 RASFF celebrates its 30th year during a three-day event in Brussels
Technical meeting on 15 July 2009
The three-day event kicked off with a technical meeting with RASFF members contact points and representatives of third countries and WHO discussing the future of RASFF and other alert systems around the world and how cooperation between these systems could be enhanced.
Agenda, speeches and presentations for the meeting can be downloaded here
International conference "Keeping An Eye On Your Food" on 16 July 2009
Download the programme of the conference  .
Picture gallery
On 16 July 2009, DG Health & Consumers organised a high- level conference to which representatives of more than 90 countries participated to learn more about the role RASFF has played in the turbulent past of food safety in Europe and to take stock of what plans RASFF has in stall for the future.
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Commissioner Vassiliou opened the conference remembering how RASFF has evolved over 30 years as a communication tool on food safety. In our age, this communication needs to be extended to the global level and RASFF is ready to play an important part in this.
Download her speech
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Commissioner Rhoda Tumusiime of the African Union gave her views on the challenges Africa faces in relation to food safety. Where the safety of the food is not being taken at heart, it is often a matter of life or death. A rapid alert system could do a lot of good in Africa but there is a more urgent need of infrastructure, standards, training and enforcement to establish the required traceability of food and feed and consumer awareness. |
The following keynote speeches were delivered:
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Deputy Director General Paola Testori Coggi explained how RASFF had helped achieve in Europe one of the highest levels of food safety in the world and gave her views on the further developments of the system in the years to come.
Download her speech
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Mrs Inger Andersson, Director General of the Swedish National Food Administration gave a view on what RASFF meant from the national perspective and she pleaded for more openness in the system while ensuring that confidential information is protected and for RASFF data to be more and better used when deciding on future controls.
Download her speech
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Dr. Somsak Pipoppinyo, Assistant Director and Head of the Natural Resources Unit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) explained how ARASFF – the ASEAN RASFF system – fitted very well in the evolution of ASEAN from an Association into a Community.
Download his speech
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Mrs Monique Goyens, Director General of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC), was there to give the consumers' view on the RASFF. She said that the EU is one of the safest places in the world to eat and drink and that RASFF plays a very important part in this and is trusted to deliver good work. She pleaded for more information to flow back to the consumer from the RASFF. She highlighted the use of nanotechnology as an emerging food safety concern.
Download her speech
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Dr. Andrea Ellis of the World Health Organization's International network of food safety authorities "INFOSAN" presented the conference with questions over how global alert systems should be organised in order to respond to the challenges faced on the global level. She said that cooperation between public health and food safety authorities is pivotal to managing hazards in food.
Download her presentation
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Afternoon discussion panels
Three discussion panels were organised around the following themes:
- Stakeholder expectations of the RASFF
- Global food safety and alert systems
- Future challenges for the EU food safety system and the role of RASFF
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Director General Robert Madelin asked rapporteurs of the three panels to give an account of the discussions that had taken place and drew some summary conclusions before closing the conference.
Download his speech
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The speeches and presentations during the panels can be downloaded here.
This special day was closed with a festive dinner, in the presence of European Commissioner Vassiliou, Commissioner Tumusiime of the African Union and Commissioner Hamburg of the United States' Food and Drug Adminstration. Invited guests were contact persons of the RASFF from the past as well as the present, from Member States as well as from third countries.
On 17 July, the event was closed with a visit to the fruits and vegetables auction of Mechelen, the largest farmers cooperative in Europe for the sale of vegetables. More then one hundred participants from RASFF contact points and food safety authorities from around the world could see how traceability is implemented on the spot and what programs exist for monitoring the safety of the products, including demonstrations and presentations by the Belgian Food Safety Agency.
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