Bangkok, Thailand: Wanted: Speakers, Sponsors and Test Systems for the First Joint MoniQA/BIOTEC/NSTDA/TU Workshop on “Effective Food Allergen Management”, 2-4 April 2012 at the NSTDA-BioTech Center Bangkok
MoniQA Association was invited to co-organise a workshop on “Effective Food Allergen Management” for Laboratories, Industry, Food Manufacturers, Authorities, and Policy Makers in Bangkok, Thailand. Please see the draft programme at http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/allergen_bangkok_2012 and pick your preferred topic(s) to lecture on or to support the practical laboratory exercise for participants, which may include ELISA, DipStick, PCR, HPLC-MS, and similar. The draft programme is still flexible and may offer you a unique opportunity to connect to laboratories, industries and authorities in Thailand. For speakers we are trying to cover the local costs for accommodation and transportation.
Interested?-Please contact roland [dot] poms [at] icc [dot] or [dot] at no later than 16 February 2012!
Free Registration at the Joint IAM/MoniQA Workshop “Choosing the right laboratories for official control”, 4 March 2012, at Ramada Plaza Budapest Hotel
There are limited places, free registration applies to Codex delegates, IAM members and one delegate per MoniQA member institution. For details please go to
http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/laboratory_control_budapest_2012
To register, please go directly to
http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/laboratory_control_budapest_2012/register
Budapest, Hungary: Exclusive Sponsoring Opportunity for MoniQA and IAM members only! Starting with as little as € 200!
Starting with as little as € 200.- sponsoring at the Joint IAM/MoniQA Workshop "Choosing the right laboratories for official control", 4 March 2012, at Ramada Plaza, in Budapest, Hungary, is exclusively offered to the members of IAM and MoniQA Association only. Due to the end of the EU funding of MoniQA the organizers welcome sponsoring of the event (to be used for coffee breaks, venue, etc…) starting as low as € 200.- (any higher sponsoring amounts are also welcome!). There is room for promotion materials of sponsors to be made available to the usually 80-120 participants from about 50-60 countries. Sign up as a sponsor by contacting roland [dot] poms [at] icc [dot] or [dot] at, more details on the workshop are at
http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/laboratory_control_budapest_2012
EFSA publishes calls for tenders for all its procurement needs – services, goods, works or for the purchase or rental of a building.
Calls for tenders planned for launch in 2012 under EFSA‘s Annual Work Programme for Science Procurement Projects have been published on 8 February 2012. Several topics are relevant to food safety, food security and nutrition.
For details use the following link: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/procurement/tenders.htm
UNIDO, with its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, is looking for an analytical chemist and a microbiology expert in the fisheries sector. The chemistry expert must have experience in AAS as well as in LCMSMS / GCMS methods. The microbiologist expert must have experience in Real Time PCR and other standard methods applicable in the fisheries sector.
The aim of the assignments is to guide the analysts of the Bangladesh FIQC in getting accreditation for these methods.
Interested? – Then please contact Karl Schebesta, Industrial Development Officer at UNIDO HQ, VIC, P-O. Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria, Tel: +43 1 26026 3490, Fax: +43 1 21346 3490; k [dot] schebesta [at] unido [dot] org.
Free Registration at EFSA-Austria-Norway Workshop at OECD on “Key Allergens and Compositional Analysis in the Allergenicity Assessment of Genetically Modified Plants”, 21 March 2012, Paris, France
Invited speakers from the prestigious MoniQA Network of Excellence are involved in the EFSA Workshop on allergenicity assessment of GM plants. MoniQA Association Members are offered free registration at this workshop. A limited number of places are available and thus the organizer may not be able to accommodate all registrations.
The draft programme and the Registration Form can be found at
http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/efsa_allergen_paris_2012.
Call for speakers for the EFSA-Austria-Norway Workshop at OECD on “Key Allergens and Compositional Analysis in the Allergenicity Assessment of Genetically Modified Plants”, 21 March 2012, Paris, France
MoniQA was asked by the organizers to propose speakers for two topics to be presented at the EFSA Allergenicity Workshop in Paris
http://association.moniqa.org/workshops/efsa_allergen_paris_2012:
1) Biological variation of allergen concentration in (crop) plants (possibly also covering the issue of existing databases of plant allergen concentration)
2) Perspective of the food industry on allergenicity testing (introducing a perspective broader than GMO allergenicty testing)
Proposals may be sent to roland [dot] poms [at] icc [dot] or [dot] at or directly to Dr. Armin Spoek at spoek [at] ifz [dot] tugraz [dot] at no later than 16 February 2012!
