Regulating for Tomorrow’s Food Industry
he recent Toyota recall has once again reopened the debate on traceability, accountability and the necessity to have an appropriate crisis management system in place. The agri-feed industry is no stranger to these topics and indeed the Irish pork industry is still bouncing back from one of the most recent crises to affect our industry. Over a year later, the first page of a Google search of the keywords ‘Irish Pork’ results in articles solely on the dioxin crisis. Where is the positive story?
Against this backdrop, the regulatory session at Alltech's 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium taking place May 16-19, 2010 at the Lexington Convention Center Kentucky, USA will focus on effective crisis management and the implementation of a crisis management system. Speakers will include experts from Washington DC, the EU, the International Feed Ingredient Federation and specialists in food crisis management and international trade.
For the first time, attendees will have an opportunity to learn directly from the government investigator who led the way in ascertaining what exactly happened during the Irish dioxin crisis. What went right and what went wrong? In a talk entitled ‘Bringing it back from the verge of disaster’, Dr. Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health, University College, Dublin and Chairman of the inter-agency review of the Irish Dioxin crisis will speak about the management of the crisis.
“Vital lessons can be learned from crises such as the Irish contamination case, which highlighted the importance of a consistent traceability system. Some say the Irish Government’s decision to ban pork from the shelves was excessive but either way thousands of pigs were slaughtered and it delivered a blow to consumer confidence. We are delighted that industry experts such as Dr. Patrick Wall will be speaking at our Symposium to help us understand how these crises occur, the affect they have on our industry and ways we can all work together to prevent them,” said Alltech’s President, Dr. Pearse Lyons.
