ANNOUNCEMENTS 

International Food Safety Training Laboratory

Dr. Angela Winslow joined the IFSTL team as a Microbiology Instructor in June, 2012. She is a graduate of Howard University with a PhD in Biology, where she did her thesis work on the Diversity of Broad-Spectrum Bacteriocins Produced by Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Retail Salami. She held an internship at the US FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in Laurel, Maryland, a fellowship at the University of Benin working on the incidence of bacteria in the wounds of diabetic patients, and served as an Adjunct Faculty member at Tidewater Community College. Dr. Winslow hit the ground running and, with the IFSTL team, delivered an outstanding course on Cronobacter at IFSTL.

Risk Analysis Program

Tarik Chfadi, a PhD candidate in Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of Maryland, joined the Risk analysis team in March, 2012. His research area is in Environmental and Resource Economics, Applied Microeconomics and Experimental Economics and his dissertation addresses the Effects of Heterogeneity and Transmissivity in a Common Pool Aquifer. He also has a Mineral Engineering degree from Ecole Mohammedia D’Ingénieurs in Morocco. While in Morocco he worked as a water engineer and has consulted at the World Bank conducting economic analysis of Rural Water and Sanitation Projects in several countries as well as infrastructure country diagnostics in Africa. He has extensive survey design and econometric experience and is working closely with Clare Narrod on designing survey instruments for evaluating the impact of JIFSAN’s training program.

Dr. Xiaoyu (Joyce) Song is a visiting scientist from the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. While at JIFSAN, she will begin developing a Quantitative Risk Assessment of Campylobacter in broiler chicken, a project slated for completion in China this year. Her background is in Veterinary Medicine and her Ph.D. thesis was on molecular carcinogenesis. At the Center most of the initial focus has been on conducting safety assessments on chemicals in food. They are now beginning to look at microbial risk assessment. Her research interest is mainly on quantitative microbial risk assessment.

Monan Liu is a visiting scientist from the Bor S. Luh Food Safety Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. She has a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from University of Hohenheim, Germany. She partook in the Summer Integrated Program for Risk Analysis and is staying with JIFSAN to get an overview about the food safety security system in the USA

Release of Institute of Medicine Commissioned Study by FDA on Ensuring Safe Foods and Medical Products Through Stronger Regulatory Systems Abroad

At the request of the FDA, the Institute of Medicine within the National Academy of Science formed a committee to; 1) identify the core elements of food, medicine, medical product, and biologics regulatory systems in developing countries, 2) to pin-point the main gaps in these systems, and 3) to design a strategy to leverage the expertise of the FDA and other stakeholders to strengthen regulatory systems abroad. Clare Narrod and Robert Buchanan were part of the committee selected to undertake the study and were part of the group that briefed FDA Center directors at White Oak on March 29th. The report was released April 4that the National Press Club.

Report can be found here.

Remaining Risk Analysis and Laboratory Courses in 2012

Risk Analysis

Online: The two remaining 2012 online risk analysis course offerings will be held this fall. Dr. Charles Yoe will be the instructor for both. Registration is open and space is available in both courses.

Food Safety Risk Analysis September 5 – October 24, 2012
Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Assessment October 31 – December 19, 2012
For course descriptions, go to http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/prodev/courses/online/

In-Classroom: With the success of the one-day Introduction to Risk Communication course the past two years, JIFSAN has added this as one of the annual in-classroom offerings, scheduled for September 20, 2012. It is a condensed version of the three-day summer offering. For more information, go to: http://jifsan.umd.edu/prodev/courses/oneday/riskcomm.php

Laboratory (IFSTL)

The IFSTL currently has four courses remaining for 2012, as follows:

Methods of Determination of Salmonella in Fresh Produce: Sept. 24-28, 2012
Determination of E. Coli EHEC in Fresh Produce and Meat: Oct. 1-5, 2012
Microscopic and Chemical Identification of Botanicals: Oct. 15-19, 2012
Pesticide Residue Analysis and ISO 17025: Nov. 5-14, 2012

For more information, visit: http://ifstl.org/courses

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CONFERENCES, AND MEETINGS 

2012 JIFSAN Advisory Council Symposium

The JIFSAN Advisory Council 2012 Annual Symposium was held May 16-17th at the Greenbelt Marriott Hotel, in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Feeding the World Population Today and Tomorrow” was the theme. Current projections are that global population will reach eight billion by 2025-2030, and will likely reach nine billion by 2045-2050. Feeding this expanding population and meeting rising consumer expectations presents production, nutritional and food safety challenges that require new approaches and unique solutions. The team of speakers did an outstanding job of addressing these issues.

