eNews from the Global Harmonization Initiative |
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First, I hope that all readers are in good health and coping with the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, both from a health point of view as well as from a daily activities point of view, such as working from home, online meetings and especially online teaching, all requiring more effort than with normal circumstances. Hopefully, in the course of this year the world will have been vaccinated.
Welcome to the first issue this year of GHI Matters. It is a bit later than intended and that has a pleasant reason: we have very active working groups and communication via email and online meetings takes considerable time. Some information about these activities are reported in this issue, more information will follow in forthcoming issues. Fortunately, starting after this issue, we have got a new, very motivated honorary Newsletter Editor. It, therefore, is likely that the next issue will be on time, and also probably better structured and improved in other ways.
Other important positive developments are that we now have a GHI "home journal", two new 'nutrition and health' books and more under way, and that GHI is increasingly invited to join projects. This means that GHI is visible in the scientific community and input from GHI is appreciated.
Enjoy reading!
Huub Lelieveld.
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New newsletter Editor
Starting with the April 2021 issue of GHI Matters, the newsletter will be edited by Benard Odhiambo Oloo. Ben has a PhD from the Egerton University in Kenya and has accumulated international experience by doing parts of his education in among others The Netherlands, the USA, South Africa and Ghana. Ben is also one of the GHI Ambassadors in Kenya. We are very pleased by his motivation to manage GHI Matters and, surely, he will make it better.
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Affiliation of GHI with the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND)
As many readers might remember, over the past years several ways have been explored to create a "home" journal for GHI and its members. One of the trials had been the special issue of Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods (QAS), published by Wageningen Academic Publishers*. Although that issue was successful, the ownership of the journal changed after the publication of that issue and the negotiations were stopped when it became apparent that publishing of articles in that journal would become too expensive for a large part of the GHI membership. Since then, several other options have been investigated, which eventually led to the decision that affiliation with the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND) may be the best option. After successful negotiations we are proud to be able to announce that an agreement between AJFAND and GHI has been reached. At the moment when this issue of GHI Matters was being prepared, we are in the phase of working out practical details. More information will be included in the next issue of GHI Matters, which may well be included in the next issue of AJFAND.
* Special issue: "Scientific trends of global food laws and regulations". Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods (2019) vol. 11, issue 7 (https://www.wageningenacademic.com/toc/qas/11/7).
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SARS-CoV-2 presentations
This month a team chaired by Dr. Noor Zafira Noor Hasnan, GHI Ambassador in Malaysia, has started to modify the presentation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the food production and supply chain, that has been produced in Chile by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, represented by Dr. Franco Pedreschi P., who is also the GHI Ambassador in Chile, and by the Chilean Food Safety and Quality Agency, ACHIPIA, of the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture, to assist in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic in the food chain. GHI is grateful to these organisations for their permission to use the video and to convert it into a global presentation. As soon as the new version, which will be in English, is ready it will be uploaded to the GHI Library from where it can be downloaded and, of course, it will be announced in GHI Matters.
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Events
Prof. Lucia Anelich (PhD), GHI Ambassador in South Africa, in cooperation with Food Focus is organising the Food Safety Summit 2021, taking place on 8 and 9 June 2021. The summit will address the provision of safe, affordable and nutritious food that are key to supporting health. Food safety, the food supply chain, back to basics, a review of all classes of food safety hazards, microbiological testing, traceability and much, much more are topics that will be included.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), in partnership with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, is organising the 2022 conference "ONE – Health, Environment, Society" that will take place in Brussels and online from 21-24 June 2022. The conference will address how risk assessment science needs to evolve over the next years to respond to the challenges of fighting climate change, halting biodiversity loss and reducing waste.
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Food Safety Professional proposal
The roles and responsibilities of professionals working in the area of food safety, although important for public health, are not defined almost anywhere in the world. Therefore, the WG Ethics in Food Safety Practices has developed a proposal to formally and globally recognise the profession, in a way that is similar to for example the medical profession. The proposal with an addendum containing additional background information, can be downloaded from the GHI Library. A Press Release about this subject will be distributed very soon.
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Participation in Projects
GHI is often invited to contribute to projects aimed at improving food safety and security. GHI may participate in such projects provided that it is ascertained that such participation cannot in any way affect the impartiality of GHI. Currently GHI is taking part in several of such proposals:
TRANSIT is highly-ambitious training and research programme to train next generation of researchers in the field of sustainable food production to endow them with the necessary transferable skills to contribute to technological innovation that aims to 1). responsibly produce food to feed the increasing population with high-quality and safe food and 2). optimize sustainable food production by implementation of low-energy use technologies and/or replacement of chemical preservatives to further reduce food waste.