Roland Poms, Secretary General of MoniQA Association will lecture on "Reference materials and method validation in food safety assurance" at BOKU - University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources, Vienna, Austria. Apart from enrolled MSc and PhD students, MoniQA members have access to a maximum of 10 places. If interested, please register by 25 February 2012 by email to roland [dot] poms [at] icc [dot] or [dot] at. Participation for MoniQA members is free, no support for travel and accommodation is available. The lectures, excursions and workshop activities are on 6 afternoons between 14:00-17:00 on February 27, 28, 29, and March 1, 8, 9).
The aim of the workshop on „Reference materials and method validation in food safety assurance” is to describe the issues and challenges involved in the international comparability and validity of analytical results in the assurance of food safety and quality. On the basis of practical examples the focus will be on current hot topics, such as mycotoxins, food allergens, pathogenic micro-organisms, GMOs, etc., the analytical possibilities (including rapid methods), and the corresponding regulations. Additionally, an overview of international standardization bodies and examples of international validation studies will be given.
Brussels, 13 February 2012 – The European Commission has today adopted a strategy to shift the European economy towards greater and more sustainable use of renewable resources. With the world population approaching 9 billion by 2050 and natural resources finite, Europe needs renewable biological resources for secure and healthy food and feed, as well as for materials, energy, and other products. The Commission's strategy and action plan, “Innovating for Sustainable Growth: a Bioeconomy for Europe”, outlines a coherent, cross-sectoral and inter-disciplinary approach to the issue. The goal is a more innovative and low-emissions economy, reconciling demands for sustainable agriculture and fisheries, food security, and the sustainable use of renewable biological resources for industrial purposes, while ensuring biodiversity and environmental protection. The plan therefore focuses on three key aspects: developing new technologies and processes for the bioeconomy; developing markets and competitiveness in bioeconomy sectors; and pushing policymakers and stakeholders to work more closely together.
The MoniQA NoE has just published its final newsletter which focuses on the MoniQA Association, the successor entity to the EU funded Network of Excellence. You can read the newsletter online at
http://www.moniqa.eu/newsletters/4.2/newsletter.html
or download the pdf at
http://www.moniqa.eu/newsletters/4.2/MoniQA-Newsletter-Issue4-2.pdf
More information:
Previous newsletters are available at
Mycotoxins are small (low-molecular weight) secondary metabolites (products of metabolism not essential for survival), produced by some filamentous fungi and often found in food. Chemically-diverse, they can cause disease and death to man and livestock. Adverse effects include tissue damage, immuno-suppression and neurological disorders following short- (acute) or long-term (chronic) exposure. In many countries, mycotoxin contamination is addressed by legislation. Successful management of mycotoxins is, however, effected thorough knowledge of their cause and implementation of appropriate control mechanisms, which are verified through use of reliable sampling and robust analytical methods. European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) data suggest that harmonisation of mycotoxin detection methods would improve compliance at regulatory and commercial limits.
Further Information on the MoniQA NoE Website:
(Vienna, 5 September 2011) The EU funded MoniQA project is a very successful Network of Excellence which involves experts from around the globe working for safer foods by harmonising worldwide food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies. With EU funding ending on 31 January 2012, the work will continue through the newly set-up MoniQA Association, membership of which is open to all organisations with a commitment to food safety and security.
The MoniQA Association is dedicated to international collaboration and research aimed at promoting a more secure and safer food supply, its activities include:
The Next Generation - Join Now!
The MoniQA Association is an international group of organisations dedicated to collaborative research aimed at promoting a more secure and safer food supply. Benefits for you include access to new expertise, insight into new markets, networking and interest representation, training and CPP and robust and validated information. The association is registered according to Austrian law.
For more information click on "about" and to join click here.
At a glance
Please find attached the most important documents about the MoniQA Association for download (PDF format).
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