 CONFERENCES |
WIFSS Participates in Crisis Table-Top Exercise
April 14, 2009
Washington, DC
On April 14 Dairy Marketing Inc., the National Milk Producer’s Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association hosted the first of three Dairy Industry Regional Crisis Drill’s in Washington, DC.
This table-top training exercise utilized a fictional crisis scenario involving a deliberate contamination of dairy products.
Besides producer and processor representatives from across the country, experts from the FDA and FBI also participated. WIFSS's Dr. Payne served as both an informational panel member and played the role of a technical advisor in the table-top.
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Central Science Laboratory (CSL)/Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) Symposium
May 13-15, 2009
Greenbelt, MD
Dr. Michele Jay-Russell participated in the tenth annual symposium in food safety and applied nutrition jointly organized by the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA, formerly CSL) and JIFSAN. The symposium entitled “Food Safety and Nutrition: Methods and Systems for Tracking, Tracing, and Verifying Foods) brought together a prestigious group of international invited speakers from regulatory agencies, public interest groups, universities and research institutions in Europe and North America. Additionally, speakers with the EU Trace Project participated. For the complete program click here.
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| PRESENTATIONS |
“Salmonella in Peanut Products – Understanding the Risk and Controlling the Process”
March 26, 2009
Arlington, VA
Dr. Linda Harris traveled to Arlington, Virginia to participate in the symposium “Salmonella in Peanut Products – Understanding the Risk and Controlling the Process”.
The symposium, sponsored by the International Association for Food Protection, attracted approximately 100 participants from industry, government and academia. The focus was on the 2006 and 2008/09 outbreaks of salmonellosis associated with consumption of peanut butter.
The peanut and peanut butter industry gave presentations on their response to the outbreaks in terms of changes in good agricultural practices and sanitation during harvesting and shelling.
The CDC and FDA provided the latest information on the 08/09 outbreak and follow-up investigations and several speakers provided technical information on the behavior of Salmonella in low water activity foods, with an emphasis on peanut butter.
Dr. Harris contributed with a presentation entitled “Process Validation for Peanut Butter and Other Low Moisture Foods”. She shared the process used to gather data generated for validation of almond processes and how these might apply to whole peanuts used for peanut butter and other products.
Copies of the presentations can be found at the IAFP website.
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2009 ANR Statewide Conference
April 27-30 , 2009
Davis, CA
Linda Harris moderated a session on food safety at the 2009 ANR Statewide Conference. This annual conference brings together the California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) which is a statewide network of University of California researchers and educators dedicated to the creation, development and application of knowledge in agricultural, natural and human resources.
The goal of the food safety session was to provide an overview of the issues and to highlight areas in the ANR continuum where collaboration on microbial food safety has been working well and where it could be improved.
Rob Atwill gave a presentation entitled “Pre-Harvest Food Safety: Animals and Plants Intertwined”, and Trevor Suslow spoke on "Fruit and Vegetable Food Safety: Getting Better Connections Between Campus and Counties". The presentations were followed by a lively discussion that carried on for some time after the program officially ended.
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WIFSS Provides Support for UC’s New Animal Welfare Council
May 4, 2009
Davis, CA
In 2008, video footage of non-ambulatory, abused cattle at a federally inspected meat packing facility quickly morphed into a food safety issue leading to a 143 million pound beef recall. The University of California has established the UC Animal Welfare Advisory Council to review issues of animal welfare related to animal agriculture, and to promote the development of recommendations based on sound science to improve the welfare of livestock and poultry.
The council, chaired by UC Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources Daniel M. Dooley, is comprised of veterinarians, animal science professionals, and other experts from the University of California system, the California State University system, Colorado State University and the private sector.
At the May 4th first organizational meeting of the Council, WIFSS’s Dr. Payne presented the outreach resources which WIFSS can bring to bear to assist the council’s efforts.
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| ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS |
Upcoming Summer Integrated Program in Food Safety Risk Analysis (SIP), June 2009
by Juliana Ruzante, Risk Analysis Program Manager, JIFSAN/University of Maryland
JIFSAN is offering this year’s Summer Integrated Program in Food Safety Risk Analysis from June 8th to June 26th, 2009. The curriculum is composed of six courses on food safety risk analysis including two new intermediate courses in Quantitative Risk Assessment that were developed and will be taught by Greg Paoli from Risk Sciences International Inc. The courses can be taken individually or in clusters and provide high quality training and the opportunity to interact with food safety professionals from around the world.
Please visit the JIFSAN website for course descriptions and enrollment information.
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WIFSS Works with New Composting Workgroup
Millions of pounds of animal manure are produced in the state every year. Composting of animal manure has two distinct advantages: 1) it assists in nutrient balance by allowing off-site manure export and 2) creates a potential profit center through the marketing of microbiologically safe compost as a fertilizer and soil amendment.
In order to address a confusing array of technical and regulatory issues involving manure composting, WIFSS participated in the newly formed manure composting workgroup.
Participants include the Central Valley and State Water boards, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the California Department of Public Health.
The work of the committee will be performed in close consultation with other stakeholder experts including the composting and animal industries.
For more information, please contact Dr. Mike Payne.
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WIFSS is a Training Partner with the Department of Homeland Security
WIFSS is a training partner with the Department of Homeland Security and provides Agroterrorism training to typical first responders and private industry about the potential dangers of intentional tampering of the food supply. Participants who attend the courses come from all emergency responder vocations including: public health, environmental health, emergency medical services, law enforcement, fire/rescue, hospitals, health care providers, government planners and elected officials. Private industry participants include farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, university extension, processing plant and transportation representatives to name a few. The goal of the courses is to stimulate the development of community based response plans and create a closer working relationship between those who produce, transport and deliver our food with those who protect the public. This public/private partnership represents a new vision to strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to any intentional or natural food system disaster.
WIFSS offers six courses AWR-151 Awareness, Understanding the Dangers of Agroterrorism; AWR-152 Preparedness, Principles of Preparedness for Agroterrorism and Food Systems' Disasters; AWR-153 Detection and Diagnosis, Principles of Detection and Diagnosis Strategies and Technologies; AWR-154 (NIMS) and Risk Communication, Principles of National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Risk Communication; AWR-155 Response, Principles of Frontline Response to Agroterrorism and Food Systems' Disasters; and AWR-156 Recovery, Principles of Planning and Implementing Recovery.
To date WIFSS has either delivered or will deliver 50 agroterrorism courses throughout its October 2008-September 2009 contractual period. In addition WIFSS offers the same training courses in California on behalf of the California Emergency Management Agency. Thirty eight additional courses have been or are scheduled to be delivered in California during the contractual period of January 2008 – March 2010.
To view the WIFSS' current Agroterrorism course offerings click on the following link.
For more information contact David Goldenberg.
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