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Risk assessments yesterday, today and tomorrow

Food, fish and agriculture Food safety
Symposium brings together 300 participants to focus on past, present and future challenges in risk assessments. The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark is co-organizer.

On 30 November and 1 December 2017 approx. 300 participants are gathered in Berlin for a symposium that focuses on past, present and future challenges in risk assessments both nationally and internationally. These include the VTEC outbreak in 2011, antimicrobial resistance and hormone disrupting substances as well as international harmonization of assessment criteria.

In an era of increased globalization, where trade increasingly takes place across borders, international cooperation is necessary to overcome the consumer and food safety challenges facing the world.

How do we e.g. use new technologies to estimate the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance? How do we keep harmful chemicals out of food packaging? How do we detect and stop food fraud? Which strategies can most effectively increase consumer safety globally? Which methods and technologies can we use and develop to assess risks and harmonize the way in which risk assessments are carried out?

These are some of the questions which approx. 300 participants from Denmark, Germany, France, South Korea and the USA will be discussing at the symposium.

One of the topics at the symposium will be the VTEC outbreak of 2011 as an example of scientific cooperation in risk assessment. The incident constitutes one of the most serious food crises in Europe in decades. According to a report by the Robert Koch Institute in the Federal Health Gazette 2013, the VTEC outbreak resulted in 53 deaths and 3,740 cases of human illness, some of them very severe.

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The symposium is organized by the German BfR (Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung) in cooperation with the National Food Institute, the French ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation,de l’environnement et du travail) and the South Korean NIFDS (National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation)

Read the programme and find other information about the symposium, Past, present and future global challenges in risk assessment – strengthening consumer protection, on BfR’s website

Contact

For questions about the symposium contact BfR Academy on på academy@bfr.bund.de.