Fresenius conference tackles residues of FCM

From farm to fork, foodstuff gets in contact with materials like plastic, paper, gum or metal in one way or another, before being ingested. Every single one of these material contacts may cause a contamination or could have at least some kind of impact on the particular food. Because of that, all food contact materials (FCM) have to undergo extensive testing and assessments to assure their security for consumers.

New research results and legal developments in the area will constitute the two main topics on this year's International Fresenius Conference on "Residues of Food Contact Materials in Food" from 20 to 21 November 2013 in Cologne, Germany.

The conference will tackle the EU Update on Food Contact Materials and current activities by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It will also touch on the effects and legal consequences of specific materials like printing inks, mineral oil or recycling paper and will examine the risk assessment of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) and other migrants carefully. In this context the migration from nanoparticles will be a topic of discussion. It will also cover compliance with its general requirements and the actual implementation possibilities for FCM's.

The conference will be conducted in English.

Speakers:
- Katharina Adler, German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer
Protection (BMELV)
- Erik Becker, Institut Kirchhoff Berlin
- Fabien Bolle, Belgian Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP)
- Jonathan Briggs, Food Standards Agency (FSA)
- Laurence Castle, The Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA)
- Qasim Chaudhry, FERA
- Konrad Grob, Official Food Control Authority of the Canton of Zurich
- Thomas Gude, SQTS -  Swiss Quality Testing Services
- Antje Harling, Chemical State and National Veterinary Examination Office
(CVUA) Stuttgart
- Rüdiger Helling, Saxon State Laboratory for Public and Veterinary Health
- Claudia Heppner, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
- Mark S. Maier, Valspar Corporation
- Gregor McCombie, Official Food Authority of the Canton of Zurich
- Peter K.T. Oldring, Valspar Corporation
- Dieter Schrenk, University of Kaiserslautern
- Thomas Simat, University of Dresden
- Catherine Simoneau, EU Joint Research Centre (JRC)
- Lionel Spack, Nestlé Research Center
- Michael Trenker, Mayr-Melnhof Karton

The complete conference programme