Phase I: GE Food/Feed Safety Assessment Training

Overview

On August 1-3, 2017, a three-day technical training program was conducted in Bogor, Indonesia, organized by the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute in cooperation with the Indonesian National Agency for Food and Drug Control (BPOM) and the Indonesian Center for Animal Research and Development (ICARD).  This activity provided an opportunity for participants to engage in practical exercises highlighting the fundamental concepts employed in food and feed safety assessments of genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Program

Twenty-three participants from both the Indonesian Food Safety Technical Team and the Feed Safety Technical Team attended the training held at the Harris Hotel. The training was supported by expert faculty from the United States, and the Philippines, including Dr. Donald MacKenzie, International Rice Research Institute, Dr. Flerida Carino, University of the Philippines, Dr. Bryan Delaney, DuPont Pioneer, Dr. Andrew Roberts and Dr. Xianglu Han, Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. The workshop introduced important concepts and components for food and feed safety assessment, including problem formulation, toxicity, composition and allergenicity assessment as well as molecular characterization. The structure of the program involved more than just lectures, and included the opportunity for participants to work through practical exercises in groups.  These exercises focused on the ability to identify and use available information resources associated with food and feed safety assessments as well as providing an opportunity to consider topics in more detail.

Building off the Phase I program, the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute organized a five-day Phase II training program at the Stine Haskell Research Facility in Wilmington, DE, USA, in November which will include the opportunity to observe how food and feed safety assessment data is collected in the laboratory.

This project is supported by a grant from the USDA’s Emerging Markets Program.

More Information

To learn more about the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute’s program on GE food and feed safety, click here.

To learn about Phase II in Newark, DE in November 2017, click here.

To read the outcomes from a similar two-phased, food/feed safety program we conducted in India in 2014, click here.