The International Symposium on Food Safety

Overview of the European Smart Food Tour

Assessing the extent and depth of food value chains in the EU: Are they successful?

Dennis McKnight
President & CEO
The Innovators Global Network

Chairman's Opening Remarks

Assessing Global Concern Regarding Food Safety

Mr. Art Froehlich
Chair
Agriculture and Food Council of Alberta, Canada

Art's international agribusiness experience has included plant protection, grain handling, grain processing and food in Canada, the U.S., South America, Asia and Europe. As Director of Sales and Marketing for Hoechst Canada, Art's responsibilities included animal health and crop protection divisions. He was a credit adviser for the Farm Credit Corporation and has served on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute. Recently Art agreed to mentor start-up nutraceutical firms involved in animal nutrition via the Business Development Bank of Canada. Art grew up on a family farm in Saskatchewan and still manages a commercial and purebred Red Angus operation.

Assessing European Agriculture and Food Trends: What are Consumers Demanding and What Must Producers Supply?

Dr. David Hughes
Professor of Agribusiness & Food Marketing, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Wye
Imperial College, England

David Hughes has over twenty years experience in the fields of agribusiness management and food marketing. As Professor of Agribusiness and Food Marketing he has responsibility for directing undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, managing the research programme on the food industry, and liaising with senior representatives of the agribusiness and food industries in Europe. David is a frequent speaker at major national and international conferences on global food industry issues.

Animal Health & Food Safety: From the Stable to the Table

Dr. Ulrich Kihm
President & CEO
Safe Food Solutions, Bern, Switzerland

Ulrich Kihm's career has been built from his wide diversity of professional skills and his profound knowledge of infectious diseases and zoonoses, combined with his more than fifteen years of experience in the field of animal health at the international level. For the past 10 years he has been the Chief Veterinary Officer of Switzerland, working to control BSE among other important diseases. Dr. Kihm recently chaired the International Expert Panel into BSE in Canada and how the respective government agencies responded to the crisis.

Dr Kihm also teaches Veterinary Public Health at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Bern, Switzerland. He currently is the CEO of a private company SAFOSO Switzerland, Safe Food Solutions Inc.

Safe Food Solutions is a consulting company providing professional services in all aspects of food safety on a global level with a primary emphasis on foods of animal origins. The integration of processes from stable to table is the focus of their expertise as safe feed and healthy animals are the prerequisites for safe milk, meat, eggs, honey and other animal- derived products. Healthy animals - safe products - healthy people. SAFOSO utilize a world wide network of experts to address issues of animal health and food safety at each step in the food chain from stable to table.

Accessing Real Time Data Anywhere in the World

Bill Miller
Chief Scientist
Telegnomic

Telegnomic Limited helps food processing enterprises access real-time data from physical assets virtually anywhere in the world - no matter how remote. The company's unique Asset Intelligence System (AIS) captures and transmits physical data from remote locations to a central resource. This information is made available to clients in a comprehensive range of formats developed for their unique requirements. The Telegnomic¨ Asset Intelligence Systemú delivers critical environmental and production information for food producers, to optimize business performance.

Examples of the usage of the Telegnomic¨ Asset Intelligence Systemú in this industry vertical include hog production, industrial plant waste water and odor monitoring, temperature and air quality in feed stores, general buildings and equipment performance/health, plus workflow management and workforce monitoring.

In March of 2003, Telegnomic signed a multi year partnership contract with Elite Swine Inc. (ESI). ESI, a subsidiary of Maple Leaf Foods Inc (MLF). ESI is the first of the MLF subsidiaries to implement the Telegnomic technology. Food retailers like Sainsbury's use technology developed by Telegnomic as well.

Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative was founded by Groupe Danone, Nestle and Unilever in 2002. This organization actively promotes international sustainable agriculture policies. We have invited this Geneva based organization to address the audience in order to find out why SAI Platform was created, and how it supports the development of and communicates worldwide about sustainable agriculture involving the different stakeholders of the food chain.

Corporate Presentation: Case Study by Rank Hovis

Rank Hovis is the UK's leading miller, produces over 1 million tonnes of flour per year in 11 Mills throughout the UK. Their extensive product portfolio includes a comprehensive range of flours and mixes. Rank Hovis is owned and operated by RHM, one of the largest food companies in the UK and Ireland and is built upon some of the leading brands like Hovis, Mr. Kiplings, Sharwood's and Bisto. Additionally, RHM creates innovative products for companies like Marks & Spencer, MacDonald's and other major customers.

Ensuring Consumer Satisfaction Through Identity-Preserved Programmes at Warburtons

Warburtons has long been recognized for producing the best quality products on a consistent basis and continually finding ways of improving their baking technology and processes.

Warburtons is recognized as the UK's premier bread and retails at a higher price point than other competitive products.

Flour from wheat is the most important ingredient in producing the best quality bread. Warburtons operates wheat growing programmes in Canada, and this wheat is blended with special selected UK and European wheat for their unique receipt.

This session will explore Warburtons commitment to food quality and food safety, tracking and traceability in light of the ongoing GMO debate and consumer concern.

Understanding Consumer Concerns and Ensuring you are on Message!

Bartle Bogle Hegarty

With offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, New York and Sao Paulo, BBH is a leading advertising Agency with many clients in the food business. This session will address the product positioning of major European Brands and look at consumer expectations in the food Industry. How are brands presented and what are the messages that consumers are responding to?

Bartle Bogle Hegarty is renowned for its creativity - it has consistently outflanked its rivals at Cannes and other festivals. BBH has an approach to developing international campaigns that is virtually unique. As they say on their website: "When the world zigs, zag".