Food Protection Trends - July/August 2017 - 238

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Linda J. Harris

This column will appear just as we
gather in Tampa, Florida for the IAFP 2017
Annual Meeting. IAFP staff are currently
busy with the final preparations for what
should be another outstanding conference.
I hope to see many of you, especially first
time attendees, at the Welcome Reception
Saturday and one or more of the Professional Development Group (PDG)
meetings on Sunday. I want to bring your
attention to two organizational meetings
for new PDGs - one for Food Safety Assessment, Audit and Inspection
and the other for Food Safety Culture. The question of PDG membership
often comes up. Any IAFP Member can join one or more PDGs. Students
are also encouraged to participate in the Student PDG as well as any
of the other PDGs. If you are not able to make the Sunday meetings, you
may join any PDG at any time by editing your membership profile after
you log into the IAFP Web site. Involvement in PDGs is an excellent
way to meet professionals with similar interests. Activities also occur
outside of the Annual Meeting through working groups, conference
calls, or webinars.
In my last column I mentioned the new Web site for our flagship
Journal of Food Protection "jfoodprotection.org" and I alerted you to
the new ways you could access articles through customized alerts,
open access articles (many current articles and all articles older than 5
years) and the release of upcoming "issues in progress." If you publish
in JFP or are considering submitting a manuscript to our journal, be
sure to check out some of the new author services including "Kudos"
and "Altmetrics." Also consider establishing an "ORCID" or persistent
digital identifier. All are new ways to communicate your research
and track the impact and reach of your work. More information can
be found on the Web site, and If you attend the Annual Meeting you
can access additional information there. We would love to have your
feedback on these new features.

In May, I had the privilege of working with Don Schaffner and
Kathy Glass to teach the 8th IAFP-sponsored Microbial Challenge
Testing for Foods Workshop in Chicago, IL. The course sold out again
this year which means we will be offering it again in the spring of 2018.
Contact Tamara Ford if you want to be notified when the 2018 course is
announced. It's a pleasure teaching this workshop - the experience and
background of my colleagues and that of attendees is stimulating and
each year I leave inspired. Thanks go to Tamara Ford for background
organization and making everything run smoothly.
Of course the conversation at the workshop included discussion
of some recent "novel" foodborne illness outbreaks - and speculation
on what could have gone wrong or more likely what multiple things
went wrong. Like many of you, each outbreak, especially those with
severe outcomes, both saddens me and reaffirms my commitment to
the food safety profession. As a researcher, I am motivated to generate
data that attempts to answer some of the how or why of things. As an
educator, I am motivated to communicate more often, more clearly,
and more effectively to those who need to put food safety best practices
into play. The experiences I have had over my career have convinced me
that to be most effective as a food safety professional I need to interact
with, listen to, and try to understand all of the players in the food
system - growers, processors, regulators, consumers, and academics
alike. Of course the IAFP mission "to provide food safety professionals
worldwide with a forum to exchange information on protecting the
food supply" helps facilitate that interaction.
I am passionate about this organization and its members and that
is why I am so honored to have served as President of the Association
over the past year. I have enjoyed the opportunity to meet many of you
from around the world and look forward to seeing or meeting those of
you able to come to Tampa. I thank outgoing Past President Alejandro
Mazzotta for all of his hard work - it has been a pleasure to serve on the
Executive Board with you. And I welcome our first incoming Secretary
from outside of North America, Roger Cook - I promise you it will be a
fantastic experience.

FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

David W. Tharp

It is always difficult to write about
an event as big as the IAFP Annual
Meeting before the event actually takes
place, but let me give it a try. It is more
difficult since every day brings something
new in the world of food safety, travel
(and international travel) and politics. I'll
keep away from the political discussions
and concentrate on what I know best, the
Annual Meeting.
So far, it looks like IAFP 2017 in
Tampa will be record setting in many ways. We have more exhibit
booths sold for this year than any year prior and look to have about
a 7% increase in total booths over 2016. There will be at least 37
new exhibitors this year; but we also need to recognize our longtime exhibitors. There are almost 50 exhibitors who have exhibited
with IAFP for more than 10 years including 10 who have exhibited
for 25 or more years. That type of continuous support of the Association is exceptional. It will be a great mix of new exhibitors and
long-time exhibitors, both of whom offer the latest and greatest in
cutting-edge technologies for food safety.

Linda mentioned the Professional Development Group (PDG)
meetings in her column above. The participation level in our PDG
meetings last year was unprecedented and it is expected to be bigger
this year in Tampa. We have planned for rooms with larger capacities
to accommodate this increased interest. As many people know, this
is the way to become involved in future symposium development.
The interaction at PDG meetings stimulates ideas for next year's
Annual Meeting leading to symposium proposals. We encourage
your active involvement in IAFP PDGs.
The program for IAFP 2017 is outstanding with more than 1,100
presentations over the three-day conference. Poster presentations,
technical (oral) presentations and symposia (including roundtable
formats) make up the eleven concurrent sessions. Since you cannot
be everywhere at one time, a majority of the oral presentations are
recorded for your later reference.
We are expecting a record number of attendees this year, but
as referenced in the first paragraph, many things can happen to affect our
final outcome. We hope that there are no "world events" that hinder our
Members' efforts to get to Tampa. We hope that weather does not cause
any travel troubles, too. Most of all, we hope that we see you in Tampa
to share your knowledge and experiences with others from around the
world in our food safety community. Safe travels.

238

Food Protection Trends July/August

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - July/August 2017