ILSI Europe’s Scientific Sessions at IAFP 2016
Athens, Greece
11/05/2016 – 12/05/2016
SESSION: ‘New Approaches to Chemical Risk Assessment’
11 May 2016, 13.30-15.00
BACKGROUND
Food is composed of a wide range of chemicals (naturally occurring, intentionally and unintentionally added substances). Scientific risk assessments are evidence based and consider both hazard and consumer exposure in assessing whether there may be unacceptable risks to health. Safety factors are typically applied to extrapolate the hazards to humans once they are identified. For nutritional constituents of the diet, additional risk assessment approaches can be considered (substantial equivalence, weighing risk-benefit, history of safe use).
OBJECTIVE
Recent developments in food safety and challenges to the reliability of animal testing are resulting in a paradigm shift in toxicology where new approaches are being developed. The challenge is for these new approaches to be robust enough to assure product safety and to be accepted by regulatory agencies.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
This event was made possible through the support from ILSI Europe’s New Approaches to Chemical Risk Assessment Task Force and IAFP.
SESSION PROGRAMME
Introduction to Chemicals in Food
Dr Benoît Schilter, Nestlé Research Centre, Switzerland
Current Tools and Approaches in Chemical Risk Assessment
Dr Benoît Schilter, Nestlé Research Centre, Switzerland
New Approaches in Chemical Risk Assessment
Dr Ans Punt, RIKILT Wageningen University & Research Centre, The Netherlands
SESSION: ‘Risk Assessment or Assessment of the Risk in Fresh Produce? That’s the Question'
12 May 2016, 08.30-10.00
BACKGROUND
Growers are required to do a complete risk assessments for the production of leafy crops supplied either to retail or for further processing. There is an assumption that this will reduce the risk of supplying contaminated produce to the end consumer. However, the information that currently exists in the public domain is highly theoretical and very generic; application to each industry sector can be difficult. There is a lack of practical and applicable data and guidelines to perform Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA). In contrast to quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) commonly used in international hygiene criteria setting, grower risk assessments (RA) are based primarily on qualitative judgements of hazard and risks at a number of stages in the RA process. This approach leads to a RA based on subjective opinion allowing different businesses to view the same hazard as posing a different level of risk and having differing levels of intervention and hence risk reduction.
OBJECTIVE
In this session, a public-private view is provided by speakers from the food industry and academics to present on the current findings of an ILSI Europe Expert Group on Industrial MRA in Fresh Produce. This expert group recently submitted a publication that proposes an approach based on a structured qualitative assessment. This requires all decisions to be based on evidence and a framework for describing the decision process that can be challenged and defended within the supply chain. In addition, the paper highlights the need for evidence bases to be more easily available and accessible to primary producers and identifies the need to develop hygiene criterion to aid validation of proposed interventions.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
This event was made possible through the support from ILSI Europe’s Microbiological Food Safety Task Force and IAFP.
SESSION PROGRAMME
Developing Practical Risk Assessment for Fresh Produce Industrial Practice: Issues Faced While Putting ‘Formal MRA’ into Industrial Practice
Dr Roy Betts, Campden BRI, United Kingdom
Assessment of the Risk for Fresh Produce Primary Producers: Presenting the Example of Fresh Produce Assessment of the Risk
Dr James Monaghan, Harper Adams University, United Kingdom
The Fresh Produce Assessment: The Relevance of Risk Assessment for the Food Service
Dr Bizhan Pourkomailian, McDonald’s Corporation, United Kingdom
SESSION: ‘Managing Allergens: How do we Assess the Risk and Protect Allergic Consumers?’
12 May 2016, 13:30-15.00
BACKGROUND
ILSI Europe’s Food Allergy Task Force aims to foster an international evidence-based consensus on how to assess the risk and develop the tools which will help to manage this risk. The task force and its expert groups consist of a strong network of international experts and include among their partners world-class experts and leading organisations such as the Food Allergy Research & Resource Program and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Moreover, ILSI Europe plays an important role in the FP7-funded project iFAAM (Integrated Approaches to Food Allergen and Allergy Risk Management; 38 partners), coordinating effective dissemination of project results to relevant stakeholder groups to ensure impact in terms of improved quality of life for allergic consumers, improved food safety and increased competitiveness of the European food industry. The overall objective of this project, which was built to address some of the questions and data gaps that emerged from the prior EuroPrevall project, is to develop evidence-based approaches and tools, based on e-Health concepts, for management of allergens in food and to integrate knowledge derived from their application and new knowledge from intervention studies into food allergy management plans and dietary advice.
OBJECTIVE
Within this session, the activities and main outcomes of ILSI Europe’s Food Allergy Task Force have been outlined. Moreover, the objectives and achievements of the iFAAM project will be presented, together with valuable insight into recent developments in risk assessment of food allergenicity.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
This event was made possible through the support from ILSI Europe’s Food Allergy Task Force and IAFP.
SESSION PROGRAMME
The ILSI Europe Food Allergy Task Force: Promoting the Safety of Food Allergic Consumers
TBD
From EuroPrevall to iFAAM: Insights into Food Allergen Management
Prof. Clare Mills, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Recent Developments in Risk Assessment of Food Allergens
Dr Geert F. Houben, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), The Netherlands