11th Dubai International Food Safety Conference to discuss trending technologies

Dubai : The 11th Dubai International Conference on Food Safety, which will be held from 19 to 21 November 2017, will discuss trending technologies such as Artificial Intelligence; Big Data, IoT Devices and their uses in food safety.

The conference, which be held at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, is organized by the Food Safety Department of Dubai Municipality with support from the International Association for Food Protection, International Union of Food Science and Technology and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Food safety experts and professionals from around the world will review, over three days, the most important smart solutions, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and electronic sensing tools, to take advantage of all these techniques to find innovative solutions to the challenges to food safety at the international level, and discuss how regulatory authorities can use these techniques to adopt the required food safety measures.

Announcing the launch of the conference, Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Municipality, said that this year's conference coincides with the launch of the vision of the future by the Government of Dubai (10X) and other initiatives that support the emirate's drive to make Dubai a unique destination of progress and development.

"Therefore, the theme of this year's conference is: Predict...Prevent...Protect. The topics of the conference will focus on the application of forecasting, tracking and pro-preventive measures that benefit from modern food safety techniques in light of the enormous information revolution that has taken place all over the world," he said.

Lootah said that the past ten sessions of Dubai International Conference on Food Safety have witnessed significant development in all aspects of the conference in terms of the number of attendees and the variety of programs and events associated with the conference.

He said that the conference has become a platform to provide solutions to the challenges facing food safety at regional and international levels thanks to the distinguished constellation of experts and specialists participating in the conference, as well as the smart partnerships that have been developed between the Municipality and many local, regional and international players involved in food safety and nutrition.

Lootah added that the conference is a great opportunity to activate the role of the media on the various aspects of food safety, in particular how media deals with food-related rumors by focusing on professionalism away from the press excitement.

"There will be a special session on the role of media in food safety and nutrition. The star journalists, broadcasters, television program presenters and social media activists will be invited to this session," he said and hoped that this distinguished media session will achieve the desired objectives in determining the different roles of regulators, media and the public alike.

Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, Assistant Director General for Environment, Health and Safety Control Sector, said that while looking at technology and data driven systems as enablers, the conference will, as every year, bring to the room the latest trends and challenges in the more fundamental aspects of food safety, including approaches to food inspections and audits, microbiological and chemical risk assessment, and the human behavioral aspects of food safety management.

"We are sure that the programs of the conference will help all those involved in the development, implementation and maintenance of food safety programs as they are designed for food safety professionals from the food industry, regulatory authorities, policy makers and academic institutions and students," he said.

Al Awadhi said that the conference is also an opportunity to reiterate Dubai Municipality's partnership with universities and its role in sponsoring young students and researchers by preparing programs for students and researchers to equip universities and students for the next generation of modern technologies in the field of food safety and nutrition.

He said that this year's events will include - for the fifth year in a row - a specialized program in Arabic to keep abreast of the best practices and concepts in the field of food safety and nutrition. "The Arabic program will include two seminars, the first one will be on the role of media in food safety and nutrition and the second seminar will focus on smart food tracking, where best practices from the private sector will be reviewed, as well as the role of early warning systems in enhancing food safety," said Al Awadhi.

Noura Al Shamsi, Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the Conference said that more than 2,500 participants are expected to attend this year, representing more than 55 nationalities from various food-related entities such as regulatory authorities, universities and research centers, food companies and civil society organizations.

"Various workshops, technical sessions, and poster presentations during the conference will feature more than 200 presenters from all across the globe. A specialized exhibition is also being organized on the sidelines of the conference, which will showcase integrated solutions for food safety by various companies working in the field of Information Technology and electronic and smart solutions. Food regulatory authorities, food testing laboratories, food training and consulting companies will also participate in the exhibition," she said.

"In this year's conference we aim to focus on timely and trending topics that will address the opportunities and challenges in the emerging technology and data-driven food safety world. To list a few, the use of Whole Genome Sequencing to track outbreaks, the use of IoT (Internet of Things) devices to ensure accurate process monitoring and decision making, use of smart mobile devices to connect us with a network of humans and machines with back-end applications that can manage and analyse data for action in real time," said Al Shamsi.

Topics of discussion in the conference also include Data Science, Food Additives, HACCP, TACCP, Social Media and Risk Communication, Microbial Risk Assessment, Predictive Microbiology, Food Traceability, DNA Barcoding, Microbiological Shelf Life, Food Inspection and Auditing, Cleaning and Disinfection, Pest Management, Pesticide Residues, Antimicrobial Resistance, Food Safety Culture, Vision Expo 2020, Packaging Technology, Food Banks, Food Sustainability, Applied Nutrition and Food in Schools.

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