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PARIS, 22 November 2022 – The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Coalition of Action on Food Safety, has today published a new set of papers, developed by the GFSI Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG), that covers key areas the STAG members believe will significantly impact food safety. The report is the first set of papers published by the STAG since it was launched in March 2021.
Four areas are covered by the papers. A lead author has written each paper with input and assessment from the other STAG members. Before publishing, each paper has been formally reviewed by a different independent group. The four areas and respective lead authors are:
- Big Data in Food Safety – Jeffrey Farber, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
- The role of the Microbiome in Food Safety – Kaye Burgess, Senior Research Officer and Principal Investigator, Teagasc Food Research Centre – Food Safety Department, Ireland
- Emerging Foodborne Pathogens – Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, Professor and Director, Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, USA
- Food System Resilience: Impacts on Food Safety – Robert Scharff, Professor and Consumer Sciences Graduate Studies Chair, Ohio State University, USA
David Crean, Chair of the Science and Technology Advisory Group, said, “These papers are essential reading if you are looking for an overview or introduction into these crucial areas of science and technology, allowing the food professional to understand why these areas are important, their scope and likely impact. We plan to follow this initial work by forming working groups to “deep dive” into these topics and produce more detailed outputs. Further subjects are also being discussed and other papers written”.
Critical to GFSI’s core purpose as a benchmarking and harmonisation organisation responsible for the ‘what’ – not the ‘how’ – of food safety, and to its Race to the Top Framework, is to have the right science and technical guidance. The STAG was introduced to GFSI in March 2021 as part of a series of collaborative enhancements to the GFSI governance and operations and assumes the critical responsibility to provide an expert and independent outlook on any science and technology developments that may impact GFSI’s food safety activities.
Erica Sheward, GFSI Director, The Consumer Goods Forum, said, “The establishment of the STAG was an exciting step in a series of transformational changes we made at GFSI to drive greater impact. I’m delighted David and the team have been hard at work since their formation looking at some of the critical topics food safety experts need to be exploring and have provided essential objective and independent analysis of those trends and developments. This work enables GFSI to be better prepared and is another useful resource as we look to deliver safe food for people everywhere”.
Click here to read the report.
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About the Global Food Safety Initiative
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 42 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. To learn more, visit www.mygfsi.com
For further information, contact Sarah Ménigault, Communications Officer, The Consumer Goods Forum: s.menigault@theconsumergoodsforum.com
