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EU projects represented at RAFA 2013






RAFA Associated events
ASSET 2014
8-10 April 2014, QUB, Belfast, UK
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PROGRAMME

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Final program

RAFA 2013 announcement

The scientific committee and the organizers of the 6th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis (RAFA 2013) aim to prepare a balanced program with many top quality presentations followed by stimulating discussions, several satellite events, a large state-of-the-art exhibition and an attractive social program. Scientific contributions will be presented by leading scientists through keynote lectures and by contributed oral and poster presentations.


SYMPOSIUM SESSIONS will be focused on the following topics (tentative list):
  • Analysis of Nanoparticles in Food
  • Bioanalytical Methods for Food Control
  • Emerging POPs issues
  • Flavour and Food Quality Markers
  • Food Allergens
  • Food Authenticity and Traceability
  • Food Contaminants
  • Food Forensics
  • General Food Analysis
  • Industry Perspectives
  • Natural Toxins Analysis
  • Recent Issues and Novel Technologies
  • Rapid Methods
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INTRODUCING SYMPOSIUM TOPICS (tentative list):
  • Dr. Elke Anklam (European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre Director, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Geel, Belgium)
    New research challenges in food quality and safety control
    Elke Anklam is a chemist by education with specialisation in food, organic and radiation chemistry. After having obtained her PhD from the University Hamburg, Germany, she worked in various European Research Institutions and was teaching as Professor in the Applied University of Fulda, Germany.
    Since 1991 she has been working in the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC-EC). From 2006-2012 she was Director of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) in Ispra, Italy and since January 2013 she is Director of the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM) in Geel, Belgium.




  • Dr. Paul Brereton (The Food and Environment Research Agency, York, United Kingdom)
    The horsemeat incident: Implications for future strategies in food analysis
    Paul Brereton is Co-ordinator of Agri-food Research at the Food and Environment Research Agency based in York, UK. Paul is a Government Agency scientist working in applied research in (bio) analytical chemistry concerned with food and feed. Paul co-ordinated TRACE, an EU integrated project of ~€20M, that comprised a portfolio of international research, training and dissemination activities on food traceability and authenticity. He has published over 70 peer reviewed papers on food safety and quality, he has close links with the food industry, UK Public sector, academia,World Bank and the European Commission. He was recently seconded into Defra to advise on strategic aspects of food authenticity in the wake of the horsemeat incident that affected most of European. He leads a European consortium that has just won a €12M research project “FoodIntegrity” that will develop new methods and systems for assuring the integrity of the food chain


  • Dr. Hermann Broll (European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy)
    Recent trends in application of molecular biology based methods in food analysis
    Hermann Broll. Since May this year, he is working at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy, involved in the safety assessment of genetically modified food and feed. Before he was a staff member of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany, working particularly in the field of traceability for more than 15 years. The establishment of national and international standards for GMO detection, pathogen detection and the identification of animal and plant species have been the focus of his work so far. Beside that he is actively participation in various working groups for the European Commission (EC), Codex Alimentarius and other fora. From 2007 to 2009 he was working at the European Reference Laboratory for genetically modified food and feed (EURL-GMFF) at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EC. He has been actively involved in several European funded projects including the TRACE project. He is the co-author of more than 50 publications.


  • Prof. Alejandro Cifuentes (National Research Council of Spain, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL), Laboratory of Foodomics, Madrid, Spain)
    Foodomics: Present and future challenges in food analysis in the postgenomic era
    Dr. Alejandro Cifuentes is a Full Research Professor at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC) in Madrid. He has been Director of the Institute of Food Science Research and Deputy Director of the Institute of Industrial Fermentations, both belonging to CSIC. Alejandro's activity includes advanced analytical methods development for Foodomics, food quality and safety, as well as isolation and characterization of natural bioactive compounds. He holds different national and international awards, is member of the Editorial Board of 12 international journals (including J. Chromatogr. A, J. Pharm. Biomed., J. Sep. Sci. and Food Anal. Method .) and Editor of TrAC and Electrophoresis. He has published 200 SCI papers, 20 books and book chapters and 6 patents. His h index is 39 and his works have received more than 5000 citations (June-2013). He has defined for the first time in a SCI journal the new discipline of Foodomics.


