The Committee on Food and Chemical Safety promotes a science-based determination of the chemical safety of foods to support the advancement of public health.
How this committee operates:
The Food and Chemical Safety Committee focuses on many different issues related to the safety of the food supply. To deliver output and impact, the committee works in subgroups focused on specific areas of food and chemical safety. Explore the work of the Committees below.
Areas of Work
Food allergies affect a significant number of children and adults in the US and globally. Potential exposure to food allergens is currently communicated using ambiguous, unhelpful statements such as “may contain” or “packaged in a facility that also processes”. The committee supported the first study of its kind to model peanut allergen dose-responses based on US clinical tests and estimate thresholds of peanut protein that trigger an adverse reaction. The use of allergen response thresholds has the potential to significantly improve food labeling with measurable benefits to allergic individuals (read the project description here and the publication here).
The Committee was a co-sponsor of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Finding a Path to Safety in Food Allergy.
- New Approach Methodologies (NAMs): Risk assessments of some food substances have been shifting to adopt high-throughput, non-animal method strategies for demonstrating safety. These methods, along with new in vitro, in silico and powerful computer modeling tools, are called NAMs. IAFNS efforts focus on available safety assessments of food substances to identify classes of food substances that have leveraged NAMs data to support a regulatory approval. This would include a review of safety determinations by the U.S. FDA in its publicly available GRAS database, as well as those from the European Food Safety Authority.
- Evidence-Based Assessment of Potential Carcinogens in Human Diets: Risk assessment of chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic in humans often relies on extrapolation from bioassays. There is a growing belief in the scientific community that evidence-based risk assessment can replace historical approaches. This project will first categorize potential exposure and mode of action scenarios and then be followed by the development of a framework based on sectoral examples.
- Exposure Assessment for Food Contaminants Through Implementation of Probabilistic Modeling: Toxicological exposure assessments generally rely on deterministic approaches utilizing conservative inputs. Probabilistic assessments can refine deterministic assessments and better account for exposure variability and uncertainty. This project will analyze the current state of exposure modeling by regulatory agencies and highlight the value of integrating probabilistic exposure assessments into regulatory frameworks. It will also address factors that hinder adoption of probabilistic exposure models.
- New Methodologies for Tiered Risk Assessment Using The RISK21 Approach: Programs such ToxCast have generated large amounts of in vitro high‒throughput screening (HTS) data while leaving a gap for best approaches for interpretation and use of this data. To fill this gap, case studies were conducted on two indirect food additive chemicals: sodium (2-pyridylthio)-N-oxide and dibutyltin dichloride. This work highlights the potential utility of the RISK21 approach for interpretation of the ToxCast HTS data, as well as the challenges involved in integrating in vitro HTS data into safety assessments. Access the full publication
Deoxynivalenol (DON), a mycotoxin that infects cereal grains, causes adverse gastrointestinal immunotoxic effects. A recent study examined the impact of recent Codex guidelines on maximum allowable DON levels on global wheat trade and potential global health effects. Stricter DON standards drive developing nations to export their best quality grains and keep more heavily contaminated foods for domestic consumption, resulting in higher mycotoxin exposure. As such, the guidelines may lead to unintended negative health outcomes in developing nations.
Access publications below:
- Risk Assessment of DON exposure in wheat
- Risk-Based Approach to Mycotoxin Mitigation
- Global What Trade and Codex Guidelines for DON
- A Framework for Heavy Metal Exposure Reduction in Human Diets -- Heavy metals (also referred to as toxic elements) such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are widely present in the environment due to natural occurrence (e.g., in agricultural soils) and anthropomorphic activities. Heavy metals can sometimes unavoidably enter the food supply from various routes such as soil, water and air, as well as agricultural practices. Aligned with FDA’s ‘Closer to Zero’ initiative for reducing toxic elements in foods for babies and infants, the committee has launched two complementary research projects that aim to develop a framework for reducing exposure to heavy metals in foods. Framework elements will include metal/commodity prioritization, concentration ranges, exposure assessments, agricultural practices, and current and future mitigation options along the production and supply chains.
