Today, there are many food crops that have been genetically modified with foreign genes, with specific protein functions, through various biotechnological means. The outcome is that their downstream products using one or more of these genetically modified (GM) crops as raw food ingredients are numerous, and the bio-safety issues have been raised many a time since the first commercialized GM slow-ripening Flavr Savr tomato was first introduced in 1994. Furthermore, active research activities are obvious in this exciting field and many new functional GM traits are in the pipelines. One of the most promising ones is the 'Golden Rice', which is enriched with b-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A. All of them will come on stream when the findings are finalized and approvals are obtained from relevant authorities.

Government legislation and regulations towards the consumption of GM foods are quite sensitive and being hotly debated in many countries. There are also many discussions on to label or not to label a GM food. The Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL) is expected to finalize its guidelines on labeling of GE (genetically engineered) foods soon.

With all these GMO (genetically modified organism) issues in mind, SIFST deems it is indeed timely to gather prominent speakers from their respective field of expertise at a Conference to bring greater awareness to our members, the food industry and the general public, and to update the recent development in the GM techniques, testing methodologies and public status of GM foods in general.

The SIFST International Conference on Genetically Modified (GM) Foods – Prospects, challenges and Safety will be held from 27 February – March 1, 2003 in Singapore. The conference is supported by Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), Chemistry Department of National University of Singapore (NUS), School of Chemical & Life Sciences, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) And Federation of Institutes of Food Science & Technology in ASEAN (FIFSTA).

Included in the programme are technical presentations, ASEAN country papers on regulations and labelling, a half-day short course on "Understanding Genetic Modification and Bio-safety" and a public forum on Current Concerns and Issues of GM Foods.

For further information, contact the Secretariat at SIFST, c/o Singapore Professional Centre, People's Association, West Blk, Room 4, Stadium Link Singapore 397750 Tel: +(65) 6348-2586, Fax: +(65) 6440-9450, Email: info@sifst.org.sg, ctmapl@singnet.com.sg, Web: www.sifst.org.sg.

The CIFST Annual Conference, held May 26 – 28 in Edmonton, Alberta was a great success. The Alberta section organizing committee, led by Murray Fierheller, and national staff, led by Robin Flockton, did an outstanding job of lining up top speakers, arranging a fun filled BBQ at Fort Edmonton and putting on a flawless conference at the Telus Centre, University of Alberta. Food Science in Canada has much to be proud of.

At the CIFST conference, Anne Bieler received the W.J.Eva Award, Nicole Rodrigues received the President's Award, Lanny Scholes of Contract Testing won CEO of the year, Will Chan received the Food Production Award and Dr. James Richards was named to Emeritus Membership.

Some of the many student scholarship winners were Andrea Liceaga and Arun Lekhi taking the George Weston Scholarship, Andrea Liceaga and Stacy Favrin the Fred Thompson Award, Mei Liu who won the 3M Award and Azita Madadi the Dairy Farmers of Canada award. The Student challenge was won in a spirited effort by the hometown team - University of Alberta.

At the IFT conference in Anaheim Brian Raines was named Fellow of IFT. For more news check out our website - http://www.cifst.ca.

Priorities in the year to come:

• Improved and more visible communication with members. This includes the monthly President's Letter, a new "CIFST Science Page" to appear in Food in Canada magazine, and increased visits by the President to Section meetings.

• Building for the Future. We are working with other organizations to build a stronger / more effective and consolidated focus to Food Science and the Food Industry in Canada.

The 12th World Congress on Food Science and technology will host two internet discussions prior to the meeting in Chicago July 16 - 20, 2003. The discussion topics are (1) Food Vaccines: An International Health Delivery System, and (2) Creative Fermentation Technology for the Future. Both are currently receiving considerable attention as the linkage between food and health is exploited to improve the quality of life for individuals.

The internet discussion opens October 1, 2002 and closes January 31, 2003. To provide food for thought, two world-renowned experts on the subject have been asked to prepare white papers on these subjects. Cherl-Ho Lee will author the white paper on fermentation technology, and Charles Arntzen and Richard Mahoney will co-author the white paper on food-derived vaccines. In addition, two international scientists have been asked to respond to the white papers. Following the discussion period, an evaluator will prepare an analysis of the discussion for each topic. These analyses will be available to all registrants May 1 prior to the Congress. Each topic will be presented at the World Congress in an open forum.

