Conference Schedule

Conference Schedule
October 17, 2016 2 Comments 5th Annual Conference 2018 Saurabh Arora

5th Annual Conference of the India Section of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL
Partner in Food Science and Safety
Date: 28th Feb – 1 March, 2018
Location: Hotel “The Park”, New Delhi

Conference Schedule

Day 1: February 28, 2018 (Wednesday)

Registration and Breakfast (0800 – 0900 hrs)
Inaugural Session (0900 – 1100 hrs)

Presidential Addresses:
Dr. Kaushik Banerjee, President, India Section of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL
Ms. DeAnn L. Benesh, President, The AOAC INTERNATIONAL and Global Regulatory Affairs Manager at 3M Food Safety

Exchange of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and AOAC INTERNATIONAL

Keynote Address:
Shri Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

Special Addresses:
Dr. S. K. Saxena, Director. Export Inspection Council of India
Dr. Erik Konings, Immediate Past President, The AOAC INTERNATIONAL and Global Analytical Method Alignment Coordinator, Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland

Inauguration of Exhibition
Refreshment Break

Technical Session 1: Testing Strategies in the Modern Nutraceuticals Industry (1100 – 1300 hrs)

Nutraceuticals, an emerging concept, can be broadly categorized as products which are extracted from natural resources (nature-like) or manufactured synthetically (man-made), which supplement the diet to provide nutrition over and above regular food and help prevent nutrition related disorders. India has defined nutraceuticals in the Food for Safety and Standards Act. FSSAI in November 2016 operationalised the said Act covering health supplements, nutraceuticals, food for special dietary use and special medical purpose, functional foods and novel foods.

In this session, distinguished speakers will share their experiences and approaches to testing dietary supplements and food ingredients, with a focus on analytical techniques that show great potential in solving today’s scientific and operational challenges in the industry.

Welcome Address: Dr. Ranjan Mitra, President-Elect, India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL

Session Chair: Dr. N. Bhaskar, FSSAI, Advisor (QA)

Strengthening of Food Testing Systems in the Country
Dr. N. Bhaskar, FSSAI, Advisor (QA)

Food testing is an integral part of Food Safety Regulation and Enforcement. Though a network of food testing laboratories (State Food Testing Labs and Referral Labs) has been established across the country, however, the testing facilities available in these laboratories are facing challenges in terms of (a) availability of sophisticated analytical equipment and (b) trained scientific and technical manpower.

Recently Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has rolled out a Rs 481.95 crore scheme for strengthening food testing in the country. Further, in order to strengthen and develop a robust Food Testing Laboratory network in the country, FSSAI has formulated a scheme for Strengthening of Food Testing Laboratories (SOFTeL) in the country. The scheme consists of a bouquet of six initiatives. The speaker will elaborate on these initiatives and explore areas where India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL can provide technical assistance to FSSAI for making a detailed assessment of training needs of food safety personnel in the country, providing national/international consultancy and establishing national/international advisory mechanisms for benchmarking and harmonising food safety practices to the best in the world.

Botanical Integrity: The Importance of the Integration of Chemical, Biological, and Botanical Analyses, and the Role of DNA Barcoding
Dr. Amit Chandra, Manager, Chromatography Sciences Group, Analytical Sciences, AMWAY R&D

The concept of Botanical Integrity evolved from an initiative by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH, formerly NCCAM) and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), both at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The initiative led to the implementation of the NIH natural products integrity policy, which addresses botanical study materials by outlining special requirements for their characterization. Going beyond just “quality control,” Botanical Integrity combines disparate aspects of defining and assessing plant-derived materials and products for human consumption: identity (correct plant species and plant part), homogeneity (absence of contaminations by other species and chemicals, often called “purity” but different than the regulatory use of that term), biological potency (the presence of bioactive principles in desired amounts; a prerequisite for in vivo efficacy), and safety (an adequate toxicological profile).

In this talk the speaker will discuss how this holistic approach can be used to ensure deliverance of high quality and efficacious products to consumers.

New Frontiers in Nutraceutical Analysis – From Quality and Safety to Research
Dr. Jennifer Burgess, ‎Director, Food and Environmental Markets – ‎Waters Corporation

The growth and infrastructure of the modern global food distribution system heavily relies on food analysis (beyond simple characterization) as a tool for new product development, quality control, regulatory enforcement, and problem-solving. The old methods used at the beginning of the 20th century based on so-called “wet chemistry” have evolved into the current powerful instrumental techniques used in food laboratories. This improvement has led to significant enhancements in analytical accuracy, precision, detection limits, and sample throughput, thereby expanding the practical range of food applications.