- Review of Regulatory Reference Values and Background Levels for Heavy Metals in the Human Diet -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified dietary exposure to heavy metals as a public health concern, focusing particularly on arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. One way to assess exposure risk is to compare established safe exposure limits (reference values) with current population-based dietary background levels. In a recent paper, information on reference values and dietary background exposure were quickly evaluated and updated. These new regulatory and consumption levels inform a novel, interactive, web-based tool that can be used for screening-level assessments of potential risks of heavy metals in foods and ingredients.
- Metal Dietary Exposure Screening Tool (MDEST) -- This tool is "designed to be used by risk assessors/managers to rapidly evaluate potential public health risk when confronted with the detection of select heavy metals in foods and food ingredients." The heavy metals of interest are arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury. The Committee prioritized the development of a heavy metal screening tool to provide additional context of risk to exposure of five heavy metals found in raw food ingredients. It is important to note, this tool is only one part of a comprehensive decision making process. The tool as well as related case studies and a manuscript are available here.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Abbott Nutrition
ADM
Cargill, Incorporated
Campbell Soup
Conagra Brands
General Mills, Inc.
The Hershey Company
International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.
Keurig Dr Pepper
Kraft Heinz Company
Mondelēz International
ACADEMIC ADVISOR
Norbert Kaminski, PhD, Michigan State University
GOVERNMENT LIAISONS
Suzanne Fitzpatrick, PhD, DABT
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Randolph Duverna, PhD
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food Safety & Inspection Service Office of Public Health Service
Katie Weyrauch
U.S Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Louis D'Amico, PhD
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development
Projects Supported by the Committee:
Publications
Publication Date
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Events
2021
IAFP 2021 Annual Meeting
July 18, 2021 – July 21, 2021
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe.
IAFNS 2021 Annual Meeting Session 3
June 16, 2021
Virtual, Event
New Innovations in Food Allergy Testing and Patient Care.
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'_ilsi_date' AND mt2.meta_value BETWEEN '2021-01-01' AND '2021-12-31' ) AND ( mt3.meta_key = '_ilsi_date' AND mt3.meta_value < '2021-12-31' ) ) ) AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'event' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled'))) GROUP BY wp_posts.ID ORDER BY wp_postmeta.meta_value DESC LIMIT 0, 5 [posts] => Array ( [0] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 25257 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2021-04-16 14:03:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-04-16 14:03:27 [post_content] =>Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe.
This year, IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee and Food Microbiology Committee are supporting the four sessions at the IAFP Annual Meeting.
Progressing Allergen Risk Management: Thresholds and Quantitative Risk Assessment ExpandJuly 21, 2021, 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM ET
Food allergies constitute a significant public health issue that affects approximately 32 million Americans. The Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) reports a 377% increase in the diagnosis of anaphylactic food reactions between 2007 and 2016. Although research is ongoing for therapeutics, the primary management for food-allergic consumers is strict dietary avoidance. Food choices, however, may be limited for these consumers because of widespread and inconsistent use of precautionary allergen labeling (e.g., statements such as may contain). The concept of reference doses based on a threshold effect is routinely used in public health risk assessment to inform the approach to risk management. For food allergens, dose response modeling of clinical data from oral food challenges in food-allergic individuals has the potential to inform allergen risk management decisions and drive consistency in allergen labeling. This session will explore the current understanding and application of reference doses for food allergens (derived from the modeling of individual thresholds) and consider what information and tools are needed to progress toward reliable allergen risk assessment and management decisions.
Bayesian Hierarchical Evaluation of Dose-Response for Peanut Allergy in Clinical Trial Screening
Lynne Haber, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH Occurrence of Allergens in Pre-Packaged Foods in Conjunction with the Use of Precautionary Labeling in Canada: Learnings and Future Directions
Samuel Godefroy, Université Laval, Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Quebec City, QC, Canada Practical Applications of Quantitative Risk Assessment of Allergens
Benjamin Remington, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.
