The MoniQA Association is now going into its 8th year, and as the previous presidents, I will continue to promote the networking opportunities as well as the unique resources the MoniQA network offers through its experts, members and supporters. And this year, we will take MoniQA even further… But before we talk a little more about this, lets take a look back how MoniQA came about.
What we know today as MoniQA Association started as one of the many European Commission funded Networks of Excellence, back in 2007. The funding lasted for 5 years and brought many European experts across Europe, Turkey and Egypt together. Roland Poms, back then the project coordinator – and now the secretary general of the MoniQA Association – did not have an easy task. Bringing such a diverse group to work productively is more difficult than herding a bag of fleas. Roland did a fabulous job, and as time continued, many partners turned into friends. One of the many advantages of being involved into such a network is building relationships with experts from different fields.
As part of the project, many topics were addressed, including mycotoxins and societal challenges. When the MoniQA Association was founded in 2011 we had to realize that without the European funding, we needed to focus our efforts on the most relevant topics for the network. These were identified as reference materials, food allergens and food fraud. And time certainly proved the MoniQA association right! In 2013, the horse meat scandal broke, and the food fraud expertise in MoniQA was in high demand. Equally, regulations changed for food allergens, consolidating previous directives into the consumer information regulations 1169/2011. This created the need for tighter government controls and more testing in private laboratories. The issue though was the lack of reference materials, resulting in largely varying results between assays. Again, it was a joint MoniQA / Trilogy initiative to produce a community-accepted reference material. And many consultations and heated debates later, the first MoniQA reference material for food allergens was commercially available. Bearing in mind that MoniQA no longer had the European funding and needed to rely on sponsorship by members, supporters and commercial companies, this was not only a first of its kind, but a very special achievement which would not have been possible without the effort of our secretary general!
Part of MoniQA efforts focuses on scientific communication and networking activities, including the organization of conferences and workshops as well as involvement in several European projects, including iFAAM. In addition, MoniQA launched a peer-reviewed journal “Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops and Foods”. If you are a scientist and perform work that you would like to publish in this field, feel free to submit it to our journal!
The MoniQA association, which typically gets together in person at the annual gathering, is by now in its 8th year, and going strong. The next MoniQA meeting is already in planning – updates will follow soon.
This year, MoniQA will continue to provide a platform for expertise around food safety and expand its network further, much further… without revealing too much at this point. Stay tuned!
I can only encourage you to get involved in this active network of experts and contribute to the knowledge platform. Do not hesitate to visit the MoniQA website to learn more about the association and how it can help you and your organization or company. And, of course, we’d like you to join our MoniQA network (membership form).
We look forward to hearing from you!
Bert Popping
