Food Safety Conference from April 21
Muscat: The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MoAFWR), represented by the Food Safety and Quality Centre, in cooperation with the government agencies concerned with food safety, is organising the 7th Oman International Food Safety and Quality Conference at the Oman Exhibition and Convention Centre (OCEC) from April 21 to 23.
The three-day high level conference and discussion sessions will see a number of prominent local and international speakers and experts from several government and private agencies from across the world kick start discussions and debates on special topics on the efforts and challenges facing countries in their quest to ensure food safety and quality, according to Eng Yaqoub bin Khalfan al Busaidy, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources for Fisheries, Chairman of the Main Committee for Food Safety Week.
On the first day, speech on 'Addressing resilience of food systems globally — the indispensable transformation', will be organised while the key topic of 'Modernising food safety and quality control and oversight — Role of new technologies and Artificial Intelligence' will be discussed as part of the second session.
This session will review the role of modern technology in developing innovative solutions that enhance food safety and quality, including but not limited to Modern traceability systems, novel methods used to improve production, storage and distribution processes, as well as using smart sensing technologies that support rapid detection of contaminants
The third session on 'Food Fraud' will be dedicated to reviewing methods and approaches supporting efforts to ascertain authenticity of food products, inputs such as pesticides and processes, thus contributing to the protection of consumers' health and confidence in food products available for sale.
'Such efforts are also associated with the reduction of the rate of food loss and waste; and would contribute positively to national economies overall. This session will review food quality management processes and analytical methods used to verify food authenticity and to detect adulterated or counterfeit ingredients, including Mass Spectrometry-based techniques, Infrared spectroscopy (IR), Genetic analysis and sensory or organoleptic tests,' said Dr Hussain, Director General of Food Safety and Quality Center.
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