  • Prof. Christopher Elliott (Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK)
    Bioassays for Biomarkers: Tools for determining human exposure to food toxins
    Chris Elliot is currently Professor of Food Safety and Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published over 250 peer review articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants. His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across the agri- food chains. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris is currently leading an independent review of Britain’s food systems.




  • Prof. Jana Hajslova (Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic)
    Challenges in food (and human) lipids´ analysis
    Prof Jana Hajslova is head of the Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague and its Laboratory of Food Quality and Safety. She is an expert in food chemistry and analysis and published widely more than 175 original papers on organic contaminants and chemical food safety. Her research team participated in many international and national projects at both research and project management levels, particularly in two projects funded by the EC 5th Framework programme, five projects funded by the EC 6th Framework programme, several COSTs and EEA grant. Currently, she is the ICTP team leader in charge of the scientific and technological aspects of the seven EC FP7 collaborative projects. Prof Hajslova participates in many international research activities and under her supervision close collaboration with many world-renowned institutions, such as WHO, FAO, USDA and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has been established. (more)


  • Dr. Jacob de Jong (RIKILT Wageningen UR, Wageningen, the Netherlands)
    Lessons learnt from the CONffIDENCE project: Contaminants in food and feed – Inexpensive detection for control of exposure
    • Education: Analytical Chemistry (Ph. D.), State University of Leiden (NL) • Senior scientist at RIKILT – Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen (NL), since 1989 • Specialisation in methods of analysis for contaminants and undesirable substances in feed (regulatory control, method development, harmonisation) • Programme manager for Feed at RIKILT, since 2004 • Chairman of the CEN committee TC 327 “Animal feedingstuffs - methods of analysis and sampling”; since 2001 • Coordinator of the EU-project “Screening and identification methods for official control of banned antibiotics and growth promoters in feedingstuffs (SIMBAG-FEED)” (FP5), 2001 – 2005 • Coordinator of the EU-project “Chemical contaminants in food and feed: inexpensive detection for control of exposure” (CONffIDENCE) (FP7), since 2008 • Deputy coordinator of the EU-project “Quality and Safety of Feeds and Food for Europe” (QSAFFE) (FP7) since 2011



  • Dr. Amadeo R. Fernández-Alba (European Union Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Residues in Fruit & Vegetables, University of Almeria, Spain)
    New LC-MS approaches to overcome analytical difficulties deriving from the application of EU Pesticide Regulations for Fruits and Vegetables
    Academic/professional activities:
    University Complutense of Madrid . Chemistry Degree,
    University of Granada. PhD Degree
    University of Almeria , Professor in Anal. Chem.
    2006 - present: Head of the European Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables (EURL-FV). eurl-pesticides.eu.
    2008-present: Head of the Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry of the Insituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA-Water) (more)

  • Jean-François Focant (University of Liege, Liege, B)
    Dechloranes: The next emerging POPs?
    Jean-François (Jef) Focant is an Associate Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Liege in Belgium. He is leading the organic and Biological Analytical Chemistry group of the mass spectrometry laboratory. Main research interests are coupling of sample preparation procedures, development of new chromatography strategies in separation science, hyphenation to various types of mass spectrometric detectors through multi-dimensional systems, and implementation of emerging strategies under QA/QC requirements for human biomonitoring and food control. Professor Focant has been active in the field of dioxin analyses for the last 12 years. He chaired the DIOXIN2011 in Brussels.




  • Prof. Rudolf Krska (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, IFA-Tulln, Austria)
    Mycotoxins and their metabolites: From targeted to untargeted analysis
    Rudolf Krska is full professor for (Bio-)Analytics and Organic Trace Analysis at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Since August 2010 he is head of the Department for Agrobiotechnology (IFA Tulln) at BOKU with more than 160 staff. Rudolf Krska, who is also head of the Center for Analytical Chemistry at the IFA-Tulln, is an expert in food and feed analysis by chromatographic, mass spectrometric and immunoanalytical techniques. After obtaining his degree in chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology he carried out postdoctoral studies in the field of mycotoxin determination at Health Canada in Ottawa. Rudolf Krska has established intensive interdisciplinary cooperation with universities and companies and has been coordinator and work package leader of several European Commission funded projects dealing with the determination of mycotoxins and allergens in food. As member of JECFA (Joint Expert Committee for Food Additives) of the FAO/WHO he has evaluated the impact of trichothecenes on humans. (more)


  • Dr. Erich Leitner (Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria)
    Strategies for Flavour and Off-Flavour Detection
    Erich Leitner studied the Technical Chemistry at the Graz University of Technology where he obtained PhD on organic trace analysis and habilitation in "Food Chemistry". His research activities are focused on the identification of volatile and odour active substances in food and food contact materials. Currently he is head of the research group "Food chemistry and Human Sensory Analysis" at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Food Chemistry at the Graz University of Technology. In his research he combines the use of a trained expert panel and a highly specific equipment based on gas chromatographic techniques for the identification and quantification of smelly molecules.