In this talk the speaker will focus on modern analytical instrumentation, the development of new methods and their application in food science and technology including recent works on quality control, safety and nutritional value.

Targeted and Un-targeted Analyses of Food Contaminants by Ultrafast Mass Spectrometers
Dr Jie Xing, Manager, Application Development & Support Centre, Shimadzu (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd

Residue and contaminant analysis in food is a challenging task because of the high number (>1000) of substances potentially present. The golden standard in current routine residue analysis are targeted methods based on efficient targeted methodologies. However, in some cases these targeted approaches do not allow the detection of unexpected and unexpected adulterants that may enter supply chains. By combining targeted and non-targeted analyses the method may also detect new or so far unknown types of adulteration, which conventional analysis would not detect.
In this talk the speaker will discuss how by combining targeted (quantification) and nontargeted (statistics for classification and verification) approaches, it becomes possible to address previously unanswered questions and allow us to detect and deter adulteration in food.

Lunch Break (1300 – 1400 hrs)

Technical Session 2: ‘Veterinary Drug Residues’: Multi-class Multi-residue Methods for Veterinary Drugs (1400 – 1600 hrs)

Veterinary drugs, similar to human drugs, are given to animals with a primary aim to prevent and cure diseases. On occasion they are used as well for modification of physiological functions or behavior. These drugs consist of various classes including, antibiotics, antiparasitics and anti-inflammatory drugs. The presence of veterinary drug residues in food is a public health concern and regulatory authorities globally, either already have or are in the process of establishing limits for veterinary drug residues.

In this technical session we have invited distinguished speakers who will take us through the current regulatory scenario, the surveillance requirements and analytical developments to monitor veterinary drug residues. Finally we finish with a call to action for all participants to engage with AOAC in its ongoing effort to establish standard method performance requirements (SMPRs) for screening and confirmation of 151 veterinary drug residues in raw materials, semi-finished and finished food products.

Welcome Address: Dr. Kaushik Banerjee, President, India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL

Session Chair: Dr. S. K. Saxena, Director. Export Inspection Council of India

Risk Based Surveillance Planning for Veterinary Drug Residues
Dr. S. K. Saxena, Director. Export Inspection Council of India

The adoption of a risk analysis framework relies on an integrated scientific approach for any food safety related hazard. Veterinary drugs include multiple classes of chemicals and it is important to understand the individual risks posed by each drug class, its usage, its presence in consumed foods and the short-term and long-term consequences on human health. The gathering of such information requires appropriate planning and methodology. Using selected examples, this session will focus on how this information is currently being gathered and how it can be applied in the Indian context.

Regulatory Limits on Veterinary Drug Residue in India and its implications
Dr. Anoop A Krishnan, Assistant Director (Technical) – ‎Export Inspection Agency, Kochi Laboratory

The indiscriminate usage of veterinary drugs on animals involved in the food chain has lead to the presence of veterinary drug residues in food products of animal origin such as, milk and milk products, eggs, meat and fish. Human exposure to veterinary drug residues at low levels through food products may lead to adverse effects and is a major public health concern. For example the presence of low levels of antibiotics in food is believed to contribute to anti-microbial resistance. To protect consumers, the FSSAI is under the process of setting limits on veterinary drug residues in food. This session will create awareness on the current regulation status in India, the proposed regulatory limits and comparison with international organizations such as Codex Alimentarius, European Union or the US Food & Drug Administration which have established maximum residue limits for many veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs from animal origin.

Comprehensive Multi-class Veterinary Medicines Workflow Solution to Comply with Global Regulations
Mr. Paul Dewsbury, ‎ Global Marketing Manager for Food and Beverage in the Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry group at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Veterinary drug classes include amphenicols, aminoglycosides, avermectins, β-lactams, coccidiostats, macrolides, quinolones, sulfonamides, and tetracylines. There is further complexity involved in the range of food matrices including raw materials, semi-finished and finished products. Multi-class multi-residue methodologies present a range of benefits to the analyst to tackle the analysis of such a wide range of analytes by being cost and time efficient as compared to single residue analysis. This session will focus on Liquid chromatography Mass spectrometry based multi class multi residue methods which are currently being used.

