U.S – The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS) have penned an agreement to address the increasing risks associated with foodborne illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States.

The agreement focuses on impacting public health, food, nutrition, and consumer protection through collaborations in research, training, and education.

It will enhance cooperation on conferences, seminars, training workshops, webinars, and technical meetings on matters related to food safety and emerging technologies. The organizations also seek to address food science at global, regional and country levels.

“IAFP is so pleased to formalize and extend our working relationship with IAFNS. IAFNS has provided cutting-edge symposia to IAFP’s Annual Meetings for 30 years now and we look forward to working together for many, many more!” David Tharp, Executive Director of IAFP stated.

IAFP is a member-based association of more than 4,500 food safety professionals, committed to advancing food safety worldwide by providing a forum for food safety professionals to exchange information on protecting the food supply.

As part of the pact, both organizations will share fellowship and proposal announcements on their websites. IAFNS will also organize and deliver three food microbial symposia and one chemical food safety symposium for presentation at IAFP’s Annual Meeting.

IAFP hosts an annual meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe.

Held in various locations throughout North America, this meeting has grown over the years to become the leading food safety conference worldwide.

The agreement focuses on impacting public health, food, nutrition, and consumer protection through collaborations in research, training, and education.

Moreover, IAFNS will submit workshop summaries, research articles, and other materials to IAFP for inclusion in the organization’s publication, Food Protection Trends. Food Protection Trends contains refereed articles on applied research, applications of current technology and general interest subjects for food safety professionals.

Both organizations will also host the Executive Director of the other at their annual meetings.

According to IAFNS Executive Director Wendelyn Jones, PhD, “IAFNS is pleased to leverage its food safety research and programming through this exciting new agreement with IAFP which will reduce health risks and promote educational goals for both organizations.”

IAFNS is a non-profit organization that brings together scientists from the government, academia, and industry to drive, fund and lead actionable food safety and nutrition research in support of public health.

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