Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Bill Marler
Washington State University, USA
Keynote: Food safety lawsuits in the United States – A 25 year perspective
Time : 09:00-09:45
Biography:
Bill Marler had accomplished attorney and national expert in food safety, William (Bill) Marler has become the most prominent foodborne illness lawyer in America and a major force in food policy in the U.S. and around the world. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused life altering injury and even death.
Abstract:
A 25-year overview of some of the largest Food Safety Lawsuits in the United States. Hear about how the outbreaks began and the impacts on the victims and the companies. Learn what companies and the government have over-time done to prevent outbreaks in the United States and the impact around the world.
Keynote Forum
Lingwen Zeng
Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
Keynote: Electrochemical instrument for food safety
Biography:
Lingwen Zeng received his PhD degree in Genetics from McMaster University, Canada in 1993 and his Postdoctoral training from The University of Chicago, USA. He worked in three publicly traded companies (Quest Diagnostics Inc, Scios Inc, and Genetics Computer Group Inc) in USA as a Research Scientist and a Project Manager. Currently, he serves as a Principle Investigator in Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director in the Institute of Environment and Safety, Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. His research focuses on exploring novel molecular diagnostic technologies for human diseases, food and environmental safety.
Abstract:
Food safety has been an increasing public concern worldwide, and rapid detection technologies for contaminants in food and agricultural products are of crucial importance to food safety. In the past few decades, various instruments based on optics, electrochemistry and acoustics have been exploited for food analysis. Despite much progress has been made, many of them are either too expensive, or inconvenient, or inaccurate, or too complicated for operation. Herein, there has been an increasing demand for developing highly efficient, reliable, and cost-effective instruments for rapid and on-line analysis. With this regard, considering simple fabrication, disposability and portability of screen- printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs), we have developed a series detection methods based electrochemistry. First, a portable electrochemical device capable of detecting and identifying heavy metals has been developed. With the square wave pulse anodic stripping voltammetry, this instrument can successfully achieve highly sensitive detection of seven different heavy metals (including copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, chromium, mercury and arsenic) in a variety foods including rice, vegetables, fish. Secondly, pesticide residue analysis in fruit and vegetables have been developed based on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme modified SPCE. Other work such as detection of illegal additives, animal drug residues and pathogens are also being investigated. It is evident that SPCEs based electrochemical instruments would play a very important role in food safety analysis and environmental monitoring.
Keynote Forum
Teri Slack
Plexense – Innovative Biotech Solutions, USA
Keynote: ACCEL ELISA for highly sensitive, rapid and convenient detection of contaminants in food
Biography:
Teri J Slack has earned her PhD in Organic Chemistry from UC Davis before joining the team at Plexense, Inc. She now leads the Business Development Efforts in the United States for Plexense located in Davis, California. Her passion lies in making a positive impact on the food and agricultural sector with simple and sensitive detection tools developed to ensure public access to healthy, uncontaminated food.
Abstract:
Antibiotics, mycotoxins, pesticides and plant pathogens are small molecules that can contaminate food and pose long term health risks. International guidelines recommending the maximum concentration of contaminants in food has been set by the codex alimentarius commission (CAC) and is adopted by many nations. Timely detection and removal of these contaminants can greatly reduce health risks and prevent shipments of food being rejected and discarded. However, detection of small molecule contamination with conventional methods such as mass spectrometry (MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are costly and time consuming. Plexense has developed ACCEL ELISA, a detection method based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technology that outperforms conventional methods. ACCEL ELISA is a proprietary platform combined with unique surface chemistry and reagent formulation. ACCEL ELISA yields reliable results with up to 100x the sensitivity within 15 to 45 minutes of reaction time. Detection methods for a wide range of applications are available to reliably screen for proteins and small molecules. ACCEL ELISA is especially useful in food safety applications with optimized reagents for mycotoxin, residual antibiotics and pesticide screening.