Introduction to the AOAC SMPR Process: A call to participate in the SMPRs development for Veterinary Drug Residues
Dr. Erik Konings, Immediate Past President, The AOAC INTERNATIONAL and Global Analytical Method Alignment Coordinator, Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland

In order to ensure regulatory requirements are met using standardized methodologies, AOAC International has initiated a working group under the Stakeholder Panel on Strategic Food Analytical Methods (SPSFAM). The working group aims to develop a series of standard method performance requirements (SMPRs) for LC-MS/MS methods for screening and confirmation of 151 veterinary drug residues in raw materials, semi-finished and finished food products. The SMPR process supports all the stakeholders; the regulator: by ensuring that the SMPRs meet the regulatory limits as per the regulations; the method developer: by providing them a guiding framework for method development and evaluation; the food manufacturer and/or distributor: by ensuring that the official methods are best meet their analytical needs. More information on the topic can be found on the link below
https://www.aoac.org/AOAC_Prod_Imis/AOAC_Member/ANews/2017_News/Stories/NEWS_Story091317.aspx

Refreshment Break (1600 – 1630 hrs)

Working Group Session: Topic TBD (1630 – 1730 hrs)

WORKING GROUP 1: Tolerances on Nutritional Label Declaration of Foods and Food Supplements
Lead: Dr Viral Brahmbhatt, Nestle Food Safety Institute India Lead at Nestle R and D Centre India Pvt. Ltd.

Tolerances for nutrition labelling purposes are important as it is not possible for foods to always contain the exact nutrient levels labelled, due to factors such as the source of values (values derived from literature and calculated by recipe instead of analysis), the accuracy of analysis, the variation in the raw materials, the effect of processing, nutrient stability and storage conditions and storage time. At the same time, the nutrient content of foods should not deviate substantially from labelled values to the extent that such deviations could lead to consumers being misled.

A working group is being formed on “Tolerances for Nutritional Declaration on Food and Food Supplements” to look into the various factors of food safety that needs to be taken into account when setting tolerances.

This session will introduce the scope, objective, guiding principles and timelines of the working group. In this interactive session inputs will be sought from participants to highlight their current challenges and also to voice their expectation of the working group.

WORKING GROUP 2: Rapid Microbiology Methods and the Regulatory Environment
LEAD: Ms. Kavitha Kulkarni, Scientific Affairs and Education Manager, Food Safety, 3M India Ltd

Discovery of traditional agar media in 1880s was one of the most important milestone in the field of Food Microbiology and continues to be the backbone of Food Microbiology testing in the developing world. However the increased demands of consumers paved the way to Rapid Microbiology (RMM) methods which drastically reduce the Time to results without compromising on the accuracy, sensitivity, reproducibility & repeatability of the test.

The RMM Technologies vary from rapid advancements in culture media in combination with Bio-chemical confirmation for eg: Petrifilms plate method to the rapid nucleic acid – based methods which include PCR, RT-PCR, Loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP).

A key challenge with the adoption of these new technologies is the speed with which these technologies are changing which requires a faster learning curve for the industry and the regulators. India continues to dwell on the traditional test methods, mandating these in the standards which restricts the adoption of newer technologies. With a population exceeding 1.2 Billion, the need to provide safe and healthy food will be possible only with the adoption of these Rapid Microbiology Methods.

This session will introduce the scope, objective, guiding principles and timelines of the working group. In this interactive session, inputs will be sought from participants to highlight their current challenges and also to voice their expectation of the working group.

Session Break (1730 – 1800 hrs)

Poster Session (1800 – 2000 hrs)

Poster Session in Collaboration with “The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)”
Poster Session will feature displays by authors of scientific research papers and will include a written and pictorial summary of the author’s research. Posters represent an important method of exchanging scientific information and findings.

Poster Topic Categories

  1. Analysis of Foodborne Contaminants and Residues
    (Innovative approaches and techniques in the residue analysis of foodborne contaminants, which are either naturally present in food (e.g., heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, etc.), or appear during food processing (e.g., acrylamide, 3-MCPD, etc.).
  2. Analysis of Non-Foodborne Contaminants and Residues
    (Innovative approaches and techniques in the residue analysis of those contaminants which are added to food externally, e.g., pesticides, veterinary drugs, antibiotics, etc.).
  3. Microbiological Methods in Food and Residue Analysis of Mycotoxins
    (Innovative approaches and techniques in food microbiological analysis. Quick detection and screening methods. Residue analysis methods for mycotoxins).
  4. Food Nutrition, Food Allergens, Botanicals and Dietary Supplements
    (Innovative approaches and techniques in food nutrition, botanicals and dietary supplement analysis. Food Allergen methods and issues).
  5. Food Authenticity
    (Methods to determine truthfulness of identity of ingredients and foods).
  6. General Methods
    (Any methods pertaining to analysis of food that do NOT fit in ANY of the other categories)