We invite you to be an active participant in these discussions. It is an opportunity to make your views known and to become even more informed on these two important topics. The articles will be posted at the website created for this discussion. Information on participating in the online discussion is available at http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/iufost/iufostlistinfo.htm

The University of California-Davis will host the two discussion mailing lists and archive the messages on the Web. The Creative Fermentation Technology site will be http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/iufost/creative.htm, and the Food-Derived Vaccine Site will be http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/iufost/food.htm.

Daryl Lund (dlund@cals.wisc.edu) and Pamela Tom (pdtom@ucdavis.edu) are chair and co-chair of the internet discussion, respectively.

To encourage student participation in IUFoST World Congress 12, a limited number of student scholarships are available. Adhering Bodies and Professional/Scientific Organisations are encouraged to fund or partially fund additional students, our future food science and technology professionals, to attend the world congress.

Each Adhering Body may nominate one student for a scholarship. The nomination should consist of a letter from the student indicating their extent of need and justification for support, the name of their poster session presentation, brief curriculum vitae, and an endorsement by the IUFoST Adhering Body in the country.

Nominations are due January 1, 2003 and should be sent to Ms. Pamela Pierson, Director of Field Services, Institute of Food Technologists, 525 West Van Buren Street, Suite 1000, Chicago, IL 60607-3814, USA, Tel: + 1 312 782 8424, Fax: + 1 312 782 8348, E-mail: pjpierson@ift.org.

Papers must be submitted through the IUFoST World Congress 12 poster session abstract submission process. Criteria for selection include acceptance of the nominee's paper for abstract presentation, need, and regional distribution. Students selected for scholarships will be notified by March 1, 2003.

We are sure you have learned about the disturbing news on the political situation in Venezuela and violence in Caracas last April. We were very sad and depressed because of these events, but we have pulled together our spirits, and things are getting back to normal in the country.

The 3rd Venezuelan Congress in Food Science and Technology was held in Caracas, Venezuela, June 29 - July 3rd, at the Hilton Caracas Hotel, organized by the Institute of Food Science and Technology (ICTA) of Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and ILSI North Andean, Venezuelan Chapter. We also got the auspice of the CYTED Program (Science and Technology for Development). Thanks to them all we could face the challenge of going ahead with our Congress in a very adverse economical situation and tense political climate.

The scientific program covered hot topics in food safety, including biosecurity, BSE, the control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods, and the proper place for HACCP in the food safety spectrum from "farm to table"

Pre-congress courses, round tables and poster sessions were part of the scientific program. Among the topics addressed was mixed or composite flours (with partial substitution of wheat for rice), a topic of current national importance. This roundtable gathered rice producers, wheat importers, pasta, bread and bakery industries and the official sector. Did you know that Venezuela is one of first pasta consumers in the world? After Italy of course. That tells a lot about how much wheat we import. Other topics included those of meat and dairy sectors, and functional foods.

There continues to be a lot of activity dealing with the CYTED Program. CYTED Project XI-15 "Emerging Technologies of Interest for Ibero-América", the Institute of Frío and the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations of Spain, the Ministries of Science and Technology of Spain and Venezuela and FUNDACYT of Ecuador, organized the Symposium "Emerging Technologies of Interest for the Food Industry" that took place March 11 to 13, 2002, at the headquarters of the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations in Madrid.

Food consumption patterns have changed in modern society and consumers are increasingly asking for foods with fresh-like characteristics and extended shelf-life. Alternative approaches to either thermal or non-thermal conventional treatments are being investigated and developed to meet demands for minimal quality changes, added value and guaranteed safety. Consumers and the food industry of the Iberoamerican Region cannot be let aside of the current trends in food processing and are increasingly aware of the "new" criteria for quality and safety required from industry and governments. Consumers are also very much exposed to the constant information released by media on these topics.

For this reason, Iberoamerican researchers under the successful modality of cooperative research management developed by CYTED, conscious of the responsibility of not staying behind of the current developments in Food Science and Technology, or not losing research and market opportunities, decided to launch Project XI.15 "Development of Emerging Technologies of Interest to Iberoamérica".

