2022 Annual Meeting Summary

The 2022 annual meeting of the Chinese Association for Food Protection in North America (CAFPNA) was held in Pittsburg on Aug 1st. Approximately 60 members participated in the meeting this year. Our current president, Dr. Haiping Li, opened the meeting with a presentation of annual activity briefs from 2020 to 2021. She communicated the three goals of this affiliate: 1) to build a community to inspire and support each other to pursue excellence in Food Safety; 2) to help students and young professionals grow to be the front runners; 3) to be a Chinese cultural ambassador to serve the global food safety initiative. On behalf of Ivy Li(student committee chair), Biyu Wu(student committee vice-chair) summarized the students’ activities and programs. Boosted by a strong lead from Ivy and the active involvement of Biyu and Marti Hua (student committee vice-chair), the success continued for the mentor and mentee program, CAFPNA newsletter, website update, and detailed preparation of our annual meeting, especially for the student competition. After that, the Student Research Presentation Awards were announced for the three winners. The treasurer, Zengxin “Scott” Li, provided an update on the financial status of the Association. Finally, IAFP executive board President-Elect Dr. Ruth Petran delivered a closing remark for the meeting, encouraging members to continue their active participation in CAFPNA in the future.

Student Presentation Competition winners:

1st place: Yaqi Zhao, Ph.D. student, Florida State University
Presentation: Immunodetection of Finfish in Non-finfish Food Products
2nd place: Kaidi Wang, Ph.D. candidate, McGill University
Presentation: Rapid Identification of Foodborne Bacteria Using Single-Cell Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Combined with a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network
3rd place: Xingyi Jiang, Ph.D., Florida State University
Presentation: Application of Novel Non-thermal Processing Technologies in Seafood Protein Analysis

The meeting concluded after virtual networking. Looking beyond 2022, CAFPNA will start with a renewed board member structure with new officers:
President: Dr. Ren Yang, Washington State University
President-Elect: Bima Yige, Nestlé
Treasurer & Delegate: Zengxin “Scott” Li, Rich Products
Staff: Mingxia Zang, Flying Foods Group; Bima Yige, Nestlé
Past President: Dr. Haiping Li, USDA
Student committee chair: Ivy Li, McGill University
Student committee vice-chairs: Marti Hua, McGill University; Biyu Wu, University of Hawaii (-2022 Dec); Chenggeer, University of Missouri.