Food Protection Trends - May/June 2020 - 192

IVAN PARKIN LEcturE
Audacious Innovation: Critical Tools FOR the 21st CenturY
CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
International Food Safety Policy Manager
College Park, Maryland, USA

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2
OPENING SESSION
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Ms. Caroline Smith DeWaal is an international food safety policy manager at the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) in College Park, Maryland. Ms. DeWaal began her career
in food safety in the early 1990s when E. coli O157:H7 was initially being recognized as a major
public health threat. On behalf of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, she worked
with government, industry and consumer organizations on the development of HACCP (Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Points) for both the meat and seafood industries, developing the first
food-attribution database.
Ms. DeWaal was one of the first to recognize the hidden problem of food pathogens on
fresh vegetables, becoming a leading media spokesperson on all types of food hazards, from
Listeria in luncheon meat to E. coli on spinach; from BSE "Mad Cow Disease" to radiation
concerns relating to food following the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan.
A lawyer by training, Ms. DeWaal played a pivotal role in the development of the Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was signed into law in 2011. She worked closely with
members of Congress to develop the concepts for modernizing the Federal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act to better address modern food safety risks.
Ms. DeWaal attended the University of Vermont and Antioch School of Law. She has been
an IAFP Member since 1999.

JOHN h. SILLIKER LECTURE
AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER BEN EMBAREK
PETER K. BEN EMBAREK, PH.D.
International Food Safety Authorities
Network (INFOSAN) Management
Department of Nutrition and Food Safety
World Health Organization (WHO)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5
CLOSING SESSION
4:00 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
192

Dr. Peter K. Ben Embarek currently works with the World Health Organization (WHO) at
its Geneva, Switzerland headquarters, where he manages WHO's International Food Safety
Authorities Network (INFOSAN), covering food-related issues as part of the WHO assessment
and response efforts to new and emerging public health issues, such as COVID-19, MERS-CoV,
Avian Influenza, and SARS. Dr. Ben Embarek is also head of the unit covering the monitoring of
nutrition and food safety events in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety.
Dr. Ben Embarek was previously with WHO's China Office, where he provided policy and
technical advice to the government of China on food safety and nutrition issues. In 2001, he
joined WHO headquarters in Switzerland, where he worked in lending support to Member States
on how to develop and strengthen integrated and multisectoral national food safety strategies
and policies. He was also responsible for the microbiological aspects of food safety matters
in the work of WHO, including the development of microbiological risk assessment work at the
international level. From 2014-2017, he managed the WHO MERS-CoV Virus Task Force and
coordinated the investigations into the animal source of the disease.
Dr. Ben Embarek received his MSc. in Food Science and Technology and his Ph.D. in Food
Safety, both from the Royal Agricultural and Veterinary University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Food Protection Trends May/June

Food Protection Trends - May/June 2020

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