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MoniQA Events Review

MoniQA International Conference highlights impact of food safety on consumers and hosts official launch of new MoniQA Association for global food safety

(Vienna, October 12, 2011) The 3rd MoniQA International Conference (September 27-29, Varna, Bulgaria) brought together more than 150 participants from around the globe to discuss food safety issues and their impact on the consumer. The event also hosted the official launch event of the MoniQA association, a non-profit-distributing organisation dedicated to collaborative research promoting a more secure and safer food supply.

Event Review: MoniQA FST on "Reference materials and method validation in food safety assurance" and "Communication Training"

The combined MoniQA FST on "Reference materials and method validation in food safety assurance" and "Communication Training" took place in Vienna from June 20th to 24th 2011 at the BOKU University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources.
The event brought together 30 participants from eight countries.

MoniQA training provides opportunity for knowledge exchange about analytical methods for heavy metals in food

The 35th MoniQA Food Scientist Training was held at the Grain Storage Research Institute (CSR) in Chengdu, China, from April 7-8, 2011. Its subject was “Analytical methods for heavy metals in food” with experts from the EU and China delivering presentations on the situation of heavy metal contamination in food, the limit standards for heavy metals in China and the EU, the existing analytical methods for heavy metal in food etc. Also included was a practical session.

30 participants joined in this event, involving 24 from MoniQA partners and 6 from stakeholders (SAG).

Joint IAM/MoniQA Workshop brings international stakeholders together

 After the success of the previous three years, the Joint IAM/MoniQA Workshop was again organized this year, namely on 6 March 2011 in Budapest, Hungary. According to the traditions of this event, the workshop entitled “Methods for Food Identification and Authenticity- Characterizing the Unknown” formed the opening event for the annual meeting of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling. The aim of the workshop was to provide an overview of actual problems related to the analysis of foodstuffs and to provide an opportunity for international networking.

MoniQA training in Hanoi and Chengdu

From November 1-5 and 8-12 experts from BOKU University (AT), RTD Services (AT) and IFR (UK) provided a wide range of training courses in Hanoi (VN) and Chengdu (CN). Classes consisted of 15-40 participants (both foreign and local). Ph.D students, lecturers and industry were represented. The courses focused on the following topics:

First MoniQA Webinar highlights listeriosis outbreak in cheese

On October 28, 2010  the first MoniQA Webinar (MoniQA eFST) took place.  “How (Un)Save is Our Cheese” was the eye-catching topic of this web seminar which dealt with the  timely issue  of Listeria monocytogenes which is the causative agent of listeriosis, a food-borne disease primarily associated with the consumption of processed foods such as cheese, fresh cheese  but also fish and seafood.

‘Best practice in the analysis of allergens by mass spectrometry’ workshop at IFR

On the 20th and 21st of September 2010 the Institute of Food Research (UK) hosted a MoniQA workshop on the emergent field of allergen analysis by mass spectrometry (MS). Sixteen experts from industrial, research and analytical backgrounds met to discuss issues and challenges faced by the analytical and regulatory communities in adopting these novel techniques.

KBBE 2020 and MoniQA – Turning Challenges into Opportunities

From 13th to 14th of September 2010 the “Knowledge Based Bio-Economy towards 2020” Conference and Exhibition took place in Brussels in the framework of the Belgian EU presidency. More than 500 participants, representing different stakeholders such as senior scientists and European and national policy maker as well as a variety of EU and non-EU countries, actively discussed and reflected on past achievements and the creation of a new vision for the bio-economy. MoniQA was represented at this important event by RTD Services.

 

Chengdu Food Safety Forum highlights benefits of international collaboration in MoniQA

The "Food Safety - Challenges and Opportunities Forum" (August 10-14, 2010, Chengdu, China) brought together more than 100 representatives from Asia and Europe. The forum was co-organized by MoniQA, the Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine editorial committee, the Chinese Medical Association, the West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University and the Sichuan Nutrition Society. On behalf of MoniQA Dr Anton Alldrick (Campden BRI) acted as chairman for the opening session and Professor Lishi Zhang (West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University) gave the opening speech.

MoniQA at the 6th Food Science International Symposium

MoniQA was introduced and represented at this 3 day symposium by Karl Beler from BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Vienna, Austria). The symposium was organized by "The International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC)", the "Beijing Food and Research Institute (BFRI)" and the "Food Science Editorial Department (FSED)" and took place in Beijing, China from August 5-7, 2010.