2017 CAFPNA and CAFP Joint Annual Meeting Report

2017 CAFPNA and CAFP Joint Annual Meeting Report

9/7/2017

By Xiuping Jiang, President of CAFPNA (2016-2017)

The joint annual meeting of Chinese Association for food Protection (CAP) and Chinese Association for Food Protection in North America (CAFPNA) took place on July 10, 2017 in Tampa, Florida, during IAFP’s 2017 annual meeting. More than 57 members from North America, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong attended the meeting. Most of the attendees well represented professionals from academia, industry and government, and many domestic and international students showed up as well. 

Dr. Xiuping Jiang, the current president of CAFPNA and Dr. Zhinong Yan, a representative of CAFP welcomed the attendees. IAFP Secretary Dr. Kalmia Kniel gave a brief welcome remark on behalf of IAFP, and appreciated what we have done in the last year.  She also informed our members of the upcoming meeting, the 11th China International Food Safety & Quality Conference in Beijing on November 1-2, 2017.  She encouraged all attendees to continue to make progress towards professional development and also volunteer to participate in IAFP’s programs, especially the program with China food safety. Afterwards, our traditional general member’s group photo was taken.

One featured presentation was “Some not-so-common facts about what’s in Your food” presented by Dr. Keith Lampel, FDA.  The presentation was well-received by revealing different perspectives of food safety in some not conventional areas such as smuggling game products, and exotic food products transported through international travel. 

Dr. Jiang reported the growth of our affiliation with current 251 members, up from 222 members in last year, and thanked the support of all the board and committee members throughout the year.  The CAFPNA activities and major accomplishments achieved in the past year were also presented.  Three webinars were offered to and well-received by our members using the facility provided by our previous president Dr. Ruiqing Pamboukian.  The following is the list of these webinars:

  • Investigating food and environmental reservoir of antibiotic resistance – 4.27.2017 Dr. Yifan Zhang, Wayne State University
  • Industry career development: FSMA and its rules’ impact for the food industry and your career - 5.23.2017  Zengxin (Scott) Li, Rich Products Corporation
  • FDA import operation – 6.12.2017 Dr. Samuel Chan, FDA

Mentor-mentee and student committee Chair Ms.Yue Cui also reported the activities and successful stories on the mentor-mentee program as well as some challenges the Committee faced. The purpose of the mentor-mentee program is to provide insight and guidance on career planning and development and build connection and strengthen professional relationships by sharing the best practices and experiences among professionals and students.  

To sustain the continued growth of our affiliate and provide more services to our members, the board members spent significant time last year to discuss about ways for fund raising.  Starting this year, we have implemented the collection of membership dues ($10 for graduate student, $20 for professional member, and $200 for lifetime professional member).  A total of $250 was collected as membership fee during our annual meeting. 

Additionally, Prof. Xiumei Liu donated to our affiliation a new book “Microorganisms in Foods 8: Use of Data for Assessing Process Control and Product Acceptance (Intl Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods) 2011, which she translated it into Chinese. 

An election for the new board member (secretary position) was conducted.  Here is the new board of CAFPNA 2016-2017 after the election:

President: Luxin Wang
President Elect: Zuoxing (Zachary) Zheng
Past President: Xiuping Jiang
Secretary: Wen Zou 
Treasurer: Guodong Zhang and Xiaonan Lu
Delegate: Xiuping Jiang

Lastly, led by the incoming President Dr. Luxin Wang, all the members had a very active discussion on the plans of activities for the year of 2017-2018. Some of the future activities include continued improvement of the affiliate website, more utilization of Webinars as a tool to connect members and provide educational opportunities, and working closely with CAFP to improve communication and enhance collaboration between CAFPNA and CAFP in the future.