Webinar series | Food Safety Perspectives: Non-targeted methods in the focus
Food business operators are constantly challenged. New legislation, new contaminants or adulterants and challenges of keeping pathogens and spoilage organisms at bay. Having competent help navigating around these cliffs is invaluable. However, no single person can have a global expertise across all areas. This webinar will provide examples how the combined global expertise of three experts in food safety and food law can support food business operators in various situations, not only when the problem has occurred, but also in the anticipation and prevention of issues.
Webinar moderator: Carmen Diaz-Amigo (FOCOS)
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Hourly Schedule
Program
- 15:00 - 15:30
- There is more than finished product testing that is required to comply with regulations
- Finished product testing, despite its limitations (lack of representativity, reactive and too late, huge cost of positive release, ....) has been seen for (too) long at the holy grail of product access to market. But there is more to that when it comes to be compliant, and recent recalls and outbreaks have shown that there are other sources to consider. In both Microbiology and Regulatory, the buzz words are Processing Environment Monitoring on one side, Front of Pack labelling on the other side. What is new, what isn't, and what does the different regulations require ? Cesare and François will see to decipher the problem and help set set the road of compliance.
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Speakers:
Cesare Varallo, Francois Bourdichon
- 15:30 - 16:00
- Untargeted Screening in Food: the global analytical scheme is impacted
- Testing does not make the food safer, since it does induce a bias for only looking at what the analytical method can do. For years, this mantra was used to justify the proactive approach on proper risk assessment, definition of control measures and mitigation procedures. This statement was indeed valid for targeted screening: one only finds what one is looking for. What if it could be possible to search the unknown? Untargeted screening is changing the way analysis are done: from focusing on identified hazard to answering on unexpected and/or unknown ones. One should never ask a question without anticipating the answers. What happens when these questions can be quite unexpected, if not surprising?
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Speakers:
Bert Popping, Francois Bourdichon
- 16:00 - 16:30
- On the verge: Targeted and non-targeted testing for food fraud and food allergens
- Food allergens have been some of the worst offenders when it comes to food fraud. Because some consumers are allergic to certain ingredients, an intentional and fraudulent replacement of a more expensive non-allergenic ingredient with a cheaper allergenic ingredients can have severe consequences, including anaphylactic shock. Examples are the replacement of expensive pine nuts with significantly less expensive peanuts. Here, scientists have developed mass spectrometric approaches to detect undeclared allergens. This approach is now also adopted by competent authorities, driving the validation and standardization of these new methods. But how exact is the quantification? Similarly, methods for the detection of undeclared animal-based proteins (e.g. pork protein in halal foods) are being developed. What are the consequences for food business operators? This will be discussed in the context of recent Codex Alimentarius developments and expected regulatory adaptations.
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Speakers:
Bert Popping, Cesare Varallo
- 16:30 - 17:00
- Q&A
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Speakers:
Bert Popping, Cesare Varallo, Francois Bourdichon
Speakers
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Bert PoppingFOCOS GmbH, Consultant
Dr. Bert Pöpping is CEO of FOCOS – Food Consulting Strategically. He has more than 25 years experience in the food safety testing industry in senior roles and with global responsibilities. Bert advises stakeholders in the wider food supply chains on emerging risks, develops jointly with his clients tailored food safety solutions and advises on novel analytical technologies that can help making food manufacturing safer. Bert is author of numerous peer-reviewed publication and served as member on numerous international committees, as well as on the Board of Directors of AOAC International.
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Cesare VaralloFoodLawLatest, Food Lawyer
Cesare is a food lawyer based in Italy and founder of Food Law Latest, an independent law firm and food law blog, operating at the intersection between science and regulations. In addition to labeling compliance services and strategic food law advice over more than 90 countries, he regularly provides assistance in relation to crisis management, food safety issues, food fraud investigations and import/export requirements. He’s a well recognized speaker and guest instructor in several universities (MSU IFLR in USA, LUISS and Alma Mater Bologna in Italy).
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Francois BourdichonFSMH, Consultant
Francois holds a master’s degree of General Microbiology from Pasteur Institute, Paris.
After 15 years working for major dairy (Nestlé, Danone, Savencia) and confectionary (Barry Callebaut) food business companies, he now works as a principal consultant for Food Safety Microbiology Hygiene.
Since 2018, he is affiliated to Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy, in DiSTAS: Department of Food Science and Technology for a Sustainable Agri-food Supply Chain.
François is delegate of France at the International Dairy Federation since 2010. He is member of the Standing Committees on Harmonization of Microbiological Methods (SCHMM) and Analytical Methods for Dairy Microorganisms (SCAMDM).
He represents IDF at Codex CCFH and in different ISO TC34/SC9 Working groups.
