Food Science for Relief and Development

Tuesday, August 03rd, 2021
grocery store food display - Photo by Stella Tzertzeveli on Unsplash.com

By: Ariel Garsow

Due to having virtual attendance options, from July 19-23, I was able to attend sessions from both the annual meeting for the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) as well as the Institute of Food Technologist’s (IFT) Food Improved by Research, Science & Technology (first) conferences. Some highlights include listening to Dr. Ertharin Cousin, a past Executive Director of the World Food Program and Ambassador to the UN agencies for FAO share how zero hunger is possible as well as learning about food ontology (a framework for naming conventions for food systems). I was not able to attend all of the sessions that I wanted to attend at these conferences. I am looking forward to watching sessions that I missed in the future.

During one of the sessions from IFT first, I was introduced to Food Science for Relief and Development (FSRD). FSRD utilizes knowledge of food science including the safe production of nutritious and culturally acceptable food from farm to fork as one of the tools to solve the wicked problem of ensuring food security for all. The publication of the Global Estimates for Foodborne Disease by the Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference (FERG) Group demonstrated that food safety needs to be a global priority. The estimated burden of foodborne disease globally was similar to that of tuberculosis and malaria (Havelaar et al., 2015). The FSRD movement broadens the current efforts in the development community by showing that food science can be applied to increase food safety and food security.

Food scientists are trained in methods to produce safe, nutritious, food consistently from raw goods to finished products. They can be valuable members on collaborative teams to work to ensure different aspects of food security. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in the intersection between food science, data analytics, and public health whether it be writing a literature review on food safety challenges in refugee camps to collaborating with an interdisciplinary team to estimate risk factors for mycotoxin exposure. It is inspiring to hear about FSRD and the work that is being done to teach food scientists about potential opportunities in the field as well as seeing how food scientists are partnering with others to work to ensure food security.

 

References

Havelaar, A. H., Kirk, M. D., Torgerson, P. R., Gibb, H. J., Hald, T., Lake, R. J., Praet, N., Bellinger, D. C., de Silva, N. R., Gargouri, N., Speybroeck, N., Cawthorne, A., Mathers, C., Stein, C., Angulo, F. J., Devleesschauwer, B., & on behalf of World Health Organization Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group. (2015). World Health Organization Global Estimates and Regional Comparisons of the Burden of Foodborne Disease in 2010. PLOS Medicine, 12(12), e1001923. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001923

Tzertzeveli, Stella. (2020). Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/ORC9DyZXG-I


Ariel Garsow
 
Graduate Research Associate
 
 
 
 
 
 
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August 3, 2021 - 12:31pm -- cellar.21@osu.edu

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