Developing Atmospheric Cold Plasma as a Nonthermal Food Safety Tool ExpandJuly 21, 2021, 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM ET
Cold plasma is an emerging technology proposed as a nonthermal process to reduce food safety risks on a variety of foods. Atmospheric cold plasma has a benefit in that it can be applied to packaged foods to reduce surface contaminants such as Salmonella or STEC on fresh fruits and vegetables or L. monocytogenes on high-moisture cheeses. This symposium will present an overview of the technology, examples of inactivating microbes as well as demonstrating it as a novel approach to reduce the presence of mycotoxins on grains. Results from validation studies will be presented and challenges to commercialization will be addressed.
Featured Speakers:
Introduction to Technology, Barriers to Commercialization, Regulatory Approval/Worker Safety
Brendan Niemira, PhD, USDA Agricultural Research Service Case Study: Inactivation of Aflatoxin/Grains
Kevin Keener, PhD, University of Guelph Case Study: Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes in Soft Cheese
Melha Mellata, PhD, Iowa State University Case Study: From Bench to Prototype for Fresh Produce Safety
Paula Bourke, PhD, University College DublinThis event is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Advances in Powdered Food Safety and Quality Sampling Plans: Theory, Simulation and Practice ExpandJuly 19, 2021, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET
Powdered products are burdened by low-prevalence, low-level contamination that is typically heterogeneously distributed. Multiple commodities and products could benefit from improved management of these risks as evidenced by outbreaks of foodborne disease linked to dairy powders, wheat and nut flours, and powdered infant formula. This session will focus on advances in powder sampling and provide depth in one well-studied commodity, dairy powder, upon which other commodities may draw analogous lessons.
As manufacturers supply domestic and global markets, they must continue to manage rare microbiological contamination with foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, chemical contamination with mycotoxins such as aflatoxin, and meet increasingly stringent customer quality requirements for indicator and spore counts, to ensure product compliance with regulatory standards. While product testing is one fundamental component of food safety and quality management, traditional best practices like ICMSF-style manual N60 grab sampling is underpowered when those hazards are at low prevalence and level. Modern technologies like autosamplers provide opportunities to improve practice by automating the process of sample collection. This opens the possibility to take many more, smaller samples with complex stratification and true randomness.
Currently, the food industry is needing improvements in practices to meet safety and quality challenges. This session meets that need by addressing knowledge gaps around the benefits of improved sampling plans, technologies and implementation strategies, using dairy powders as an example case. The session will start with a speaker presenting recent statistical theory modelling powder sampling to define the performance of traditional grab compared to auto sampling approaches. The next speaker will present work simulating dairy powder sampling to better define the variability of sampling plans when applied to specific production and hazard scenarios. Finally, we will hear from an industry speaker providing perspective on the value and practicality of getting this done in a multinational company.
Modelling the Effect of Sampling Methods on Detection Tests for Powdered Products
Roger Kissling, Fonterra Simulating Production and Hazard Scenarios in Powdered Product Sampling to Improve Food Safety Sampling Plans
Matthew J. Stasiewicz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Industry Need and Role for Improved Sampling of Powdered Products
Pamela Wilger, Cargill
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Emergency Use of Microbial Methods of Detection by Industry - Alternative Routes Proving Fit for Purpose Expand
July 20, 2021, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET
The food safety industry must ensure analytical methods designed to detect hazards are fit-for-purpose for their specific commodities. Meanwhile, the food industry is developing hundreds of new ingredients and products that will require screening for microbial hazards. With the ever-expanding diversity of these food products, what happens when a testing laboratory is presented with an urgent request for testing a matrix that was not included in the method's original validation study? The laboratory is asked to deviate from the intended use of the method by testing a different matrix or a different test portion size.
This situation can occur when a food manufacturer requires a faster turn-around time for product release than their standard method allows, when there is a sudden issue with the performance of a rapid test kit, or if a test kits from the manufacturer are backordered. Do these situations constitute an emergency? Arguably, this upset in product distribution could constitute an emergency in terms of the supply chain which is already under stress due to pandemic disruptions - with real effects on consumer well-being and the economy.
This roundtable will consider the key components required for a matrix validation and acceptable strategies for matrix validation that can be used in emergency situations. What approaches will allow expediency while assuring that the method is fit for purpose?
