Global perspectives on the future of food safety The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment at the 20th CIFSQ Conference in China

The CIFSQ focuses on the future of food safety. To promote this on a global scale, more than 500 international representatives from regulatory authorities, academia and industry gathered in China again this year to discuss the latest developments in the field over two days. Topics included the assessment and prevention of health risks and new technologies in the food sector. The aim was to develop practical approaches to improving food safety.

In a total of 14 working groups, discussions also covered topics such as novel foods and alternative protein sources, risk communication, artificial intelligence, new chemical pollutants in the food supply chain, and biotoxins.

The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has been taking part in the conference for many years and regularly contributes with presentations on a variety of topics. This year, Professor Hensel spoke on the topic ‘Food in a globalised world – a European perspective’, thereby actively contributing to the exchange of knowledge at the event. Dr Valérie Trendelenburg from the ‘Nutritional Risks and Biomarkers’ unit gave a presentation on potential allergy risks associated with new protein sources. Dr Denise Bloch from the Early-Career Research Group “New-Approach-Method (NAM)-based Assessment of Mixture Toxicities”, in her capacity as co-chair of the International Liaison Group on Methods for Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food and Feed (ILMERAC), presented new methodological approaches to the risk assessment of chemicals in food and feed. As part of the 20th anniversary of the CIFSQ conference, the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment also received an award in recognition of its long-standing support.