Food Protection Trends - July/August 2021 - 378

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT Roger Cook
Wow - halfway through 2021 already
and it seems that it was only yesterday
that my truncated term as IAFP President
began in abstentia at our first ever
virtual conference. And now it is about
to end, still in abstentia, at our first ever
hybrid-conference.
I have always been impressed with
David's team and the systems they put in
place to ensure that our annual scientific
conference is a perfectly planned and executed event. Just amazing!
So given the disruption of the last eighteen months and the four
extraordinary meetings they have had to plan and manage with formats
new to all, I really want to recognise these outstanding, members
of our whanau (Maori for family); flexible, agile, persistent
and resilient, not to mention great senses of humour " the best
medicine " (The Reader's Digest).
For those attending Phoenix in person, please give them all a hug and,
if you feel the urge, shout each their favorite tipple, and make their day.
Last week was a fun week IAFP-wise. Two earlyish morning video
conferences with the World and U.S. - huge thanks to Ben with
the FoodCoVNET webinar and Jason with the Florida Association
for Food Protection webinar series for inviting me to speak at a
reasonable New Zealand time - oh, how I missed visiting Florida.
We don't have pelicans, gators and airboats in New Zealand.
At the latter, I was asked if I had to choose one issue for us
to concentrate on going forward, what would it be? There was a
poignant pause; I call it a senior moment.
I am at this moment wrestling with a disseminated outbreak of 101
cases of gastroenteritis over two years for which there is an identified
genomically identical strain of pathogen but for which there is not an
epidemiological link. Despite the fantastic advances in genomics and
our ability to link cases, we still have two major gaps in our armoury.
The first is the ability to get robust dietary, purchasing and
behaviour information from patients - yes, we humans are terrible at
remembering these things the day after, let alone when WGS profiles
are linked, assuming we have isolates in these days of CIDT. I'll give
a chocolate fish to anyone who can come up with a means to collect
this information automatically without breaking privacy laws!
The second of which I spoke, is our ability to fully understand
pathways for contamination from a pathogen's primary reservoir
to human cases; one of which will be associated with your product.
Hand on heart that you rigourously look outside your fence and
immediate sphere of influence to identify what you need control of,
or assurances for. Capability and resource limitations lead us back
to inwards looking, so my challenge is to resist this and ALWAYS
look outwards. The best chocolate fish are on the other side of the
fence.
April also saw the IAFP DEI Council's Vision, Mission, and
Purpose agreed, and the Council is now ready to hit the road. Please
don't hesitate to put your hand up to be part of it. The Board and
I am sure our whole whanau are looking forward to your insights
and recommendations.
Lastly, did you notice that not once above did I mention
COVID-19. I have banished it to the past, and by doing so give
Ruth, your incoming President, a free rein to lead our great whanau
into what will be a homecoming year for many of us.
FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR David W. Tharp
A year of change; a year of
transitions. The year of 2021 will
hopefully continue to be a year of
change and transitions. After 2020
proved to be a struggle for everyone
around the world in dealing with
COVID-19 restrictions, it was a
welcome sight to see rapid development
and distribution of a vaccine. Thus,
helping some areas to return to somewhat
normal operations. This includes IAFP and the Annual
Meeting...although we need to lean heavily on " somewhat normal "
in this reference.
Although the IAFP office has been able to operate " somewhat
normally " since June of 2020, we continued to plan for an inperson
Annual Meeting in Phoenix without knowing if this could
take place or not. As I'm writing this column in early June, we
are continuously adapting our " normal " Annual Meeting in to
what it can be for 2021. This includes conducting the meeting as
a hybrid meeting (in-person and virtual attendees) along with
accommodating speakers who will deliver their presentation via
the Internet, pre-recorded or in-person. This adds exponentially
to the complexity of keeping track of this year's presentations. It
also adds to the required audiovisual equipment and personnel.
We will make it through 2021 and our hope is for a normal meeting
in 2022 where more food safety professionals can be present,
in-person.
For IAFP 2021, it should be noted that Roger Cook has
served as IAFP President in a truly extraordinary year. Not only
was he not able to be properly recognized as IAFP's President at
IAFP 2020; now he is unable to be with us in Phoenix to turn the
reins to Ruth Petran, our President for 2021-2022. This is such a
shame since Roger is the first IAFP President to reside outside of
North America in our 110-year history! I don't believe our Bylaws
allow for a " do over " year, but it would be nice for everyone to write
Roger a note of thanks and recognize his efforts this year.
Roger has led the Association during a difficult year and
the Board met many times on the " Go To Meetings " platform.
In addition to transitioning IAFP 2020 to an October virtual
meeting, the Board made progress in establishing the Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion Council. Many hours of meeting with DEI
Council Members have now resulted in the establishment of a
Council Charter including a vision, mission and purpose. Further,
operational procedures were established to help guide the Council
Members into the future.
So yes, it has been a year of change and a year of transitions.
We hope that you have made it through the difficult times and
that the future either looks bright or is beginning to look bright
from where you sit. We appreciate your ongoing support of and
participation in IAFP. We hope to see you soon; in-person!
378 Food Protection Trends July/August
Food Protection Trends - July/August 2021

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