Dubai Municipality is organizing for the second consecutive year the Dubai International Food Safety Conference alongside Gulfood 2007, the 12th Gulf Food, Hotel and Equipment Exhibition and Salon Culinaire, which is being held at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre during 19 - 22 February. The conference will be attended by a number of regional and international experts and officials, who will present many papers on food safety.
This was announced at a press conference on Tuesday at Dubai Municipality by Eng. Abdullah Rafeeu, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Affairs. The press conference was also attended by Eng. Salem Bin Mesmar, Director of Public Health Department and Khalid Mohammed Shareef, Assistant Director of Public Health Department and Head of Food Control Section.
Rafeeu said the conference will be a good opportunity to benefit from the Gulfood Exhibition, which is a big gathering of manufacturers, importers and suppliers of foodstuff from around the world.
"Officials in the control authorities, regulatory bodies and academic institutions in food safety can also make use of this important event," he said.
Rafeeu added that the conference represents one of the strategic objectives of the Public Health Department in the Municipality related to benefiting from the international best practices in the field of food safety.
"This conference also ensures the pioneering position of Dubai in many fields, especially in a vital field like food safety," he said, adding that the Public Health Department plans to make it an annual event.
Rafeeu said the event will see participation of speakers representing food safety authorities and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Codex Alimentarius Commission, scientific and academic departments, manufacturing companies and food traders and a number of bodies concerned with food safety.
He said the event would be a golden opportunity for exchanging opinions and creating excellent relations with food safety experts from around the region and the world, in addition to get updated on the latest in the field of food safety regulations and methods for measuring food hazards.
Stressing on the siginficance of the event, Eng. Salem Mesmar said the Municipality is keen to organize this event annually taking into consideration its efforts to manifest an image that conforms to the required standards.
He said the Municipality has constituted two committees for conducting the conference, the Scientific Committee and the Organizing Committee in coordination with Dubai World Trade Centre.
Mesmar also praised the role of the sponsoring companies in supporting the event, which will bolster the relation between the public and private sectors and the extent of their great care on important subjects related to food safety.
He said the conference is being held this year with the support of Master Food, Nestle Middle East, Belhasa, Lulu Hypermarket, SGS and Federal Food.
Khalid Mohammed Shareef said that invitations have been sent to the representatives of the basic committees of Codex in Rome, food control authorities in the UAE, the General Secretariat of Municipalities, National Food Safety Committee for GCC countries, academic institutions in the UAE concerned with food safety such as universities and higher colleges of technology, food manufacturers, food importers and exporters, hotels, people in the hospitality business, caterers, food training and consultant companies, food control authorities, food inspectors, researchers and students in the field of food safety and manufacture, accreditation agencies, food consultants, employees of food chains, manufacturers and suppliers of food manufacturing equipments and food packaging materials.
He said the main topic of the conference will be food safety risk analysis and on the third day of the conference, sub topics will be taken up for discussion.
The first day of the conference will discuss some important papers related to regional and international food regulations, which include Food Safety Strategy in Dubai, Food Safety Risk Analysis- Codex Perspectives, Risk Assessment and Food Laws- GCC perspectives, Risk Assessment and Food Laws- EU perspectives, Legal implications of Risk Assessment.
The second day will see discussions on advanced foods safety systems, experiences of different countries in the world and the UAE in applying these systems and the role of international organizations in developing data of these systems to cope with the urgent requirements.
The third day of the conference will discuss the best practices in the field of food safety, which will be represented by a big number of foodstuff companies, hotels, caterers and restaurants.
Shareef also stressed the keenness of Dubai Municipality to have the participation of national staff in this event as five of them will present papers in the conference.
He said that more details on the exhibition and the conference can be obtained by visiting the website, www.gulfood.com or sending e-mails to foodsafety@dwtc.com .
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© Press Release 2007