View Resources and Verification Guidance Documents
Invited panel participants:
• Deann Akins-Lewenthal, ConAgra Brands
• Patrick Bird, Technical Consultant, AOAC INTERNATIONAL
• Megan Brown, Eurofins
• Tom Hammack, US Food and Drug Administration
• Kelly Stevens, General Mills
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Learn more about the IAFP Annual Meeting.
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Scientists estimate that food allergies affect at least 32 million Americans, including approximately 6 million children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that food allergies in children have increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, with an even higher increase for peanut allergies. Recent years have seen significant advances in understanding of responses to food allergens such as the development of dose-response models that hold promise for developing more informative labels on food packaging. This session will highlight new research and innovations to enhance food allergen risk assessment and management. These include novel, safe methods for accurate diagnosis of food allergies and severity, and new initiatives for optimizing large-scale research trials and enhancing patient care.
The Current US Food Allergen Regulatory Landscape
Stefano Luccioli, MD
Senior Medical Advisor, Office of Food Additive Safety, FDA CFSAN The FARE Clinical Network: Advancing New Treatments and Preventive Therapies for Food Allergy Patients
Bruce Roberts, PhD
Chief Research Strategy and Innovation Officer, Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) Opening the Allergy Black Box: The Path to Risk-Free Challenge Testing
Paul Kearney, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, AllerGenisModerator:
Jason Hlywka, PhD
The Kraft Heinz Company
Continuing Education Hours: IAFNS is an approved Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CDR Credentialed Practitioners will receive 1.5 Continuing Professional Education units (CPEUs) for completion of this live session.
[post_title] => IAFNS 2021 Annual Meeting Session 3 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => iafns-2021-annual-meeting-session-3 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-17 03:47:55 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-17 03:47:55 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://iafns.org/?post_type=event&p=26346 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => event [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 2 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 25257 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2021-04-16 14:03:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-04-16 14:03:27 [post_content] =>Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe.
This year, IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee and Food Microbiology Committee are supporting the four sessions at the IAFP Annual Meeting.
Progressing Allergen Risk Management: Thresholds and Quantitative Risk Assessment ExpandJuly 21, 2021, 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM ET
Food allergies constitute a significant public health issue that affects approximately 32 million Americans. The Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) reports a 377% increase in the diagnosis of anaphylactic food reactions between 2007 and 2016. Although research is ongoing for therapeutics, the primary management for food-allergic consumers is strict dietary avoidance. Food choices, however, may be limited for these consumers because of widespread and inconsistent use of precautionary allergen labeling (e.g., statements such as may contain). The concept of reference doses based on a threshold effect is routinely used in public health risk assessment to inform the approach to risk management. For food allergens, dose response modeling of clinical data from oral food challenges in food-allergic individuals has the potential to inform allergen risk management decisions and drive consistency in allergen labeling. This session will explore the current understanding and application of reference doses for food allergens (derived from the modeling of individual thresholds) and consider what information and tools are needed to progress toward reliable allergen risk assessment and management decisions.
Bayesian Hierarchical Evaluation of Dose-Response for Peanut Allergy in Clinical Trial Screening
Lynne Haber, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH Occurrence of Allergens in Pre-Packaged Foods in Conjunction with the Use of Precautionary Labeling in Canada: Learnings and Future Directions
Samuel Godefroy, Université Laval, Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Quebec City, QC, Canada Practical Applications of Quantitative Risk Assessment of Allergens
Benjamin Remington, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.
Developing Atmospheric Cold Plasma as a Nonthermal Food Safety Tool ExpandJuly 21, 2021, 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM ET
Cold plasma is an emerging technology proposed as a nonthermal process to reduce food safety risks on a variety of foods. Atmospheric cold plasma has a benefit in that it can be applied to packaged foods to reduce surface contaminants such as Salmonella or STEC on fresh fruits and vegetables or L. monocytogenes on high-moisture cheeses. This symposium will present an overview of the technology, examples of inactivating microbes as well as demonstrating it as a novel approach to reduce the presence of mycotoxins on grains. Results from validation studies will be presented and challenges to commercialization will be addressed.