Many research lines were reoriented toward emerging technologies or emerging approaches that employ the inherent concept of combined methods of preservation in order to obtain foods that meet the demands of modern consumers and food industry. These decisions were taken with responsibility and with a certain audacity, since in particular in Latin America, social and economic pressures could slant national science and technology policies towards immediate and low-cost technological solutions. Support of CYTED and of the National Organisms of Science and Technology (ONCYTS) to this initiative is greatly appreciated.

The event was very successful in its approach to help explore possible transfers of the scientific approaches of Project XI.15 toward the productive or service sector and also serve for promotion of the results of the activities of the Project. The distinctive character of the symposium was exemplified by the participation of industry along with research groups of CYTED, We were able to observe demonstrations of some emergent food preservation operations, using equipment that was transported from the laboratories where they are installed in various universities of Spain, to the Institute of Frio in Madrid. Researchers from Europe and Iberoamérica, many of them members of the Sub-Program XI.Treatment and Conservation of Foods, attended. We tried to offer a forum of encounter, communication and discussion, to encourage a better knowledge and collaboration between people from industry and researchers from Europe and America. It was also an excellent occasion to present the work developed in the last years for Iberoamerican groups linked through CYTED.

We continue working in designing functional fruits. We have incorporated Calcium and Zinc into the porous spaces of fruit tissues like melon, apple and papaya. In a vacuum impregnation process, the hydrodynamic mechanism (HDM) can also be used to facilitate incorporation of microorganisms like Bifidobacterium spp, thus obtaining probiotic-containing fruit pieces. We have prebiotics in sight for designing symbiotic fruits.

While I am putting the final touches to this small news from Venezuela, big news from the world has reached us all, regarding FIFA´s World Champions. SUERTE!

IFT President Philip Nelson welcomed attendees of the Annual Meeting & Food Expo at the opening on June 15, 2002.

With more than 1,700 technical presentations, this year's meeting offered a tremendous wealth of information for attendees, Nelson said. He encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunity to learn and network through the presentations and exhibits.

Incoming President Mark McLellan thanked Nelson for his dedication to IFT over the past year. Because of Nelson's hard work, 'IFT is crouched; we are a tiger, and we are ready to spring," McLellan said.

He emphasized that IFT will need the involvement of its members to move ahead into the future. The organization, in turn, will work hard for the members, he said. "IFT will not deliver programs in spite of our members, but rather, we will present programs that meet the specific needs of our members," he said.

McLellan also introduced his successor, Ann Hollingsworth, who will take office as President-Elect when he becomes president in September.

Food science is a field whose time has come.

That was the message Keynote Speaker Joseph Jen, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, had at the opening of the IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo.

"Much like this year's IFT theme, 'A Gold Mine of Innovation and Knowledge' implies, I too, believe that today opportunities abound for food scientists and technologists in this country and around the world," he said. "The time is right for food science."

Agriculture today is more consumer driven and less commodity driven, Jen said. Consumers are concerned about the quality, price, convenience, safety, nutrition, and environmental impact of the food they eat. "These consumer needs and concerns are helping to direct future research efforts and are creating unprecedented opportunities for scientists working in food science and technology," he said. "consumers are continually demanding more variety, nutrition, and convenience from the food they eat."

Trying to improve the American diet is also a challenge to the industry, Jen said. Although nutritional deficiencies in diets has been reduced, it has been replaced by other poor dietary practices, particularly excessive and unbalanced eating resulting in obesity and increased risk of health problems, he said. "According to USDA's healthy Eating Index nearly seven out of every eight Americans (all but 12%) have poor diets or are in need of improving the nutritional quality of their diet," he said.

Increased trade worldwide has opened new markets for American products. Increased competition means that the U.S. needs to find new markets and develop new products for specialty markets.

"U.S. exports for agricultural and food products will continue to grow, particularly in the value-added products," he said.

Jen also encouraged the audience to continue to work on the challenges ahead.

"Indeed, science is the foundation of our entire food and agricultural system, and food scientists and technologists are the cornerstones within that structure," he said. "The work you do in food science affects the lives the lives of all Americans and people everywhere on the most basic of levels – through the food we consume. I applaud your efforts. Keep up the good work".

Dr. Pedro Sanchez, a native Cuban and graduate of Cornell University in the United States, has been selected to receive this year's World Food Prize.