Participants reported this as one of the best programs JIFSAN has held. Dr. Michael Taylor, FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods, was the Keynote Speaker. The Organizing Committee included: Patrizia Barone – (Unilever, Chair of the Advisory Council), Craig Llewellyn (The Coca Cola Company , Co-Chair of the Advisory Council), Bradd Eldridge (Abbott Nutrition), DeAnn Benesh (3M), Ravindra Ramadhar (PerkinElmer), Julie Jones (St. Catherine University) Tony Flood (IFIC) and George Evancho (JIFSAN, Campbell Soup retired), did an outstanding job of putting the program together and identifying speakers. Eighty people were in attendance.

The final day’s session was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Sanford (Sandy) Miller. Dr. Les Crawford delivered a memorial honoring the life and activities of Dr. Miller in nutrition and food safety.

Dr. Sanford Miller

13th Annual Fera/JIFSAN Symposium

The 13th Annual Fera/JIFSAN Symposium was held in York, U.K. June 13-15, 2012. The theme was ‘New Developments in Food Science: Realizing the Potential of OMICS Technologies’. Over 130 participants attended the event from the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Nigeria, Spain, Italy, France and The Netherlands. Advances in the field and key applications were presented with a focus on the measurement of selected metabolites that might influence agricultural practices, a systematic approach to health care and prevention through a better-understood diet, and multiple presentations focused on microbial genomics. Data processing challenges related to genomics and some solutions to these challenges were also presented. Additional information about the symposium is available on the official website of the conference: http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/events/jifsan2012.cfm.

APEC Export Certificate Workshop

As a follow up to the 2010 APEC Export Certificate Roundtable, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) again partnered with Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and JIFSAN to sponsor a 2-day “APEC Export Certificate Workshop” April 24-25, 2012 in the Washington, DC area. It provided APEC Member Economies an opportunity to share their experiences using the Codex Model Certificate and the best practices document that was developed at the APEC Export Certificate Roundtable.

World Bank and USDA/Cochran

In May, Jianghong Meng, Janie Dubois, Clare Narrod, and Marie Ahlgren- Stephanos met with the World Bank and USDA’s Cochran program to explore collaborative efforts for improving food safety in the developing world and to expand food safety capacity building in developing countries in the future. As of now IFSTL has had 4 individuals from developing countries sponsored by the Cochran program and 2 sponsorships are in the process of being finalized for the fall. We are working to expand such collaborations in the future so more people from the developing world can be trained in food safety principles including risk analysis and fit-for-purpose analytical laboratory methods. For more details about the Cochran programs go to: http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/cochran/cochran.asp

Global Food Safety Partnership: Key Stakeholders Meeting

The World Bank is facilitating the establishment of a multi-stakeholder Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) for food safety capacity building. The goal of the partnership will bring together stakeholders to collectively address critical capacity building gaps through the establishment of an innovative knowledge sharing community. June 11-12 Clare Narrod, Marie Katariina Ahlgren- Stephanos, and Robert Buchanan represented the University of Maryland at the World Bank. Other participants were from World Bank, WHO, WTO, OIE, CODEX, FAO, EU, FDA, USDA, the State Department, GMA, the private sector, and a number of Universities involved in food safety capacity building.

