Presentation Abstract: Ed Mather
National Food Safety and Toxicology Center and National Alliance for Food Safety (NFSTC)
The National Food Safety and Toxicology Center believes that food safety programs must be based upon solid science. Five disciplines constitute a research core for a long-term focus of scientific effort. From that core emerges a series of problem solving or applied research needs. Most are for short term needs to be addressed in both pre- and post-harvest portions of the food chain.
The Center provides workshops and conferences in response to the needs of our stakeholders. Two conferences have been sponsored by the Center since its completion in 1998. The first conference on "Comparative Risk in Food Safety" was held in June of 1998 and a follow-up conference was held in July of 2000 on "Risk Communication in Food Safety". Papers from the first conference are found in the NFSTC website, http://foodsafe.msu.edu. Proceedings from the latter conference will be available on the website shortly.
An interesting and important activity at the NFSTC is the emergence of an active group of scientists who are addressing the social, communication and food law issues surrounding food safety. This group has shed light on how public policy is being formulated and how bench-scientists can and should be a part of such development.
The National Alliance for Food Safety (NAFS)
The National Alliance for Food Safety, headed by Dr. Lonnie King at Michigan State University, consists of 23 universities and three federal agencies. Its purpose is to coordinate the resources of these various institutions. For example, NAFS has created and posted a list of academic scientists who work in various areas of food safety. The NAFS will hold its annual meeting at Texas A&M on November 27&28, 2000. The new chairperson of the board of directors will be Dr. Elsa Murano.
