The Second Global Meeting of the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN)
Introduction:
The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) is pleased to host and sponsor the Second Global Meeting of the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN), to be held from 9-11 December 2019 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
ADAFSA believes in the importance of INFOSAN to ensure food safety at the international level. As a global network, most interactions among members occur electronically or by telephone and the whole network has only ever joined together once before when ADAFSA hosted and sponsored the first global meeting which was held in Abu Dhabi nearly 10 years ago.
The second global meeting will provide an opportunity for INFOSAN members to discuss progress, challenges and opportunities to strengthen the network and protect the global food supply as we work towards strengthening this global community of practice and lowering the global burden of foodborne diseases.
This important meeting will be running in parallel to the 10th anniversary of SIAL Middle East 2019. SIAL Middle East is a food innovation exhibition being held under the patronage of H. H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority. As both events are organized within the ADNEC, INFOSAN members may enjoy attending many of the exhibits of SIAL Middle East which are aimed at defining innovation in the food, beverage and hospitality industry.
# Registered participants: 180+ # Countries represented: 120+
Meeting objectives:
- 1. Provide a global overview of INFOSAN to highlight progress and challenges faced during the past 15+ years.
- 2. Ensure participants have a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities as INFOSAN Members and the obligations under the International Health Regulations (2005).
- 3. Illustrate the important links between INFOSAN and other regional networks and discuss ways to improve collaboration across sectors and between programs to strengthen the various initiatives to better manage food safety events.
- 4. Provide opportunities for regional break-out sessions for participants to engage in facilitated discussion to identify regional-specific challenges and solutions for enhancing participation in INFOSAN.
- 5. Provide a forum for members to share their experiences and tested solutions with respect to identifying emerging foodborne hazards and assessing food safety risks; interacting across sectors and between institutions nationally and internationally.
- 6. Deliver a series of high-level technical sessions on new developments and challenges around food safety.
- 7. Provide an opportunity to share initial experiences on current and emerging challenges for food safety managers such as but not limited to handling food frauds, regulating and tracing back products from online trade, use of whole genome and next generation sequencing data in outbreak investigation, modern risk assessment and risk management, prevention and management of antimicrobial resistance, and others.
- 8. Inspire innovative actions to tackle upcoming food safety challenges which will be faced in the coming decade.
Expected outcomes:
- 1. Increased number of active INFOSAN Members with a strengthened sense of a trusted community and willingness to collaborate and share information during food safety emergencies.
- 2. Increased understanding of INFOSAN members' roles and responsibilities and interaction with other networks, including their counterparts in health (i.e. National IHR Focal Points) and agriculture/animal production.
- 3. Practical recommendations for the on-going improvement of the INFOSAN Community Website and other procedures within INFOSAN to facilitate communication and a more efficient management of food safety events.
- 4. Raised awareness about emerging food safety issues of global significance and description of recently developed tools/methods to tackle such problems.
- 5. New perspectives on communication during food safety event management in an increasingly connected world.
- 6. Sharpened understanding of the use of risk assessment and risk management and the potential benefit of big data, artificial intelligence and whole genome sequencing data for improved investigation of outbreaks and sporadic cases of foodborne diseases.
- 7. Increased international recognition of INFOSAN as the global environment for the management of food emergencies and recognition of the INFOSAN Global Meetings as a trusted and unique forum for food safety managers for exchanges and decisions.
Acknowledgements: The INFOSAN Secretariat would like to express gratitude and appreciation to all of our partners and donors for their generous financial and in-kind contributions which enable INFOSAN to continue operating.