PITTSBURGH, PA — The opening session Sunday night of the International Food Protection Association’s annual meeting and conference was one of good news.
Speaking to more than half of the 3,500 participants, President Ruth Petran marked a number of achievements, none of which is the rebound of the organizations of his live event which is welcoming people from more than 47 country in downtown Pittsburgh this week. As in the rest of the world large gatherings such as the annual IAFP event have been put on hold since 2020, but this year meetings, symposia, poster presentations and the trade show floor are all back in action.
Petran also congratulated the organization for continuing to diversify in membership and programming. She also said one thing that keeps the IAFP organization relevant is its ability to review itself, which it is doing on an ongoing basis.
Another high point this year is the fact that the organization’s publication the Journal for Food Protection is switching to open access status, making its information available to a much larger audience.
He also cited achievements and goals of Gary Acuff, head of the IAFP Foundation, which so far this year has raised $84,000 to further the association’s goals. Acuff noted that in 2005 the Foundation was able to award two scholarships, Since then the Foundation has awarded nearly 250 scholarships, and has now spent $100,000 to help bring together the best and brightest in the universe of food safety.
Acuff said that the members of the foundation want to expand the grants to include Europe, people with dependent care needs, professional development and international student exchanges. He challenged the group to raise $4 million for 40 years to mark the 40th anniversary of the IAFP in 2024.
Continuing with the theme of achievements and future goals was Dr. Lucia Anelich, food safety specialist and consultant from South Africa. Anelich gave the prestigious Ivan Parkin Lecture. Before launching her consultancy business in 2011, Anelich was with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa where she established the country’s first food safety body for the food industry. -food.
She spent 25 years at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa, later becoming the head of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology and associate professor, the first female head of such a department in South Africa.
In 2021 Anelich received the SAAFoST President’s Award as its first female recipient for her contributions towards the advancement of Food Safety Technology for the provision of safe and wholesome food.
Anelich opened her lecture by thanking the IAFP for giving Africa a voice in the food safety arena. Then she immediately challenged herself and others.
“It’s important to say what we want to say,” Anelich said.
And she didn’t keep her remarks on the subject of food – to the surface. She discussed animal conservation and told tragic stories of all kinds out of Africa. She described the conditions of street stalls selling dangerous food and the luxury of clean and shiny shops in other areas.
All the stories had a common thread though – the food. Game hunters were often just doing what they thought they had to do to feed their families. The same with street vendors and operators of large grocery chains. The common thread is one of food insecurity. She said that there are about 828 million hungry people and most of them will eat unsafe food rather than suffer hunger for another day.
She said two basic needs in the food safety sector in Africa are the development of food safety standards and the harmonization of standards. She cited whole genome sequencing as an example of something that sounds great when you make plans, but falls short when you get down to the reality of things. She saw labs trying to do good work but hampered by outdated growth compounds.
“We have to deal with these basics before we can get fancy,” she said.
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