Contaminants and residues in foods to be tackled in 8th Fresenius conference

DORTMUND, Germany - The manifestation of contaminants in feed and food is versatile, whether they are dioxins in children’s food or foods that contain dangerous ester or fungal toxics. With each new finding and every critical substance identified the need to push on research and regulatory measures grows.

The state of affairs in the matter of EU-legislation as well as most recent scientific findings and industry experience will be presented and discussed by representatives of the European authorities, food inspection offices, of different European research facilities and by experts from the industry on the 8^th International Fresenius-Conference ‘Contaminants and Residues in Food’ from 22 to 23 April 2013 in Mainz (near Frankfurt)/Germany.
Besides the European strategy on the handling of contaminants in foodstuff, the conference will emphasize the role of the European Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in particular. The highlight speeches concerning single substances will include presentations about current and future developments in the field of acrylamide, pyrrolizidine alkaloids in milk and feed, about alternaria toxins and the significance of masked mycotoxins. Furthermore, the conference deals with fusarin C and cadmium in food, contaminated food for children and EFSA's risk assessment on ergot alkaloids. An update on
MCPD- and glycidyl ester in food will also be provided. In the area of scientific approaches the applicability of the TTC-concept ("Threshold of Toxicological Concern") to chemicals in food will be a topic of discussion.

The conference will be conducted in English.

Amongst the speakers will be:
Alice Costa, The Association of the Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionary
Industries of Europe (CAOBISCO), Belgium
Peter Fürst, Chemical and Veterinary Analytical Institute
Münsterland-Emscher-Lippe, Germany
Hans-Ulrich Humpf, Münster University, Germany
Reinhard Matissek, Food Chemistry Institute (LCI) of the Association of the
German Confectionary Industry (BDSI)
Patrick Mulder, RIKILT Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Andrew Owen-Griffiths, European Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), Ireland
Josef Schlatter, (formerly) Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland
Dieter Schrenk, Kaiserslautern University, Germany
Richard Stadler, Nestlé, Switzerland
Frans Verstraete, European Commission

The complete conference programme can be found online at: www.akademie-fresenius.de