  • Prof. Ryszard Lobinski (CNRS-University of Pau, Pau, France)
    Metals and metalloids in food: Speciation and –omics
    Ryszard Lobinski is research director at the National Research Council of France (CNRS) since 2000 and head of the Laboratory of Analytical Bioinorganic and Environmental Chemistry at UMR5254 in Pau, France. He obtained his PhD (1989) and DSc (habilitation) (1994) degrees from the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. He held postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Spectroscopy and Applied Spectrometry (ISAS) in Dortmund (1990) and at the University of Antwerp (UIA, Belgium) (1991–1994) before joining CNRS in 1994. R. Lobinski holds the professor’s title in Poland and is associate professor at the Warsaw University of Technology (Warsaw). He also held visiting professor’s assignments at GKSS (Geesthacht, Germany) and at Chuo University (Tokyo, Japan). (more)



  • Dr. Bert Popping (Eurofins Scientific Group, Hamburg, Germany)
    The Evolution of Allergen Methods: Will tomorrows method just be better or also faster?
    Dr. Popping is Director Scientific Development at Eurofins. His areas of specialism are GMO, animal and plant speciation, food irradiation analysis and food allergen detection. Most recently, his team developed the first LC-MS/MS based method for allergen multi screening, which showed to be superior to conventional methods, especially in processed materials. He is also partner in the recently funded European Commission project IFAAM, where Eurofins’ Allergen Detection Technology plays a crucial role. Dr. Popping serves on the editorial board of several high impact scientific journals, including J. AOAC, J. FAM, J. FAC, and QAS. At AOAC Int’l, he also serves as General Referee for Food Allergen Methods.




  • Prof. Peter Schieberle (Food Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany)
    The Chemistry of Food Flavours: Simply pleasure or beyond?
    Univ. Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Schieberle, chair of Food Chemistry / Department of Chemistry / Technical University of Munich and Full professor for Food Chemistry, was born in 1951. He studied Chemistry at the University of Aachen and Food Chemistry at the University of Bonn and received his University degree in Food Chemistry in 1977 and the PhD from the Technical University of Munich in 1980. After becoming Lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nueremberg in 1988 and Associate Professor at the Technical University of Munich in 1989, he served as a Full Professor for Food Chemistry at the University of Wuppertal from 1993 to 1995. Since 1995 he is Full professor at the T. University of Munich and holds the chair for Food Chemistry in the Chemistry Department. He is also Director of the German Research Center for Food Chemistry (an institute of the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Society) and Director of the Hans-Dieter-Belitz Institute for Cereal and Protein Research.(more)


  • Dr. Yang Shuming (Institute of Quality Standards & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China)
    Establishment and application of a robust mass spectral library for screening potential contaminants in food


  • Dr. Michele Suman (Barilla Food Research Labs, Parma, Italy)
    Session Summary & Discussion platform: Industry perspectives
    Michele Suman obtained his Analytical Chemistry Degree, Summa Cum Laude, at University of Ferrara in 1997. He won the National Prize for Young Researchers promoted by the Italian Chemistry Federation (Federchimica) in 1998. Then he took a master's degree in 1998 (Master in Science, Technology and Management from University of Ferrara, working at the same time at the "Natta Research Center" of Shell-Montell Polyolefins) and a doctorate in 2005 (PhD in Science and Technology of Innovative Materials from University of Parma), landing the role of Food Chemistry & Safety Research Manager in Barilla Spa company in 2003. (more)




  • Dr. Frans Verstraete (European Commission, Directorate General for Health and Consumers, Brussels, Belgium)
    Recent and future developments in the regulation of food contaminants
    Frans Verstraete graduated in 1985 as agricultural engineer at the University of Ghent (Belgium). After his studies he held positions at the University of Ghent and thereafter at the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture and he was for a period technical adviser of the Belgian Minister of Agriculture. He is working for the European Commission since 1997. In the European Commission he has had various functions but since 2000 he is working at the Directorate General Health and Consumers in the Chemicals, contaminants and pesticides unit. He is responsible for the elaboration, development and management of the EU-legislation concerning certain contaminants in feed and food.