FDA Public Meeting

The FDA held a public meeting on June 19th to get input in the development of its International Capacity Building plan pursuant to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). JIFSAN’s Janie Dubois participated on the stakeholder panel representing academia. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FSMA/ucm303463.htm

MYCORED- North America

MYCORED, funded through the European Union 7th Framework program aims to develop strategic solutions focused on the reduction of mycotoxin contamination in the food and feed supply chains. These solutions are identified and developed through joint research projects and trainings. Clare Narrod participated on June 24th-28th in “MYCORED North America 2012" as an invited speaker. She presented findings from research efforts evaluating cost-effective aflatoxin risk reduction technologies based on field work done in Kenya and Mali. This project is ongoing at JIFSAN. Please see: http://www.mycored.eu/page/news/65/mycored_north_america_2012.

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TRAINING, AND WORKSHOPS 

Food Inspector Training (FIT)

The first offering of the newly developed program for Food Inspector Training was conducted in Nanning, Guangxi, China May 21-30, 2012 at the Jin Man Di International Hotel. The program was planned and delivered in collaboration with FDA and the China Inspection and Quarantine Association (CIQA) based in Beijing. Approximately 58 people attended the first week of lectures and about 30 inspectors stayed for the second week to visit industry sites and participate in mock inspections for canned foods and aquaculture. The final question and answer session went on for over three hours and feedback from participants was extremely positive.

FIT program instructors at work during the closing session

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Train-the-Trainers Program

A regional GAP program was offered in Tela, Honduras, June 11-14, 2012 at the convention facilities of Hotel La Ensenada in collaboration with the FDA, the Servicio Nacional Sanidad Agropecuaria (SENASA-Honduras) and the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA). Sixty six participants enrolled, representing government agencies, Universities and the private sector. In addition to classroom training, field trips to grower and packers of bananas and pineapples rounded out the course. The program received excellent evaluations from the trainees.

GAP program participants arriving to a banana plantation to conduct a food safety review of operations

International Food Safety Training Laboratory (IFSTL) Training

The IFSTL held three laboratory courses this quarter at its training center in College Park, Maryland, two in chemistry and a pilot course in microbiology.

Methods of Determination of Mycotoxins:
The Methods of Determination of Mycotoxins course was held on April 16-26, 2012. The initial 5 days of the course followed our traditional format including lectures in the morning and laboratory work in the afternoon. The ensuing 4 days of the course provided an opportunity for participants to obtain additional hand-on laboratory experience. We had 6 participants from the governments of Guatemala, Korea and Indonesia. We covered the techniques of TLC, lateral flow, ELISA, LC- fluorescence, immunoaffinity columns and LC-MS/MS. The commodities were wheat and corn, provided by USDA.

Sample preparation for the analysis of mycotonins

Methods of Pesticide Residue Analysis:
The IFSTL successfully obtained a grant from the USDA Emerging Markets program to enable it to financially support participants from emerging countries in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. Thirteen participants from Chile, Peru, Mexico, Canada, China, Malaysia and Indonesia came to take part in this training program May 14-18, 2012, which focused on sample preparation, liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

A participant from Mexico pulverizes green peppers to determine the content of pesticide residues

Methods of Identification of Cronobacter in Infant Formula:
Our first microbiology course was held June 25-27, 2012, focusing on the identification of Cronobacter including the method published in the recently updated FDA Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM); http://www.fda.gov/Food/ScienceResearch/LaboratoryMethods/BacteriologicalAnalyticalManualBAM/default.htm Eight participants from the United-States, El Salvador and China attended the training and learned methods involving traditional chromogenic plating, gel electrophoresis and PCR.

Preparing samples for analysis of Cronobacter

Risk Analysis

Summer Integrated Program (SIP)

JIFSAN had an overwhelming response to the SIP. The program was held during the month of June with five course offerings held over a three-week period, making it very attractive and convenient for those from out-of-state and out-of-country to complete the entire series of courses in a short period of time. All classes were full and most were wait listed this year. Forty-one individuals represented Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Korea, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the U.S. Limbikani Matumbas, a Research Scientist from the Chitedze Agricultural Research Station in Lilongwe, Malawi was the recipient of this year's JIFSAN Fellowship in Risk Analysis from a pool of eleven applicants. The fellowship covered the tuition for the three-week program.

The 2013 schedule of courses will be posted to the JIFSAN website later this year. Early registration is recommended as class seating is limited. Visit the JIFSAN website at www.jifsan.umd.edu/prodev for course updates.

