Safer Food Imports Goal Of Public-private Venture

[GAZETTE]  UNIVERSITY, MASS. COMPANY TO LAUNCH TRAINING CENTER FOR FOREIGN PRODUCERS

Everyone needs food to survive, and access to safe foods is essential for everyone’s health and sustainability.  Unfortunately in many places across the globe safe foods are not always available.  Luckily, the University of Maryland’s M Square research park will soon become the “hub for ensuring global food safety.”

The university recently partnered with the Waters Corporation of Milford, Massachusetts to create the International Food Safety Training laboratory that is expected to open July 2011.  The laboratory will be located in the Patapsco Building in M Square and will be the first of its kind in the U.S.  The Waters Corp. will invest $4 million in technology and curriculum design for the facility that will employ 5 full-time workers. 

About 200 foreign scientists will convene annually at the facility to be trained about safe production and trading practices by the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, which is a collaborative program between the university and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  FDA regulations will then be used by foreign food producers to perform their own analyses.  This is very important domestically as well  because 15% of the U.S. food supply is produced internationally. “The goal is to improve food safety for customers in the U.S. and, in turn, domestically for the producers’ countries,” said Paul Mazzocchi, the program’s associate director.  “The demand for expertise — especially the hands-on variety — far outstrips current technical capacity in many countries, driven in part by U.S. importers and retailers seeking safety assurances,” he said in a statement.

Although this is not a business incubator, visiting scientists and producers will provide an economic boost to area businesses and bring attention to the university and M Square Research Park which also houses the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“This collaboration is a superb example of how the public and private sectors can maximize their impact by combining their strengths,” university President C.D. Mote Jr. said in a statement. “The new programs have excellent potential for improving food safety internationally.”

Continue reading this Gazette article to learn more about this laboratory and food safety.



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