  • Dr. Stefan Weigel (RIKILT Wageningen UR, Wageningen, the Netherlands)
    Analysis of nanoparticles in food: From challenge to routine?
    Dr. Stefan Weigel is analytical chemist and currently works as Senior Scientist at RIKILT – Institute for Food Safety, within Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands. He is coordinator of the FP7 projects NanoLyse (Analytical methods for detection and characterisation of engineered nanoparticles in food) and NanoDefine (“Development of an integrated approach based on validated and standardized methods to support the implementation of the EC recommendation for a definition of nanomaterials”, starting soon) and was assistant coordinator of the FP7 project CONffIDENCE (developing rapid tests for chemical contaminants in food and feed). His main research interests are in the area of trace determination of organic residues and contaminants by means of mass spectrometry and biosensors as well as in the analysis of nanoparticles in complex matrices. He was member of the EFSA Scientific Committee’s working group on nanotechnologies for food and feed applications.





2nd European workshop on Ambient Mass Spectrometry on food and natural products
  • Dr. Facundo Fernandez (Georgia Tech. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Atlanta, USA)
    Ambient Mass Spectrometry: A Tutorial
    Prof. Facundo M. Fernández was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received his MSc in Chemistry from the College of Exact and Natural Sciences, Buenos Aires University in 1995 and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the same University, in 1999. In August 2000, he joined the research group of Prof. Richard N. Zare in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. His work focused on several aspects of Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry with an emphasis on coupling this technique to capillary-format separation methods. In 2002, he joined the group of Prof. Vicki Wysocki in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona, to develop novel tandem mass spectrometers for proteomics. In 2004 he joined the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. (more)



  • Prof. Christian Klampfl (Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria)
    Novel MS techniques for the analysis of food and food contact materials
    Born 1964 in Innsbruck (Austria) where he also received his primary and secondary education, Christian W. Klampfl studied chemistry and received his MSc. (1990) and PhD (1993) from the University of Innsbruck/Austria. Moving to the Institute of Analytical Chemistry at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz (where he is currently holding a position as an associate professor) also meant a strong focus on separation techniques. After a year as research associate with Prof. Paul R. Haddad at the University of Tasmania, he started to conduct first investigations on the hyphenation of separation techniques with mass spectrometry. Besides hyphenated methods author’s interest is also focused on the development of fast analytical methods for screening based on mass spectrometry. (more)




Workshop on ´Infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics for monitoring of food and feed products, lab-to-the-sample´
  • Dr. Vincent Baeten (Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Gembloux, Belgium)
    Dr. Ir. Vincent Baeten is head of the Food and Feed Quality Unit of the Valorisation of Agricultural Products Department of Agricultural products of Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W, Gembloux - Belgium). It has about 15 years of experience on European projects dealing with the development of spectroscopic methods. In the last 10 years he has participated to several projects dealing with quality and safety of food and feed including aspects of traceability and authentication (STRATFEED, TYPIC, MEDEO, CO-EXTRA, TRACE, SAFEED-PAP, CONFFIDENCE, QSAFFE). The Food and Feed Quality Unit is involved in the development of methods based on spectroscopy (NIR, NIR imaging, MIR, Raman), optical microscopy and chemometrics.






Seminar ´Tutorial on chemometric data handling in foodomics´
  • Dr. Tomas Cajka (Metabolomics Fiehn Lab, Genome Center, University of California, Davis, USA)
    Tomáš Čajka, PhD is an Associate Specialist at Metabolomics Fiehn Lab, Genome Center, University of California, Davis. His main research area focuses on application of novel technologies for mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and application of various chemometric tools for data interpretation. He has published 36 journal papers, 6 book chapters, and 21 papers in conference proceedings. In 2007, he was awarded by The Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society for The Young Authors’ Best Paper in Spectroscopy (Gas Chromatography–Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry: An Effective Analytical Tool in the Analysis of Complex Food and Environmental Matrices).