Dr. Sanchez was selected for his groundbreaking contributions to reducing hunger and malnutrition throughout the developing world by transforming depleted tropical soils into productive agricultural lands. As the leader of the North Carolina State University Rice Research Program in the 1970s, Dr. Sanchez helped guide Peru to dramatically improve its national food security, achieving self-sufficiency in rice production within three years, and achieving among the highest rice yields in the world. Next, Dr. Sanchez developed a comprehensive approach to soil management which enabled 30 million hectares (75 million acres) of marginal Brazilian land, known as the Cerrado, to be brought into production – the single largest increase in arable agricultural land in the last half-century.

Most recently, Dr. Sanchez served as Director General of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), a Future Harvest center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) located in Nairobi. There, Dr. Sanchez has led the scientific research effort to provide smallholder farmers in Africa and Southeast Asia with the means to replenish crucial nutrients in exhausted soils, through the development and promotion of agroforestry. The practice of planting trees adjacent to crops has provided nearly 150,000 farmers in Africa with a way to fertilize their soils inexpensively and naturally, without relying on costly chemical fertilizers.

Links to the new website are:

English Version: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/index_en.stm

Version française: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/index_fr.stm

Versión español: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/index_es.stm

The website has been completely re-designed to give easy access to the following thematic areas:

• ABOUT CODEX: corporate information about the Codex Alimentarius Commission; subsidiary bodies; Codex Contact Points; and observer organizations; the Procedural Manual and the Strategic Framework

• MEETINGS AND EVENTS: timetables for forthcoming Codex meetings with links to the Provisional Agendas and working documents; archives for meetings that have been held; historical archives including reports of all Codex Commission meetings (this area is still under development)

• OFFICIAL STANDARDS: All of the Standards in the "Codex Alimentarius" available from the search tool as well as a list of standards.

There are helpful links to the work of FAO and WHO in providing scientific support to the Codex Commission and links to other organizations.

NOTE: The internet address (URL) remains unchanged though and you can still download documents, reports, standards and general information related to Codex events and procedures at http://www.codexalimentarius.net

However, if you had stored the electronic path to the

Codex Website in your favorites (Internet Explorer) or in

your bookmarks (Nestcape Navigator) as

www.codexalimentarius.net/default.htm please change it to http://www.codexalimentarius.net. In any case, an automatic rerouting procedure had been put in place so that your computer will find alone the first mentioned address.

An expert Con-sultation on the implications of acrylamide in food, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), concluded in June with the two organizations planning to establish a network for research on acrylamide to achieve a better understanding of human exposure and its possible health effects. Acrylamide will be added as a priority item to the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives for a more detailed evaluation.

The Consultation of 23 scientific experts, specializing in carcinogenicity, toxicology, food technology, biochemistry and analytical chemistry, identified a number of important issues for which research is urgently needed. While acrylamide is known to cause cancer in laboratory a nimals, no studies of the relationship between acrylamide and cancer in humans have been done.

The Consultation did not consider the data available to be adequate to present specific quantitative estimates of cancer risk posed by levels of acrylamide in people's diets. The scientists urged investigation of the possibilities for reducing the levels of acrylamide in food by changes in formulation, processing and other practices.

Acrylamide is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics. It was first discovered to be present in certain foods cooked at high temperatures as the result of work announced in Sweden in April 2002. It is a known carcinogenand causes nerve damage.

The Swedish research, and subsequent studies in Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, have found that acrylamide levels in certain starch-based foods, such as potato chips, french fries, cookies, cereals and bread, were well above the level given in the World Health Organization's Guideline Values for Drinking Water Quality.

The Consultation recommended that more research is necessary in areas including:

• Determining how acrylamide is formed during the cooking process

• Epidemiological studies of relevant cancers in humans

• Studies of acrylamide in other foods, including those present in non-European and North American diets

For more information, contact Gregory Hartl, WHO, Geneva. Tel. (+41 22) 791 4458; E-mail: hartlg@who.int, Web site: www.who.int

On March 28, 1952, a small group of graduates of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) gathered in Zurich to lay the foundation of what is now the Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology (LWT - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und Technologie). They had all passed their education in a curriculum of Food Technology, which had been newly established in 1946 at the College of Agriculture at ETH. At that time the curriculum was called Agrotechnology, and accordingly the alumni organization was called Agrotechnology Association. At the beginning of its activities, the association had a club-like atmosphere as the number of graduates remained small for quite some time. The goal of the alumni was to promote exchange of professional experience by regularly editing a newsletter, and later by organizing extension courses. The association also participated actively in further developing the curriculum of food science and technology at ETH Zurich. An annual general assembly was always combined with a visit to one of the Swiss food companies, a tradition that has been carried until today.