Conference Dinner (2000 – 2200 hrs)

Day 2: March 1, 2018 (Thursday)

Parallel session on Setting up Food Testing Laboratory in Hall 2 from 9 AM

Technical Session 3: Evolving Role of Analytical Scientists in Fighting Food Fraud and Adulteration (0900 – 1045 hrs)

Welcome Address: Dr. Saurabh Arora, Treasurer, India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL

Session Chair: Dr. Lalitha R. Gowda, Chief Scientist (Retd.), Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore

Protein Supplements: How Much Protein Are You Really Getting?
Dr. Lalitha R. Gowda, Chief Scientist (Retd.), Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore.

Protein is one of the major macronutrients in our diet, and is essential for human health and growth. Protein demand has grown rapidly in last decade and trend expected to continue worldwide in future not only because of expected increase in population but also due to a wider recognition of a need of higher quality protein from a variety of sources in a healthy diet. The commercial availability of high protein products including beverages based on balanced high quality protein sources is increasing lately to meet the consumer demands. It is important to correctly evaluate the quality of our current and future protein sources to provide good quality protein in our diets. Test methods like PDCAAS, DIAAS and others are available to map the protein quality. In this talk the speaker will discuss various aspects of methods for assessing protein quality of foods including protein and amino acid digestibility, amino acid requirement patterns and their applications in nutrition labeling.

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) in Dietary Supplements – Analytical Perspective
Dr. Shila Jain, Laboratory Director, National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports

Continuously refining and advancing the strategies and methods employed in sports drug testing is critical for efficient doping controls. Besides improving and expanding the spectrum of target analytes, alternative test matrices have warranted in-depth evaluation as they commonly allow for minimal-/non-invasive and non-intrusive sample collection.

In this talk the speaker will provide an overview of various analytical approaches for the Screening of Performance Enhancing Substances from various Dietary Supplements & to study their excretion profile using Chromatographic-Mass Spectrometric Techniques.

Analytical Approaches to Assess Food Authenticity and Provenancing using Stable Isotopic Ratio Techniques
Dr. Helen Mary Atkinson, ‎Business Development Manager – ‎Sercon Limited

The stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur are used in food authenticity and provenance studies to determine geographical origin, compliance with stated growth and manufacturing processes and to detect post-growth adulteration. Both bulk and compound specific isotopic measurements are of interest, and instrumentation which is highly sensitive, precise and stable enable food suppliers, consumers and researchers to have confidence in food forensic data.

In this talk the speaker will present the developments which have recently been made to instrumentation which is relevant to the food industry, and data from a range of food and drink samples to demonstrate how stable isotopes are used in food authentication studies.

Advanced Analytical Solutions for Dioxin Monitoring in Food & Environmental Samples
Dr. K. P. Prathish, Scientist at Dioxin Research Laboratory, CSIR- National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science & Technology (CSIR- NIIST)

CSIR- NIIST has established the state of the art analytical facilities for sampling, sample preparation and quantification of dioxins and dl- PCBs in food and environmental samples. The emergence of tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) vis-à-vis magnetic sector MS as an alternative quantification tool has made a huge impact in the most challenging analysis. In addition, automated sample extraction and clean up systems has drastically reduced the time of analysis. In this talk the speaker will present the complete workflow of analysis. The first study results on the quantification of dioxins in fish samples and open burning of municipal solid wastes using GC-MS/MS in India will be discussed.

Refreshment Break (1045 – 1115 hrs)

Technical Session 3: Advances in Detection of Microbiological Contaminants and Food Adulterants (1115 – 1300 hrs)

Welcome Address: Mr. Vishal Arora, Secretary, India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL

Session Chair: Ms. DeAnn L. Benesh, President, The AOAC INTERNATIONAL and Global Regulatory Affairs Manager at 3M Food Safety

The ISO 16140 Series: International Standards for Microbial Method Comparison
Ms. DeAnn L. Benesh, President, The AOAC INTERNATIONAL and Global Regulatory Affairs Manager at 3M Food Safety

ISO 16140 was first published in 2003 and has been used successfully to validate over 150 alternative methods through globally recognized Certification bodies, thereby allowing national authorities within Europe and in countries exporting to Europe, to use these alternative methods to meet EU Directive 2073. As ISO 16140 was updated, it was expanded to include development of additional ISO documents to support alternative method validation. An overview of this important new ISO 16140 Series will be presented.