Online Course in Food Safety Risk Management, March-May 2012

The JIFSAN risk management course is successful because it is one of the few courses that address food safety risk analysis in such a comprehensive manner. The course begins by considering the job duties of risk managers and presenting a summary of several of the leading risk management models, which provide detailed descriptions of how to think about and do risk management. More industry participants were represented in this course than in previous offerings. This has enlivened the course work with a rich variety of perspectives and an exciting new array of risk management issues. It is an exciting development to see growing interest from private industry and it also is rare to find opportunities for government regulatory agency and industry representatives to work so closely together sharing their different perspectives on food safety issues. As a bonus, these perspectives maintain their international flavor as JIFSAN learners continue to enter the online courses from around the world.

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RESEARCH

Environmental Sources of Bacterial Pathogens on Mid-Atlantic Tomato Farms

UMD and FDA scientists are collaborating on a study to elucidate environmental sources of bacterial pathogens on Mid-Atlantic Tomato Farms. Using a comprehensive environmental sampling strategy on fourteen farms, the team has identified irrigation pond water, pond sediment and irrigation ditch water as pre-harvest sources of Salmonella contamination. Multiple serotypes have been identified in soil and water samples, four of which—S. Braenderup, S. Javiana, S. Newport and S. Typhimurium—have been previously implicated in Salmonella outbreaks associated with tomato consumption. The team has also evaluated pre-harvest sources of Enterococcus spp. contamination and demonstrated that these microorganisms are prevalent across all on-farm habitats including tomatoes, leaves, water and soil. Seven species have been identified in various environmental samples, and the team has shown that distance of tomatoes and leaves from the ground influences plant colonization rates. The data also demonstrate that E. faecalis from samples within a farm are closely related implying dispersal between habitats within a farm for this taxon. This is the first study to comprehensively evaluate the prevalence of Salmonella and Enterococcus spp. in the tomato farm environment, showing that both of these microorganisms are capable of persisting in multiple environmental niches in the tomato agro-environment.

Impact Metric Tool for JIFSAN Training Programs

JIFSAN has been awarded funding by FDA to develop an impact metric tool for its trainings and for future broader deployment. Clare Narrod and Tarik Chfadi are working with FDA and the various training program leaders to pilot a set of questionnaires for each of JIFSAN’s programs. Pre and post assessment tools were piloted in the risk based inspection training in China, the GAPs training in Honduras, the quantitative risk assessment training, and the Cronobacter in Infant Formula laboratory training. Outcome assessment tools will be piloted to understand the multiplier effect of the train-the-trainer programs after the initial trainings.

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COLLABORATIONS 

Produce Safety Alliance (PSA)

The PSA was established with support from federal agencies and broad participation from the industry and Land Grant Universities with the objective of improving the understanding and implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in the fresh produce industry. Cornell University manages the PSA. The initial focus of the alliance is the development of education and outreach programs for growers and handlers of fresh fruit and vegetables. Ten committees were formed to address critical areas of GAP. Jim Rushing from JIFSAN serves as the co-chair of the Train-the-Trainers Committee and recently participated in a workshop with all of the Committees in Davis, California on June 28 to put the finishing touches on this first phase of PSA work. The next steps are to develop presentations and plan the first outreach programs. To learn more visit the PSA website at http://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu

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FoodRisk.org 

ICRA Workshop

In May 2012, JIFSAN hosted a workshop for the upcoming FoodRisk.org exclusive Interactive Catalogue of Risk Assessments (ICRA). ICRA is an interactive web application that will be available at FoodRisk.org in December, in which risk assessors can enter their completed models, and get a structured and detailed overview of the models that ICRA contains. It contains comprehensive online tutorials for risk assessors entering models as well as end users exploring the models, familiarizing them with the ICRA commands and analytical tools. The workshop hosted over 50 people both in house and through a webinar to give participants a first look at the upcoming tool and encourage use, testing, and feedback for the December launch.

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JOIN THE JIFSAN NETWORK

To learn more about JIFSAN, visit our website.
Contact us by e-mail at jifsan@umd.edu.