Boecker, AUB partner on fostering food safety

MIDDLE East’s largest public health services provider Boecker^R and the Nutrition and Food Sciences department of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) have recently conducted a symposium to fight food safety threats in Lebanon.

The event, which was held in line with Boecker and AUB’s ongoing partnership and efforts to address food safety concerns in Lebanon, had the theme “New Trends in Food Safety and Updates on Latest Developments.” The theme was from The Institute of Food Safety Integrity and Protection (TIFSIP), an offshoot organisation from the globally reputed Chartered Institute of Environment Health (CIEH).

The symposium, which was held at the Charles Hostler Hall at AUB on March 16 and was attended by members of the academe, business, and food safety sectors, aimed to enable AUB students to join TIFSIP as privileged members.

TIFSIP membership will provide AUB students with special privileges such as unlimited access to the most important food safety resources. The students can also have direct interaction with TIFSIP experts. These will help advance their researches and careers whilst spreading better food safety standards in their respective countries.

According to Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences dean Dr Nahla Hwalla, “The ongoing series of food corruption scandals in Lebanon confirms our country’s needs for well-trained nutrition specialists, who are equipped to help in designing and enforcing world-class food safety rules, and monitoring restaurants and suppliers’ compliance with these regulations. The responsibility of training those specialists should be a common obligation between governments, food-focused companies, and academia.”

Boecker CEO Michel Bayoud acknowledges the importance of working with the academic sector, in particular with TIFSIP, in fostering understanding about food safety standards. Mr. Bayoud said, “We chose to work with AUB in light of its longstanding role and pioneer status in this field, as it was the first university to establish a dedicated department to teach Nutrition and Food Sciences in Lebanon and the region. The tie-up with TISFIP will bring a lot of benefits to AUB students, and will allow them to have unlimited access to scientific resources owned by the organisation which is part of the world-reputed CIEH. Our main objective remains to help our local academic institutions assisted by global expert establishments to improve researches and studies that will advance the creation of better processes and mechanisms in preserving food safety in Lebanon and the Middle East.”