If you are interested in attending any of the pre-conference workshops, please contact conference [at] moniqa.org (if you have already registered) or if you register for the first time, just note it in the comments box in the online registration form which workshop you want to attend. Registration is required! MoniQA Members register for free! All others: 50.- €.
We ask you for your understanding that only a limited number of participants can be accommodated (maximum 25 per workshop):
- Mycotoxin Analysis in your hand, workshop in theory and practice, organized by R-Biopharm (Gold Sponsor)
- Towards Improved Food Allergen Reference Materials, open task force meeting and workshop, organized by MoniQA Association
- Building a Research Infrastructure on Food Related to Nutrition & Health, workshop organized by DISH-RI
Mycotoxin Analysis in your hand
Christine Gutschelhofer, Ronald Niemeijer
R-Biopharm AG, An der neuen Bergstrasse 17, Darmstadt
Mycotoxin contaminations of food and feed have a huge economic impact. Mycotoxins impose a risk to human and animal health. Therefore maximum limits have been established for many commodities. Legislations and guidelines are implemented and enforced in most parts of the world.
Since mycotoxins are natural occurring toxins, they cannot be avoided. As a result significant amounts of commodities are discarded or used for feed or non-food applications at a lower sales price. Financial losses however go far beyond the value of the contaminated commodities and may actually affect the entire food production chain. Animal feed contaminated with mycotoxins may cause production losses in livestock production and mycotoxins may cause significant health costs.
Mycotoxins contaminations of crops are unavoidable but mycotoxins can be managed. Good agricultural and good manufacturing practices will help. Monitoring mycotoxin contaminations by testing is necessary to verify the products will meet international regulations and guidelines. Yet, instead of testing large numbers of end-products, a more pro-active approach would have many benefits.
During the entire process from field to food or feed critical steps can be identified to monitor mycotoxins. For this approach a mobile, easy to use tool to make quick, on-site decisions is essential. In this workshop R-Biopharm will present the next generation in rapid, on-site mycotoxin testing.
Keywords: Mycotoxins, Analysis
Towards Improved Food Allergen Reference Materials
MoniQA’s Food Allergen Reference Materials Task Force
Roland Ernest Poms
MoniQA – International Association for Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the Total Food Supply Chain www.moniqa.org; and Imprint Analytics GmbH, www.imprint-analytics.at.
roland.poms [at] moniqa.org
It is one of the aims of MoniQA - Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the Total Food Supply Chain (www.moniqa.org) - the global food safety network registered as MoniQA Association, to provide guidelines for method validation, reference materials and to assess the reliability of methods through validation studies and proficiency testing schemes. In 2013 MoniQA initiated a task force on the development of reference materials for food allergen and gluten analysis. The task force is an international group comprised of several standardisation organisations (SDOs), industry representatives, policy makers, test kit providers, and method developers, analytical companies, as well as representatives from research groups. Three aims are in the focus of the task force: (i) To develop, prepare and provide well characterized commodity materials for the further production of incurred reference materials, spiked samples, and extracts; (ii) to generate and publish a guidance document on the special requirements and production of allergen reference materials; (iii) to seek general acceptance of the reference materials and the guideline by the international community (e.g. EU authorities, Codex Alimentarius, AOAC International). Priority commodities were identified as being gluten, milk, egg, peanut, hazelnut, and soy.
This workshop and open task force meeting will include presentations and interactive discussions on the progress and further plans for the production and validation of food allergen reference materials.
Draft Agenda:
Presentations:
Introduction to the need of Food Allergen Reference Materials
Clinically relevant materials design and methodological challenges
Progress report of MoniQA’s Food Allergen Reference Materials Initiative
Characterisation of wheat varieties for MoniQA’s gluten-free standard
Production, Availability and Distribution Network
Discussion items:
Validation of MoniQA’s milk allergen material and blank matrix material
Expression of results: commodity concentration vs protein content vs allergen content; assigned versus theoretical value
What are the next steps?
Any other issues?
DISH-RI and METROFOOD workshop: Pan-EU & Health RI- from challenges towards a roadmap: an introduction of two new initiatives METROFOOD and DISH-RI
Are you a policy maker, researcher or food industry representative, involved in funding decisions or food and health research?
We invite you to hear and discussPan-EU Food & Health RI- from challenges towards a roadmap: an introduction of two new initiatives METROFOOD and DISH-RI. This is a unique opportunity to discuss the steps required to make DISH-RI and METROFOOD a reality, and find out how you can be part of it.
DISH-RI
A EU Member States consortium has submitted to EFSTRI (European Society for Research Infrastructures)a conceptual design for an overarching research infrastructure needed to advance food research related to nutrition and health (DISH-RI). DISH-RI affects the research domains Determinants-Intake-Status-Health and will link exciting and new research infrastructures as ECRIN, EATARIS, BBMRI, CESSDA, ELIXER, SHARE, EBI etc.. The main purpose of DISH-RI is to establisch an overarching, virtual, integrated, open access research environment to collate, validate, harmonise and connect existing and future research data. The interoperable data will enhance innovative and standardized technologies and tools that advance interdisciplinary cutting-edge research and therefore will foster both academic progress, commercial innovation and implementation of healthy diets for a healthy life. Furthermoren DISH-RI enables the exploitation of interdisciplinary data on food in relation to nutrition and health.This way, the DISH-RI will facilitate generation of unique interdisciplinary research and system approaches relevant to public and private stakeholders in the food, nutrition & health domain; the innovative research will attract young investigators and will contribute to adequate responses to the societal challenges in the next decades.It will also provide services that support scientists and stakeholders for education and capacity building.The DISH-RI will not only support the research community, but also policy makers and professionals, while increasing the impact of public health nutrition strategies and improving the health of all Europeans. Private partners will be involved as providers of data and as users of the services of the DISH-RI, to foster product innovation and strengthen competitiveness. It will also benefit societal organisations and professionals by improving research and evidence to support their strategies and advice.
METROFOOD
A consortium of Partners from different Countries (Member States and Associated Countries), submitted to ESFRI a conceptual design for a new Research Infrastructure for promoting Metrology in Food and Nutrition (METROFOOD). METROFOOD-RI will beis a distributed Research Infrastructure of Global Interest, by means of which it will be possible to carry out different activities supporting data collection and measurement reliability, as well as basic and frontier research in food and nutrition. The general objective is to enhance scientific excellence in the field of food quality & safety by promoting metrology in food and nutrition, allowing coordination on a European and increasingly on a global scale. METROFOOD-RI will strength scientific knowledge, promoting scientific cooperation and encouraging the interaction between the various stakeholders and the creation of a common and shared base of data, information and knowledge to promote harmonization of food and nutrition measurements across Europe. With this aim, a network of plants, laboratories and experimental fields/farms will be realized. The end-users could be: public and private research laboratories and research groups operating in different fields; food companies; institutions and services that support and connect demand and supply and the government policies regarding health, nutrition and agriculture; who seek to meet specific objectives of food security, food quality, production efficiency, livelihoods and environmental conservation in both the medium and long term.