In the late 1960s several developments led to the transition of the Agrotechnology Association into a professional society to which food specialists other than the alumni of the agrotechnology curriculum were also welcome. It was felt that Switzerland needed a society that would represent the scientific and technological issues of food processing in a larger context. Also, the Forster Publishing Co. Zurich was looking for a group that would support the international scientific journal lwt Lebensmittelwissenschaft und Technologie - Food Science and Technology. Forster Publishing started lwt in 1968 on the initiative of a group of food scientists at ETH Zurich, at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and at the Federal Research Institute for Food Preservation (now Nutrition) in Karlsruhe, Germany. Finally, exploration started on the potential for Switzerland to join the newly founded IUFoST.

These were reasons enough to open up the Agrotechnology Association in 1970 and, in 1971, to give it its present name and its present abbreviation LWT. Membership and activities expanded as expected. In 1977 membership was up to 236, still small for international standards, but reasonable and relevant for a small country like Switzerland. Therefore, there was no hesitation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the society with a two-day event in the area of Neuchâtel. In 1992 the membership passed the 500 limit, and by last spring, somewhat more than 800 members were registered. The 50th anniversary of LWT was celebrated on May 16 and 17 of this year again in the area of Neuchâtel. In fact, the evening program and the banquet took place in the very same castle as 25 years ago. And the celebrations even coincided with the start of expo.02, the Swiss National Exhibition, which is taking place this summer at the shores of Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Morat.

When LWT received its new statute and name in 1971, lwt became the official publication, and a fruitful cooperation between Forster Publishing and LWT started. lwt was complemented in 1973 by LT - Lebensmitteltechnologie, a journal which is mostly written in German, oriented more towards practical food technology, and now circulated as the second official publication of LWT. In 1986 LWT had the opportunity to acquire the propriety rights for lwt from Forster Publisher. In this transfer Academic Press, now an imprint of Elsevier Science Ltd., became publisher and producer of the journal on behalf of the society. This was a fortunate arrangement, and collaboration between the two parties has been of mutual benefit. The journal LT is still published in Switzerland by a local publishing house.

As for the membership of Switzerland in IUFoST, a Swiss National Committee to IUFoST was founded in 1972, and in 1973 Switzerland officially joined IUFoST. LWT had a leading role in the committee right from the beginning. Through the committee, stimulating contacts were built between IUFoST and LWT. Several members of LWT served to IUFoST, be it on the Executive Committee or in working groups. LWT and the national IUFoST committee organized two well-received international scientific IUFoST symposia, on in Einsiedeln in 1979 on "The Role of Food Components in Food Acceptance", the other in Zurich in 1987 on "Food Acceptance and Nutrition". And finally, negotiations between IUFoST, LWT and Academic Press succeeded in the nineties to declare lwt as one of the official publications of IUFoST.

On the occasion of the 1st International Symposium on Food Rheology and Structure, the Swiss National Committee to IUFoST hosted the annual Officers' meeting of IUFoST and celebrated its 25th Anniversary. At present, the committee represents four national societies active in food science and technology and nutrition with a total of approx. 2,300 members, i.e. LWT, Swiss Society for Food Hygiene, Swiss Society of Food and Environmental Chemistry, and Swiss Society for Nutrition Research.

Of course, LWT has established not only relationships with the world community of food science and technology through IUFoST, but also with its German speaking neighbor associations in Austria and Germany. So far, several successful advanced study courses were organized together.

By all these international contacts, LWT has opened up in a favorable way without losing the perspectives of its development in Switzerland. Since one year ago, it is member of the Swiss Food Net, an new organization that tries to reach all public and private partners interested in issues of food research and development. One is tempted to say that LWT, in getting ready for the next 50 years, wisely follows the slogan of the new millennium "Think globally, act locally".