Focus on food safety at Fresenius conference

DORTMUND and MAINZ, Germany -- There is an increasing demand for international research and risk management approaches in order to ensure a safer global food supply. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) maintains close working contacts with food agencies and organisations in the European Union in different parts of the world.

Risk assessment, regulatory aspects and exposure assessment -- these are the core topics of the 10th International Fresenius Conference on "Food Safety and Dietary Risk Assessment" taking place in Mainz (near Frankfurt/Main, Germany) from 28 to 29 February 2012.

The conference will deal primarily with risk assessment for pesticide residues in food and regulatory testing procedures. The experts will discuss the risk perception of consumers and consequences for industry and policy makers as well as ways to improve risk communication. Also on the agenda: the progress on the review of the existing European Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) according to Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005.

The speakers will give an update on the short term intake models used by the international expert scientific group Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR). Benefits and limitations of processing information in risk assessment will also be discussed.

Amongst the speakers are: