Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Arpad Ambrus
National Food Chain Safety Office
Hungary
Keynote: Factors affecting the accuracy of measurements of pesticide residues and food contaminants
Time : 10:05:10:35
Biography:
Arpad Ambrus is an MSc in Chemical Engineering, CSc, Dr. Techn. and habilitated university professor. He is an IUPAC Fellow, member of the Food Safety Subcommittee of the Hungarian Academy of Science, JMPR FAO Panel (1973). He chairs the CCMAS, and supervises 6 PhD aspirants. He received the Silver Cross of Merit award, and the IUPAC International Award for Advances in Harmonized Approaches to Crop Protection Chemistry. He published over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers, managed the Hungarian Pesticide Analytical Laboratories, the pesticide programme of the FAO/IAEA Training and Reference Centre, teached at the Universities of Debrecen and Szeged, and retired from the National Food Chain Safety Office.
Abstract:
Unit to unit (beetween oranges) and within unit (peel and pulp) variability of pesticide residues result in inevitable variation of average residues in test portions taken from the comminuted laboratory sample for extraction. Sub-sampling of large crops (e.g. watermelon, jackfruit) will further increase the variability. The patchy distribution of mycotoxins in contaminated crops has the same effect at even larger magnitude. To obtain representative test portions of 2-25 g from 1 to 80 kg bulk laboratory sample is a very difficult and challanging task. Nonetheless, it is very rarely tested, though. Neither recovery nor proficiency tests provide information on the efficiency of sample size reduction and comminution of the laboratory sample. Particle size of comminuted material is critical for reducing the relative variability of analytes, expressed as coefficient of variation (CVSp), in the test portion. The relationship of CVSp, the mass of test portion, mTp and the the upper 95th percentile of the diameters of the particles, d, in the comminuted matrix is described by Gy’s sampling theory.
The efficiency of comminution of laboratory sample depends on the equipment, temperature of processing, type and maturity of sample materials, therefore it shall be verified as part of validation of methods and regularly tested during internal quality control of the determination of food contaminants. Test portion size can only be reduced if the combined uncertainty of the results remain acceptable. Examples for testing the efficiency of sub-sampling and comminution will be presented in the lecture.rn
Keynote Forum
Malcolm Elliott
Editor in Chief, Agriculture and Food Security
The Norman Borlaug Institute for Global Food Security,UK
Keynote: The 21st Century Challenge: to Feed 10 Billion People Safely and Sustainably
Time : 10:35-11:05
Biography:
Malcolm Elliott graduated with First Class Honours in Plant Sciences from The University of Wales in 1963. His PhD in Plant Biochemistry (1966) was followed by a period as a Fulbright Scholar and Research Staff Biologist at Yale University (1967-1969). He returned from the USA to the post of Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry at The University of Leicester (1969-1971), he became Professor and Head of The School of Life Sciences at De Montfort University, (1971-1994), Chairman of the College of Deans at De Montfort University (1989-1993) then Founding Director of The Norman Borlaug Institute for Global Food Security (1994 to 2011) and Editor in Chief of the BioMed Central open access journal Agriculture & Food Security (2011 to date). He is the author of several hundred research publications and has directed the Higher Degree programmes of more than fifty Graduate Students. He was honoured by the award of the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (1984), the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology (1989), the Charles University Medal (1992), the Gregor Mendel Gold Medal for Biological Sciences Research of Exceptional Merit (1993), the Jan Evangelista Purkyne Medal (1994) and the DSc (Honoris Causa) of the Bulgarian Academy of Agricultural Science (2006).
Abstract:
In 1970, when Norman Borlaug, “The Man Who Fed the World”, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, he observed that “Most people still fail to comprehend the magnitude and menace of ‘the population monster’. If the world’s population continues to increase at the estimated present rate of two per cent a year it will reach 6.5 billion by the year 2,000 unless man becomes more realistic about his impending doom”. He observed that “it is time that the tide of the battle against hunger was changed for the better - but ebb tide could soon set in if we become complacent”. The harsh reality of this warning was recognized in 2008 when the price of wheat and maize doubled and that of rice tripled, leading to food riots in twenty countries. The rate of increase of the world’s population has not been reduced and in October 2011 it reached 7 Billion of whom some 948 million were chronically malnourished. As the global population continues to rise we must confront the question “how will we feed 10 billion people safely and sustainably”. We will need to grow more food on less land, using less water, less labour and fewer agrochemicals while we confront global climate change and avoid further dramatic reductions of biodiversity. Norman Borlaug was in no doubt that the problems could be resolved so long as the whole range of scientific advances is deployed at the earliest opportunity. Borlaug was particularly concerned that the campaigns of “anti-science zealots” are causing the potential benefits of molecular approaches to crop and animal improvement to be missed. The regulations that are applied to food safety will be discussed with emphasis on these issues.