ACT4waste will deliver sustainable science and technological, circular solutions to replace the current take-make- dispose economic models and will impact positively on food waste valorization, resource utilisation and climate change. These transitional challenges will be addressed with overarching solutions to reduce waste from the farm to fork through innovating for system change and by thorough and robust socio-economic models that can inform enterprises and employment. This will be delivered:i) by targeting the most perishable of plant and animal food production, ii) through the attainment of the specific objectives of the project, which will be delivered through nine interlinking work packages, iii) through the diversity and complimentary competence of the consortium composed of engineers, food technologists, biotechnologists, information technologists, nanotechnologists, chemists, academia, RDI institutes, NGO’s, consumer groups, SMEs, large enterprises, and iv) by engaging all “actors” striving to solve the food paradox, experts, relevant institutions and members of completed and ongoing National, European and International projects through specific invitations for participation and contributions during the project lifetime.
EFFORT aims to achieve climate neutral food businesses by mitigating climate change, reducing energy use and increasing energy efficiency in the whole food supply chain (processing, distribution, conservation, preparation of food). Specifically, EFFORT will bring together an interdisciplinary team to exploit interactions between Food, Energy, as well as Information and Operational Technology (IT/OT) brought together through the connectivity of Internet of Things (IoT). The introduced technological innovations will be applied on 4 different use cases addressing baked; dairy; processing of fresh produce, e.g. tomatoes and prepared meals.
FOOD-REHUB aims to reduce the food loss and waste through the entire European food system by including partners from every part of the value chain and by identifying in which segment the largest waste occurs and by involving technical and social innovators to solve the current challenges, while ensuring the use of sustainable packaging. The project’s goal be achieved by creating and deploying local innovation hubs in localities representative of different regions of Europe, where the project will combine different types of innovations. These hubs will focus on different food categories and know-how to solve their specific challenges.
FOODSAFETY4EU will create a multi-actor platform for food safety system actors and stakeholders to drive the transition of the existing European food safety systems towards a comprehensive and constantly updated framework. It will enable to efficiently access resources and data (such as studies and publications and data on certain topics) and share and exchange scientific knowledge and contributions through dedicated tools. As such, the platform will aim to enable and support the cooperation and interaction among different actors through the development and implementation of participatory processes in 4 regional hubs and food safety operational labs.
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AJFAND Celebrating 20 years of Publishing
The African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND) is now in its 20st year. We CONGRATULATE the journal and, in particular, its Editor-In-Chief, Prof. Ruth Oniang'o. Since 2001 AJFAND has published more than 1000 peer-reviewed scientific papers and the number of submission of articles is continuously rising.
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Articles by members of GHI on food and nutrient safety and security
Detection and quantification of Aflatoxin B1 in corn and corn-grown soils in the district of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka - W.M.S.C. Jayaratne, A.H.M.A.K. Abeyratne, H.K.S. De Zoysa, D.M.R.B.N. Dissanayake, T.C. Bamunuarachchige, V.Y. Waisundara and S. Chang. It is Open Access, to download, click here.
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Books by GHI and members of GHI on food and nutrient safety and security
To prevent information about the "Nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods" from being lost forever, GHI agreed with Elsevier to edit a series of books with that title, covering the entire world. The first volumes, about the Nordic Countries, Western Europe and South Asia have been announced earlier. New volumes are about the nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in Eastern Europe, nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in the Balkans. Volumes about Southern Europe and China, Japan and Korea are in preparation.
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Nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in Nordic Countries
Edited by Veslemøy Andersen, Eirin Bar And Gun Wirtanen, is the first volume of the series of 26 books about the topic, covering the entire globe. This volume discusses the nutrition and health aspects of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland as well as Sápmi, also known as Lapland. It is published by Elsevier/Academic Press 2018. ISBN: 978-0-12-809456-3 (eBook) and 9780128094167 (print).
Note that, as with all food science books published by Elsevier, using the code GHI30 gives you a 30% discount.
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Nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in Western Europe
Edited by Susanne Braun, Christina Zübert, Dimitrios Argyropoulos and Francisco Javier Casado Hebrard
This volume of the 26 volume-large GHI series was published on 15 October 2019 and can be ordered from the website of Elsevier.
Remember to use GHI30 to obtain a 30% discount.
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Nutrition and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in South Asia
Edited by Jamuna Prakash, Viduranga Waisundara and Vishweshwaraiah Prakash
This GHI book of the same series was published on 1 March 2020, it can be ordered now from Elsevier and remember, by using code GHI30, you will receive a 30% discount.