Seminar ´Opportunities to work in and with a European Scientific Institution´
  • Dr. Elke Anklam & Prof. Franz Ulberth (EC–JRC–Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Geel, Belgium)
    Elke Anklam is a chemist by education with specialisation in food, organic and radiation chemistry. After having obtained her PhD from the University Hamburg, Germany, she worked in various European Research Institutions and was teaching as Professor in the Applied University of Fulda, Germany.
    Since 1991 she has been working in the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC-EC). From 2006-2012 she was Director of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) in Ispra, Italy and since January 2013 she is Director of the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM) in Geel, Belgium.




    Franz Ulberth is Head of the Standards for Food Bioscience Unit (until Dec 2012 known as Food Safety and Quality Unit) at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre – Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM). Franz graduated (PhD) in "Food Science and Biotechnology" from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. After graduation he joined the Department of Food Science and Technology at the same university. Triggered by participation in research projects funded by the EC's Measurement & Testing Programme, his research interest soon included quality of analytical data and developing tools such as validated methods and reference materials for ensuring quality in the laboratory. He joined JRC-IRMM in 2002 as a programme co-ordinator for food and environmental reference materials at the IRMM. (more)





Interactive seminar ´Sample-prep and separation techniques and approaches for mass spectrometry detection in food quality / safety: Step by step strategies for fast development of analytical method´
  • Dr. Katerina Mastovska (Covance Laboratories, Greenfield, IN, USA)
    Dr. Katerina (Kate) Mastovska is a Lead Staff Scientist at Covance Laboratories and a Principal Consultant at Excellcon International. At Covance Laboratories, she technically established a new Pesticide Center of Excellence and has been leading the development of new analytical methods and strategies for testing of chemical residues and contaminants in food and dietary supplements. She is actively involved in the AOAC International as the co-chair of the AOAC Chemical Contaminants and Residues in Food community and Topic Advisor and Expert Review Panel member for the veterinary drug residue methods. This year, she is the Program Chair of the 50th North American Chemical Residue Workshop (formerly known as the Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop), which brings together US and international scientists to discuss latest developments in the residue and contaminant analysis field.(more)


  • Dr. Hans Mol (RIKILT Wageningen UR, Wageningen, the Netherlands)
    Hans Mol is senior scientist at RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety, in Wageningen, The Netherlands. He studied analytical chemistry at the Free University in Amsterdam and did his PhD in analytical chemistry at the Technical University of Eindhoven. He has been active in food safety analysis for almost 20 years, first at TNO (Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and then at RIKILT. His current research interest are generic non-targeted analysis of residues and contaminants based on chromatography with mass spectrometry, and on rapid MS-based screening methods. In terms of applications, his main areas of interest are pesticides and natural toxins. He is heading the National Reference Laboratory of pesticides and mycotoxins and is active in EU-working groups on analytical quality control in those fields.



  • Dr. Lukas Vaclavik (Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic & Food and Drug Administration, USA)
    Lukas Vaclavik, Ph.D. is currently working as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the US Food and Drug Administration, USA and maintains a part time at the Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague. His main research area focuses on development and application of advanced analytical methods employing LC-MS and ambient mass spectrometry for the analysis of food and dietary supplements.










SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS:
  • Ample space reserved in the main program for oral presentations given by young researchers
  • RAFA 2013 student travel grants
  • Awards for the best poster presentations by young scientists
  • Discussion platform on research opportunities and post-graduate education in EU, organized jointly by EC Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC-IRMM) and Technology Centre of Academy of Science of the Czech Republic
WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS:

The program will be accompanied by several SATELLITE WORKSHOPS, INTERACTIVE and VENDOR SEMINARS:

  • 2nd European workshop on Ambient Mass Spectrometry in food and natural products
  • Interactive seminar on sample-prep approaches, separation techniques and application of mass spectrometry in food quality / safety control: ´Step by step strategies for fast development of analytical method´
  • Tutorial on chemometric data handling in food-omics
  • Workshop on Infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics for monitoring of food and feed products, lab-to-the-sample
  • Webcast ´Food analysis issues and challenges to be addressed / solved in close future´
  • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) seminar: ´Risk assessment on contaminants in food and feed´
  • Seminar on Food safety issues beyond the EU – challenges for analytical methods update; global view
  • Joint Research Centre seminar – Opportunities to work in and with a European Scientific Institution
  • VENDOR SEMINARS – introducing recent instrumentation and strategies for advanced food quality / safety control