Taking Cutting Edge Laboratory Methods from R&D to the Food Microbiology Laboratory
Mr. Maheswara Rao, Assistant Director – ‎Export Inspection Agency, Kochi

Transitioning a method developed in an R&D laboratory to a commercial method that meets the needs and capabilities of diverse testing laboratories is difficult. In this talk the speaker will present the challenges to overcome the barriers to implementation (both from technical and regulatory point-of-view) and the Way forward towards developing globally accepted chemical and microbiological food standards along with maintenance of high standards of accuracy, reliability and credibility in the analytical operation including the need for quick, reliable and affordable detection test kits of Chemical and Microbiological Food safety hazards.

Culture-Independent Methods for Food Safety
Dr. Sandhya Shrivastava. Co-ordinator at Bhavan’s Research Center (Microbiology) and Professor of Microbiology at Bhavan’s College

Use of genome and metagenome tools are moving quickly for food safety applications. Additionally, use of capture and concentration methods are gaining acceptance for pathogen detection directly from foodstuffs. These new methods are not widely adopted by the food industry, yet are being adopted for regulation. However, recently some of the public health surveillance databases have started incorporating the results from culture-independent methods.In this talk the speaker will provide practical insights and method evaluation for this new area of food safety. Scope, advantages, disadvantages and a road-map for verification and validation strategies of the culture independent methods will be discussed.

Advanced Technologies for Pathogen and Toxin Detection in Nutraceuticals – Current Applications and Future Directions
Ms. Kumud Kushwaha, Manager – LS Regulatory APAC (F&B) at Merck Group

The micro-universe of bacteria can cause a macro-world of problems for food manufacturing and supply chain companies. Avoiding these problems—from public health crises associated with foodborne pathogens to brand-damaging product recalls—means that food companies must stay one step ahead of the bugs to stay in business. Despite great strides made in the past decades, the detection of microbial pathogens and their toxins in food remains a challenging task. This is primarily due to several inherent difficulties assocated with food analysis, that is, the complexity of food matrices (inhibitors and normal flora), the attributes of target analytes in foods (low level, heterogeneous distribution and cell injury during processing) and the ratio between the amount of food samples and the detection assay volume.

In this talk the speaker will provide an overview and a better understanding of the limitations, current applications and future perspectives in terms of pathogen and toxin detection in foods.

Lunch Break (1300 – 1400 hrs)

Panel Discussion : Capacity Building for Students: A Win-Win-Win Proposition (1400 – 1445 hrs)

India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, true to its role of mentoring today’s young people, is commited to disseminate analytical knowledge and expertise to the larger student community. In this session the distinguished panel members will share their experiences and deliberate on various topics related to capacity building for students, with focus on:

  1. Old fashioned curriculum for analytical sciences in Indian universities, and need of modernization
  2. Lack of awareness of the teaching staffs, and M.Sc. & Ph.D. scholars about the latest analytical innovations and technologies
  3. Ignorance about the national and international regulatory guidelines of analytical quality control, quality assurance, etc.
  4. How AOAC-India can partner with the Indian academia to improve analytical science education?

Chairperson: Mr Sanjay Dave, Chairman, Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan & Former Chairman, Codex Alimentarius Commission

Panelists:

  1. Dr. Sudip. K.Pattanayak, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi
  2. Dr. Dipankar Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, JNU
  3. Dr. Malay Kishore Dutta, Jt. Head ASET / Addl. Director ADET, Amity School of Engineering and Technology
  4. Dr. Manjeet Aggarwal, Professor and Dean (Research), Head of the Deptt, Basic & Applied Sciences, National Institute of Food Technology and Entrepreneurship management (NIFTEM)

Presentation by “Young Scientist Awardee” and “Best Three Poster Awardees” (1445 – 1545 hrs)

In our endeavor to provide an opportunity to the budding scientists, this session is dedicated to the “Young Scientist Awardee” and “Best Three Poster Awardees” who will be selected by a special jury panel and will be invited to present their work as a short oral presentation in this session.

Session Break (1545 – 1600 hrs)

Closing Session (1600 – 1700 hrs)

India Section of AOAC INTERNATIONAL – Roadmap to Future

Award Session

Valedictory Address

High Tea (1700 – 1800 hrs)

Annual Executive Committee Meeting (1830 – 2030 hrs)

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  1. 1

    Prashant Ketu

    I am interested in attending this conference, what is th enrollment fee for the 2 day of conference and workshop. Please let me know so i can attend the conference.

    1. 1

      Saurabh Arora

      Hi, the registration details are available here http://s26340.p676.sites.pressdns.com/register/