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NOW AFRICA INITIATIVE (NAI)
In 2017 Denis Twinamatsiko, GHI Ambassador in Uganda, founded the Now Africa Initiative (NAI). His goal was to unlock the latent potential of rural communities and ensure sustainable rural development in his country. He is committed to providing technical support to smallholder farmers to enable them adopt good agricultural practices. Meanwhile, 200 smallholder coffee farmers have been trained about the need to embrace sustainable agricultural, good harvesting along with proper post-harvest handling practices.
The reports that can be downloaded from the GHI Library show that the initiative is working and it may be an interesting example for colleagues in other countries.
Huub Lelieveld
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GHI information sheets
The "Share Sheet" that provides basic information about chemical food safety has now been translated into Malay. These information sheets are now available in 24 languages, all downloadable. The WG for Food Microbiology is preparing an information sheet about food microbiology. Anyone interested in contributing to this activity may contact Dr. John Tang.
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GHI Brochure
The new membership recruiting brochure/leaflet can be downloaded now in English, Czech, Malay, Russian and Spanish. These are all in a format for on screen viewing and they can be printed as well. If it is intended to have them printed by a professional printer, high-quality printable versions can be provided.
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Ensuring Global Food Safety - Exploring Global Harmonization.
Edited by Christine Boisrobert, Aleksandra Stjepanovic, Sangsuk Oh and Huub Lelieveld
Elsevier/Academic Press, 2009.
ISBN:
9780123748454 (print) 9780080889306 (eBook)
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Regulating Safety of Traditional and Ethnic Foods
Edited by Vishweshwaraiah Prakash, Olga Martín-Belloso, Larry Keener, Siân Astley, Susanne Braun, Helena McMahon and Huub Lelieveld
Elsevier/Academic Press, 2015.
ISBN:
9780128006054 (print) 9780128006207 (eBook)
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GHI LEADERSHIP
Dr. h.c. Huub Lelieveld
President, Netherlands
Mr. Larry Keener
Vice-President, USA
Dr. Gerhard Schleining
Treasurer, Austria
Mag. Michaela Pichler
Supervisory Board, Austria
Ms. Nathalie Persson-Andrianasitera
Global Councillor, Sweden
Ms. Adriana Sterian,MSc.
General Secretary, Netherlands
Dr. Vishweshwaraiah Prakash
Member-at-Large, India
Dr. Sangsuk Oh
Member-at-Large, Korea
Dr. Bernd van der Meulen
Member-at-Large, Netherlands
Dr. Joe Mac. Regenstein
Member-at-Large, USA
Dr. Alina-Ioana Gostin
Ambassador Programme Director, UK
Ms. Adriana Sterian, MSc.
Communications Dir.,Netherlands
Ms. Ana Sanhueza Martín, MSc.
Membership Director, Spain
Ms. Nicole Coutrelis
Regulatory Advisor, France
Dr. Bernd van der Meulen
Legal Advisor - Food, Netherlands
Dr. Siân Astley
Editorial Advisor, UK
Mr. Grigori Badalyan
Librarian, Germany
Mr. Gunter Greil
Webmaster, Austria
Dr. Benard Odhiambo Oloo
Newsletter Editor, Kenia
Mr. Alex Surugiu
Graphic Designer/Videographer, Netherlands
Dr. Diana Bogueva
Working Group Coordinator, Australia
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GHI SUPERVISORY BOARD
Mag. Michaela Pichler (Chair)
ICC, Vienna, Austria
Dr. Michael Murkovic
EuCheMS Food Chemistry Division, Graz, Austria
Dr. Pablo Juliano
CSIRO, Werribee, Australia
Dr. V. Balasubramaniam
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Dr. Pingfan Rao
Fuzhou University and Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, Fujian, China
Dr. Jaap Hanekamp
Roosevelt Academy, Tilburg,
The Netherlands
Dr. Sian Astley
EuroFIR, Brussels, Belgium
Dr. Maria Tapia
Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela
Dr. Kwang-Ok Kim
Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea
GHI AUDITORS
Dr. Vladimir Kakurinov
Macedonia
Dr. Pablo Juliano
Australia
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ABOUT THE GLOBAL HARMONIZATION INITIATIVE |
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Founded in 2004 as a joint activity of the US-based Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) International Division and the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST), the Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI) is a network of scientific organizations and individual scientists working together to promote harmonization of global food safety regulations and legislation.
GHI has legal non-profit entity status and its charter and constitution are registered in Vienna, Austria as the GHI-Association (ZVR453446383).
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