2016 CAFPNA and CAFP Joint Annual Meeting Report
9/7/2016
By Zuoxing Zheng, President of CAFPNA (2015-2016)
The joint annual meeting of Chinese Association for food Protection (CAP) and Chinese Association for Food Protection in North America (CAFPNA) took place on August 1, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri, during IAFP’s 2016 annual meeting. More than 80 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. Zuoxing Zheng, the current president of CAFPNA and Prof. Xianming Shi, Vice President of CAFP welcomed the attendees. IAFP Vice President Mickey Parish gave a brief welcome remark on behalf of IAFP, and appreciated what we have done in the last year. He also informed our members of the upcoming meeting, the 10th China International Food Safety & Quality Conference in Shanghai on November 2-3, 2016. He 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. China International Food Safety & Quality Conference + ExpoThe IAFP Executive Director, Mr. David Tharp also joined us for our traditional general member’s group photo.
Two featured presentations were given: “China Food Safety Status, Challenges and Progress”, by Prof. Xianming Shi from Shanghai Jiaotong University; and “China Food Safety – What I Know”, by Dr. Zhinong Yan from Ecolab Asia Pacific. Both were inspiring and well received. They presented examples of food safety scandals recently occurred in China and explained the root causes and fundamental issues China is facing today, and progress made so far addressing food safety in China as well as projected developments in the future. Tremendous progress and many positive movements in both policy making and scientific development were encouraging and promising. Efforts in risk assessment and communication, public education and demystification in food safety need to be strengthened in the future.
Dr. Zheng also congratulated the growth of our affiliation with current 222 members, up from 198 members in last year and only 30 members in the beginning of the Association, and thanked the support of all the board and committees members throughout the year. He reported CAFPNA activities and major accomplishments achieved in the past year including the educational Webinars and mentor-mentee program offered to all members of CAFPNA. A new bank account has been opened for CAFPNA and will help initiate some award activities in the future. Mentor-mentee and student committee Chair Yue Cui 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. We hope more members will participate in this program in the future so more and more students or other members who need career planning/development advices will benefit from the program. Advices and assistance for student’s future career development was also discussed by the members.
To promote interactions among members in similar organizations, the President of CAFS (Chinese American Food Society under IFT), also a CAFPNA member, Vivian Wu introduced CAFS at the meeting and encouraged attendees to join both associations so that they may be benefited from both organizations.
Dr. Shi from CAFP shared some activities he participated in the last year and some events he planned for the next year. Dr. Shi also addressed the demand from the students in China for more information about coming to U.S. for study and for establishing mentor-mentee relationships with food safety professionals in the U.S.
An election for the new board member (secretary position) was conducted. Here is the new board of CAFPNA 2016-2017 after the election:
President: Xiuping Jiang
President Elect: Luxin Wang
Past President: Zuoxing (Zachary) Zheng
Secretary: Zengxin (Scott) Li
Treasurer: Wen Zou
Delegate: Zachary Zheng
Lastly, led by the incoming President Dr. Xiuping Jiang, all the members had a very active discussion on the plans of activities for the year of 2016-2017. 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.