Featured Speakers:
Introduction to Technology, Barriers to Commercialization, Regulatory Approval/Worker Safety
Brendan Niemira, PhD, USDA Agricultural Research Service Case Study: Inactivation of Aflatoxin/Grains
Kevin Keener, PhD, University of Guelph Case Study: Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes in Soft Cheese
Melha Mellata, PhD, Iowa State University Case Study: From Bench to Prototype for Fresh Produce Safety
Paula Bourke, PhD, University College DublinThis event is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Advances in Powdered Food Safety and Quality Sampling Plans: Theory, Simulation and Practice ExpandJuly 19, 2021, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET
Powdered products are burdened by low-prevalence, low-level contamination that is typically heterogeneously distributed. Multiple commodities and products could benefit from improved management of these risks as evidenced by outbreaks of foodborne disease linked to dairy powders, wheat and nut flours, and powdered infant formula. This session will focus on advances in powder sampling and provide depth in one well-studied commodity, dairy powder, upon which other commodities may draw analogous lessons.
As manufacturers supply domestic and global markets, they must continue to manage rare microbiological contamination with foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, chemical contamination with mycotoxins such as aflatoxin, and meet increasingly stringent customer quality requirements for indicator and spore counts, to ensure product compliance with regulatory standards. While product testing is one fundamental component of food safety and quality management, traditional best practices like ICMSF-style manual N60 grab sampling is underpowered when those hazards are at low prevalence and level. Modern technologies like autosamplers provide opportunities to improve practice by automating the process of sample collection. This opens the possibility to take many more, smaller samples with complex stratification and true randomness.
Currently, the food industry is needing improvements in practices to meet safety and quality challenges. This session meets that need by addressing knowledge gaps around the benefits of improved sampling plans, technologies and implementation strategies, using dairy powders as an example case. The session will start with a speaker presenting recent statistical theory modelling powder sampling to define the performance of traditional grab compared to auto sampling approaches. The next speaker will present work simulating dairy powder sampling to better define the variability of sampling plans when applied to specific production and hazard scenarios. Finally, we will hear from an industry speaker providing perspective on the value and practicality of getting this done in a multinational company.
Modelling the Effect of Sampling Methods on Detection Tests for Powdered Products
Roger Kissling, Fonterra Simulating Production and Hazard Scenarios in Powdered Product Sampling to Improve Food Safety Sampling Plans
Matthew J. Stasiewicz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Industry Need and Role for Improved Sampling of Powdered Products
Pamela Wilger, Cargill
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Emergency Use of Microbial Methods of Detection by Industry - Alternative Routes Proving Fit for Purpose Expand
July 20, 2021, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET
The food safety industry must ensure analytical methods designed to detect hazards are fit-for-purpose for their specific commodities. Meanwhile, the food industry is developing hundreds of new ingredients and products that will require screening for microbial hazards. With the ever-expanding diversity of these food products, what happens when a testing laboratory is presented with an urgent request for testing a matrix that was not included in the method's original validation study? The laboratory is asked to deviate from the intended use of the method by testing a different matrix or a different test portion size.
This situation can occur when a food manufacturer requires a faster turn-around time for product release than their standard method allows, when there is a sudden issue with the performance of a rapid test kit, or if a test kits from the manufacturer are backordered. Do these situations constitute an emergency? Arguably, this upset in product distribution could constitute an emergency in terms of the supply chain which is already under stress due to pandemic disruptions - with real effects on consumer well-being and the economy.
This roundtable will consider the key components required for a matrix validation and acceptable strategies for matrix validation that can be used in emergency situations. What approaches will allow expediency while assuring that the method is fit for purpose?
View Resources and Verification Guidance Documents
Invited panel participants:
• Deann Akins-Lewenthal, ConAgra Brands
• Patrick Bird, Technical Consultant, AOAC INTERNATIONAL
• Megan Brown, Eurofins
• Tom Hammack, US Food and Drug Administration
• Kelly Stevens, General Mills
This session is supported by the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.
Learn more about the IAFP Annual Meeting.
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