ICPMF7 Predictive Modelling of Food Quality and Safety

Plenary speaker 

Emeritus Professor Tom A. McMeekin, School of Agricultural Science, Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research University of Tasmania (Australia)

Tom McMeekin held a personal Chair of Microbiology at the University of Tasmania before retiring from full-time employment in 2007. Acknowledged as one of the world's leading food microbiologists whose proven expertise has impacted on the enhancement of food safety internationally, he pioneered the development of predictive microbiology and established the University of Tasmania as the world leader in predictive modelling of microbial behaviour in foods. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and has contributed to >200 publications, including the monograph "Predictive Microbiology: theory and application", and has given >30 invited international conference and workshop presentations. He is an Executive Board Member of the International Committee of Food Microbiology and Hygiene, an Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Food Microbiology and formerly an Associate Editor of that journal. He was also the inaugural recipient of the International Leadership Award of the International Association of Food Protection.

Keynote speakers 

Dr. Marta Hugas, Unit on Biological Hazards, European Food Safety Authority - EFSA (Italy)

Marta Hugas is currently Head of Unit for the panel on Biological Hazards, EFSA. In January 2003 she joined the European Food Safety Authority first in Brussels (Belgium) and then in Parma (Italy) giving support to the Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards. The BIOHAZ panel deals with questions regarding risk assessment of biological hazards relating to food safety and food-borne disease, including food-borne zoonoses and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, microbiology, food hygiene and associated waste management. She has extensively published scientific papers, reviews, book chapters and divulgative papers on food safety, particularly the development of starter and bioprotective cultures for meat and meat products, probiotics to improve the safety of poultry and new emerging preservation technologies. She also worked on the development of rapid diagnostic methods such as PCR for food pathogens and for starter cultures in meat and meat products and lately on EFSA’s activities on Risk Assessment of Biological Hazards.

Dr. Shigenobu Koseki, National Food Research Institute (Japan)

Shgenobu Koseki is a senior researcher in the National Food Research Institute, Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in food and agricultural engineering from Hokkaido University in 2002. He joined the National Food Research Institute in 2003, mainly conducting studies in non-thermal processes including sanitization of cut vegebles using electrolyzed water and high pressure treatments while he also focused on predictive modelling of bacterial growth on vegetables and microbial inactivation by the studied treatments. Furthermore, he has acted as a member of ComBase associates and developed a novel database MRV (Microbial responses Viewer:  http://cbnfri.dc.affrc.go.jp/MRV/) derived from ComBase, which allows users to identify conditions at the growth/no growth boundary, both visually and quantitatively. He is currently a Board Member of Journal of Food Protection.

Dr. Isabelle Souchon, UMR 782 AgroParisTech, French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) (France)    

Isabelle Souchon is the head of the laboratory of microbiology and food process engineering (joint research unit between INRA and AgroParisTech – Grignon, France). She graduated in process engineering at the University of Montpellier, France. In 1994, she defended her PhD thesis in the field of bioprocesses and modeling at the Burgundy University. She is currently a senior researcher in the French National Institute of Agricultural Research and is working on various subjects related to identification and quantification of mechanisms governing food processing. Her research focuses on food design based on a reverse approach, integrating modeling: from the functional properties of the food up to formulation and process. She explores the interaction of food materials with the human body such as the role of food structure on solute release or nutrient delivery during eating, considering the digestive track as a food process. These researches are based on a multidisciplinary approach integrating physical chemistry, process engineering, sensory analysis and human physiology.  

David Vose, Vose Software BVBA (Belgium) 

David Vose is Managing Director of Vose Software BVBA (Gent, Belgium), the developers of the ModelRisk risk analysis add-in for Excel. David is the author of Risk Analysis, published by John Wiley and Sons, and now in its third edition. He has been a member of various committees charged with the development of international guidelines in risk analysis fields: he was technical editor for the UK's APM risk analysis guidelines, and was leader for the OIE antimicrobial resistance guidelines on risk analysis. He provided guidance to FAO/WHO's expert committees in their efforts to establish international guidelines, standards and example models for food safety. In this capacity, David was the editor and contributing author for the WHO/FAO Risk Characterisation guidelines. The OIE handbook on quantitative animal import risk assessment (Vol II) is also based around his book and lectures. David has been a faculty member of the Harvard University Continuing Education Course on Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Management, and Communication and has acted as supervisor for a number of PhD theses on risk.