11/02/2010

On 10 February 2009 Roberto Sabrido, President of AESAN, presented the workshop titled “Science Supporting Risk Surveillance of Imports”, organised by the European Food Safety Authority in Seville. Also present, along with the AESAN President, were Catherine Geslain-Lanéellle, Executive President of the European Food Safety Authority, which organised the meeting in Spain to mark the Spanish Presidency, and the Executive Director of AESAN, Ana María Troncoso. At this meeting, EFSA invited various international organisations to analyse methods and techniques for evaluating the risks associated with foodstuffs imported through European inspection posts.

Speakers during the first session included Valerie Baduel, of AFSSA (French Food Safety Agency) and Howard Pharo, from the Risk Analysis Group MAF Bio security New Zealand. Then a debate followed. The session titled ‘Current Systems for Identification of Risks Related to Imports: Data needs’ was led by Riitta Maijala, and included contributions from Alan MacLeod, of the European Plant Protection Agency Panel on PRA Development and Jan Planovsky, the EUROSTAT Head of International Trade-Production (G5).

The evening session, coordinated by Hubert Deluyker and titled ‘Currently applied methods for Import Risk Assessment’, included contributions from Piotr Robouch, from the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), of the Joint Research Centre (JRC); Didier Verloo, EFSA-AMU /BIOHAZ-AMU WG and Glenn Fowler, from NAPPFAST.

The final session, titled ‘New Scientific Developments in Import Risk Assessment: Examples’, also coordinated by Hubert Deluyker, included contributions from Peter Fürst, from Germany’s Chemical and Veterinary Analytical Institute (CVUA-MEL); EJ Peeler, of the Hull International Fisheries Institute (HIFI); Peter Bonants, Coordinator of the Plant Research International BV QBOL project and Declan P. Naughton, from the Kingston University Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Group.