“The Complexity of the International Food Trade Network.”
Posted on | September 13, 2015 | No Comments
Professor Baranyi’s talk will be in the Friends Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane, Norwich NR2 1EW. The talk will be at 1pm on Friday 18th September 2015.
Dear Friends,
Our Speaker for September is Professor Jozef Baranyi from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich.
He joined the Institute of Food Research in 1990. As an internationally renowned bacteriologist, Professor Baranyi is well-placed to tell us of the problems that lie in preventing food poisoning outbreaks in a world food trading system probably designed more for profit than for health. He will have suggestions to make about how the UN can help to reorganise the food trade on a safer and more secure basis.
The title of Professor Baranyi’s talk is : “The Complexity of the International Food Trade Network.”
With demand for food to increase by 50% by 2030, the current global food distribution system compromises food tracebility, which has an impact on its chemical and microbiological safety.
During a food poisoning outbreak, the first and most important task is to identify the origin of the contamination. Delays in this task can have severe consequences for the health of the population and incur social, political and economical damages with international repercussions. However, the International agro-Food Trade Network (IFTN) is less and less suitable to track the origin of food products. A case in point was the consequences of the three weeks delay in identifying the origin of the E. coli contamination in Germany in June 2011.
An interdisciplinary approach is needed to better understand the IFTN. Such an approach is entirely within the means of science and technology, if supported by detailed and systematic data to monitor and control food flows. The issue no longer affecting just single countries, but the global livelihood of the human population. International organisations, such as the United Nations and the European Union, are essential to the efforts to collect and monitor data on the food trade networks.
Friday 18th September is also our Branch’s AGM. The AGM will start at 12.30 sharp and will finish in time for the talk at 1pm.
Hope to see you there.
best wishes,
Marguerite
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