Keynote Forum
Kalanithi Nesaretnam
Minister, Embassy of Malaysia
Belgium
Keynote: Food safety, quality and environmental sustainability for palm oil
Time : 11:20-11:50
Biography:
Kalanithi Nesaretnam obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Reading, UK in 1996. She is currently a Minister at the Malaysian Embassy based in Brussels, Belgium. She is also the Regional Manager for the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) in Europe. She started her career at MPOB as a scientist studying the effects of palm oil and its phytonutrients in food, nutrition and health. She has a number of patents and several publications to her credit and is best known for her contribution to the field of research in tocotrienols and breast cancer. She was awarded the Gold Medal for excellence in research by MPOB in 2001 and won the prestigious World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Best Woman Inventor in 2006. She is well respected in the scientific community. She was a founding member of the Malaysian Chapter of the Society for Free Radical Research (SFRR) and is the Past-President for SFRR Asia. Prior to her current position, she was for six years, Director at MPOB in charge of the division covering sustainability. She has been instrumental in persuading the oil palm industry to adopt sustainable practices.
Abstract:
Palm oil is the world’s most traded vegetable oil. 85% of the oil is used for food. It is therefore imperative that the highest standards of food safety and quality be adopted. This high standard for food can only be achieved by an effective partnership between goverment regulators and producers. Oil palm plantations cover 16.4 million hectares worldwide which is only 0.3% of the world’s agricultural land. Nevertheless, oil palm has adopted environmental sustainability standards as a key driver. In Malaysia, oil palm cultivation has long advocated sustainable farming practices. The research and development activities engrained within the industry also ensure the industry remains a leader in the production of edible oil. The global market today is facing a potential crisis in terms of ensuring food security. The challenge is to produce and supply safe and nutritious food in a sustainable way for a growing population, which is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. While demand for food is rising, the amount of land suitable for food production is likely to be limited, mainly through pressures from other uses and climate change. This paper will address some of the steps being considered to overcome these challenges.
Keynote Forum
Jerzy Radecki
Polish Academy of Science
Poland
Keynote: Electrochemical detection of Avian Influenza Virus genotype using ssDNA probe modified gold electrodes
Time : 11:50 - 12:20
Biography:
Jerzy Radecki is a Professor of Analytical Chemistry, and is working as a Head of the Department of Biosensors of IARFR PAS in Olsztyn. His research interest concerns developing of new sensors and biosensors based on the intermolecular recognition processes occurring at the border of aqueous and organic phase. Particularly, he is interested in functionalization of surface of solid electrodes with “host” molecules, which are responsible for “guest” molecules (analytes) recognition. He is working on not only analytical aspects of developed sensors, but also on the elaboration of the mechanism of analytical signal generation.
Abstract:
Avian Influenza type H5N1 virus is not only extremely lethal to domestic fowl, but also constitute a threat to humans including mammals and can cause death. Therefore, the methods suitable for early and fast detection of the highly pathogenic forms of virus are much needed. The detection and analysis of specific DNA sequences become an important approach in molecular diagnosis. Here we report on electrochemical genosensors devoted for detection of virus H5N1 gene sequence. In this case the sensors based on ion-channel mechanism, ss-DNA probes conjugated with amino group were attached on the gold electrode via amide bond derived from thioacid. The signals generated as a result of hybridization were registered with Osteryoung square wave voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in the presence of [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- as a redox marker. To face the need of systems for simultaneous determination of few markers of one disease coming from medical diagnosis, we have developed a novel dual DNA electrochemical sensor with “signal-off“ and “signal-on“ architecture for simultaneous detection of two different sequences of DNA derived from H5N1 by means of one electrode. Two sequences of ssDNA characteristic for hemagglutinin decorated with ferrocene and characteristic for neuraminidase decorated with methylene blue were immobilized covalently together on the surface of 1 gold electrode. The detection limit in the fM range has been achieved with genosensors incorporated with ssDNA decorated with Co(II)-porphyrin, as well as with 3-iron bis (dicarbollide). The strategy based on dipyrromenthene Cu(II) redox active monolayer or phenanthroline – Epoxy - Fe(III) complexes have been also applied for the development of genosensors destined for detection of influenza viruses.
Keynote Forum
Nikos Mavroudis and Emmanouil Papaioannou
Northumbria University, UK
Keynote: Exposure to acute and long term harmful components of foods: Can advance separation processes offer a credible remedy?
Time : 12:20 - 12:50
Biography:
Nikos Mavroudis is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Food Science and leads the Laboratory of Food Engineering & Separation of Actives (FoESA) in the Dept. of Applied Sciences in Northumbria University at Newcastle. Previously, he was a Research Scientist and Project Leader for Unilever R&D for 9 years and has been responsible for developing the separation expertise within Unilever R&D Vlaardingen, the Netherlands. His research interests are focused on Food Security & Food Safety, particularly relevant is his interest on remediation using sutainable separation technologies, on bacterial flow cytometry and surface decontamination. He has published 10 research articles in peer review journals and 12 patents/patent filings and his work has attracted 351 citations excluding self-citations.
Abstract:
Harmful compounds such as biogenic amines, naturally appearing toxic compounds (e.g. cyanogenic glucosides, oxalates, allergens), heavy metal and herbicide residues are typical cases of harmful compounds given that could either harm human health follwoing a long term exposure or lead to acute cases of food poisoning. The present communication is discussing the possibilities of deploying advanced and sustainable separation processes for selective removal of contaminants from the food chain with particular emphasis on industrial chromatography.