MOU with Foshan City kicks off Global Food Integrity Conference
Media Release
Tuesday 12 July, 2016
MOU with Foshan City kicks off global Food Integrity Conference, Wednesday 13 July
Chinese representatives visiting from Foshan city will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Asia Pacific
Centre for Food Integrity tomorrow morning at the opening of the Food Integrity Conference 2016.
The MOU is an exciting step for the APCFI to work closely with colleagues in China on food safety education in Foshan.
Foshan has a population of more than 7.2million and is the third largest city in the Guangdong province.
This agreement is a huge opportunity for the Asia Pacific Centre for Food Integrity, Executive Director and Conference
Organiser, Dr Helen Darling.
To have this relationship with Foshan city is exciting and challenging. We are seeing strong commitment in China to
improving food safety, and one of the core strategies for this is in developing collaborations between regulators and
private sector. It is an excellent opportunity for a company such as ours, coming from a region which enjoys a strong
food safety sector.”
Later in the morning Food Safety Minister, the Hon Jo Goodhew, will open the Conference at Auckland University’s Grafton
campus.
New Zealand’s supply chain with China is at the forefront of the inaugural Food Integrity Conference 2016. Developing
markets, especially China, are driving New Zealand’s food and beverage export growth with Asia now the largest
destination region.
International and local high profile speakers in the food integrity and safety, food export and producing industries
will address the Conference over two days (13-14 July).
The Conference aims to provide a forum for discussion on current issues facing food producers both in New Zealand and in
China, including such harrowing topics as food fraud and food terrorism. Alongside the “big ticket” items of fraud and
terrorism there is also consideration of the impact of food integrity requirements on SMEs in NZ and abroad.
Local business woman and Conference speaker Rachael Speedy, Managing Director of NZ Premium Foods, knows the value of
premium food from New Zealand and sees an opportunity to not only lead by exporting premium food and beverage products
to South East Asia, but also by promoting the discussion around why food integrity matters to premium exporters.
“The Food Integrity Conference is a really exciting initiative and an opportunity for like minded people to get together
and discuss the issues facing the food and beverage industry, both locally and globally” says Rachael.
“There are many opportunities out there for developing food and beverage export markets, particularly in China and with
online platforms. I am excited to share my knowledge and also to learn more myself from the line-up of very high calibre
speakers at the Conference.”
Rachael will speak on ‘building reputation: building brand across borders’ on day two of the Conference (14 July),
alongside Brendan Hoare of Organics NZ.
Dr Darling, sees great potential for New Zealand to play globally as a leader in food safety and security. “We need to
avoid everyone reinventing the wheel – New Zealand is a small country and to be competitive in the international
marketplace we need to share knowledge and leadership,” says Helen.
International keynote speakers include Col. John Hoffman from the USA, from the Food Protection and Defence Institute –
a US Department of Homeland Security Centre of Excellence based at Minnesota University. Sonia Bradley from the World
Bank, Global Food Safety Programme, will start day two of the Conference with a key note address on Global Food Safety.
Speakers from China include Professor Wu, Chief Scientist, China National Centre of Food Risk Assessment in Beijing; and
Professor Dong, head of the Foshan Food Safety Society and University of Foshan.
The full Conference programme is online at www.food-integrity-conference.com
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