serve as President of
the finest food protection professional
society in the world. I'm also reminded
of our food protection family and the
excellent learning opportunities IAFP
provides each year, not only at our
Annual Meeting, but throughout the year via PDG webinars,
worldwide affiliate meetings, and a variety of international
meetings we either sponsor or participate in. In October, we
participated in the INOFOOD meeting in Santiago, Chile.
In November we will participate in CIFSQ in Beijing, and
DIFSC in Dubai. And next spring, we will sponsor the IAFP
European Symposium on Food Safety in Stockholm. All of these
meetings provide opportunities for our worldwide family to
participate in gaining knowledge regarding scientific breakthroughs in food protection as well as the latest issues in industry
and the regulatory arena.
Another great way to participate in our family is through
activities such as our committees and PDGs (shout out to the
Student PDG - you're doing a great job!). I'd like to spotlight
one particular committee, the Program Committee. They provide an enormous service to IAFP requiring a very large amount
of time over most of the year. After the deadline for symposium
proposal passes, Program Committee members must review and
rate roughly two-hundred proposals, then participate in a confer-

FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Can you believe it? Another year
is coming to an end as we prepare to
enter the year of 2018. We have many
things to be thankful for from 2017
including the very successful Annual
Meeting in Tampa, Florida last July. In
addition to international meetings we
support, the IAFP European Symposium in Brussels last March was well
attended and carried a strong program. We conducted a "sold
out" Microbial Challenge Testing Workshop in Chicago in May
and will repeat this again in 2018. And all five workshops at IAFP
2017 were a great success this year!
This month's issue of Food Protection Trends contains the
summary of IAFP 2017. You have the opportunity to review all of
the activities and events that took place in Tampa including the
minutes from Committee and PDG meetings and a review of all
Award recipients. See page 445 for the Annual Meeting report.
In October, IAFP participated in INOFOOD in Santiago,
Chile where the Chilean Affiliate was recognized with their
Charter. This was a culmination of almost 4 years of work by the
group in Chile to become affiliated with IAFP. We are certainly
happy for them and proud of the efforts they put forth. We look
forward to continuing to work together to improve food safety!

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Food Protection Trends November/December

ence call, usually in November, that lasts virtually all day to make
preliminary decisions on symposia acceptance. In February, the
Program Committee meets face-to-face in the Annual Meeting
host city to complete their review of several hundred technical
abstracts, to make final decisions on symposium acceptance, and
to organize the final program. IAFP owes a great debt of gratitude to the Program Committee for the quality of our scientific
program. While there are often more volunteers to serve on the
Program Committee than there are open slots available, I encourage you to accept the opportunity if it is ever offered to you
in the future. There are also many other volunteer opportunities
in IAFP. Get involved!
One issue I'd like to emphasize with our IAFP family is the
role of IAFP in the overall food protection world. Our mission
is "to provide food safety professionals worldwide with a forum
to exchange information on protecting the food supply." We facilitate engagement among the food protection community so that
the latest scientific information can be shared and disseminated
among industry, academic and government professionals. We
shy away from taking advocacy positions on controversial food
safety issues in order to maintain our reputation as an unbiased
reliable source of the latest high-quality scientific information on
food protection.
Finally, thank you for your commitment to IAFP and our
mission. We are a large and diverse family with many talented people who have positive impacts on food protection every day. I look
forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City next summer.

David W. Tharp
As November opens, we will be in Beijing, China for the
China International Food Safety and Quality Conference + Expo
(CIFSQ). I am particularly proud of this meeting and IAFP's
affiliation with CIFSQ. When we began working together with
this conference, we had just two IAFP Members in China. Today,
we still have a long way to go, but we now have 40 Members. In
addition, we had 30 people from China who attended IAFP 2017!
Similar results have been achieved in our relationship with
the Dubai International Food Safety Conference (DIFSC).
We continue to see increases in both Membership and Annual
Meeting attendance because of our involvement with this meeting.
The Dubai meeting will be held over the dates of November 19
to 21, just prior to U.S. Thanksgiving.
The international relationships we have established over
the past 10+ years have served us well. Through active participation at the various meetings, we are introduced to food
safety professionals who might never have learned about IAFP.
Many times people know about the Journal of Food Protection
or may have heard about the Annual Meeting, but without the
opportunity to talk with them directly, they don't take the next
step of becoming involved. We are thankful for the growth we have
experienced in 2017 and now look forward to another successful
year in 2018.
Best wishes to you, your family and your colleagues for a
happy and prosperous 2018!

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - November/December 2017