About RAFA
On behalf of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague, Czech Republic) and RIKILT, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands), we are delighted to invite all food scientists from academia and industry and representatives of national and international agencies, control authorities, governmental and commercial laboratories to attend the 9th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis (RAFA 2019).
In line with the concept of previous events, RAFA 2019 will provide an overview of contemporary trends in ANALYTICAL & BIOANALYTICAL STRATEGIES IN FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY CONTROL and discuss CHALLENGES / NOVEL APPROACHES IN FOOD AND NATURAL PRODUCTS ANALYSIS. Following RECENT & EMERGING ISSUES will be addressed within the RAFA 2019 sessions:
- Mycotoxins, marine and plant toxins
- Migrants from food contact materials
- Processing contaminants
- Pesticide & veterinary drug residues
- Industrial contaminants
- Allergens, antinutrients
- Metals & metalloids & speciation
- Healthy nutrients & vitamins
- Flavour significant compounds
- QA/QC & Chemometrics & Big data handling
- Authenticity & food fraud
- Omics in food analysis
- Food forensics
- Microplastics in food
- Novel food bioactives & supplements
- Organic crops & foodstuffs
- Human biomonitoring
- Portable on-site food analysis
The organizers of the 9th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis promise to prepare a balanced programme including oral presentations by young scientists, satellite workshops, interactive and vendor seminars and nice social events.
We are looking forward to meeting you again in beautiful Prague!
As long as, you are willing to join us, please mark RAFA 2019 in your calendar.
Prof. Jana Hajslova & Prof. Michel Nielen, conference chairs
RAFA 2017 in numbers
November 7-10, 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
Keynote speakers
Dr. Elke Anklam
Prof. Michel Nielen
Prof. Jana Hajslova
Prof. Chiara Dall'Asta
Dr. Carsten Fauhl-Hassek
Prof. Rudolf Krska
Prof.Michael Rychlik
Dr. Michele Suman
Prof. Yongning Wu
Prof. Christopher Elliott
Prof. Saskia van Ruth
Prof. Bruno Le Bizec
Prof. Thomas Knepper
Dr. Kristian Holst Laursen
Dr. Claudia Zoani
Dr. Jeroen Jansen
Prof. Paul Brereton
Dr. Elke Anklam
European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Geel, Belgium
Dr. Anklam is a chemist by education with specialisation in food, organic and radiation chemistry.
After having obtained her PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany, she worked in various European research institutions and was teaching as Professor in the Applied University of Fulda, Germany. Since 1991 she has been working in the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Between 2006-2012 she was Director of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) in Ispra, Italy. From January 2013 until June 2016, Elke Anklam was Director of the JRC's Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM) in Geel, Belgium.
Following an organisational re-structuring at the JRC in July 2016, she became the Director of the Health, Consumers and Reference Materials Directorate in Geel, Belgium.
Prof. Paul Brereton
Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Great Britain
Paul Brereton is senior scientist working at the science-policy interface. He has over 30 years´ experience of applied research in the area of food safety and quality.
As well as leading numerous national activities, Paul has co-ordinated two of the world´s largest research projects in the area of food authenticity and traceability: the €20M TRACE project (Tracing the origin of food) and FOODINTEGRITY, a €12M EU-sponsored research project that aims to address-at a European level—many of the gaps identified during the recent horsemeat incident.
Paul has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers on food safety and quality and edited the book "New analytical approaches for verifying the origin of food" (Elsevier). He has close links with the food industry, UK Public sector, academia and the European Commission.
Prof. Jana Hajslova
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic
Prof Jana Hajslova is the Head of Accredited (ISO17025) Food Quality and Safety Laboratory of the Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition at the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. She is a widely recognized expert in the field of food/natural products chemistry and analysis, having published more than 300 original papers on the development of advanced analytical strategies of contaminants, residues, natural toxins and other biologically active compounds, authentication and metabolomics. In 2016, Prof Hajslova obtained from Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC Int.) prestigious scientific Harvey W. Wiley Award for her excellent scientific work. Her research team has participated in many international and national projects at both research, management and coordination levels, including the EC 5-7th Framework Programme, H2020, COSTs and EEA grants. Jana's team has been also involved in various bilateral international research activities. Under her supervision, close collaboration has taken place with many world-renowned institutions, such as WHO, FAO, USDA and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Currently, she is the Czech Republic delegate in HORIZON 2020 SOCIETAL CHALLENGE 2: "Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine and Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy" committee. In her capacity as Chairwoman, she had a key input into establishing a series of reputable international symposia, the 'Recent Advances in Food Analysis' series, from 2003 till 2019.
Prof. Saskia van Ruth
RIKILT, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands
Saskia van Ruth heads the Food Authenticity research at RIKILT Wageningen UR in the Netherlands since 2012, which doubles with her position as professor Food Authenticity and Integrity at the Wageningen University.
She received her PhD in Food Chemistry from the Wageningen University in 1995 and subsequently carried out research on lipid and volatiles chemistry as post-doctoral researcher for Unilever. From 1998 till 2005 she joined the Nutritional Sciences Department of University College Cork in Ireland, after which she moved to RIKILT Wageningen UR.
Her present research interests concern complex authentication issues with regard to composition, production systems (organic, sustainable, halal), geographical origin, processing, and typicality with application of state-of-the-art analytical methodology in combination with chemometrics. Furthermore, she is involved in research on factors determining food fraud vulnerability. She has published 180+ scientific papers, and participated in numerous national, EU and global projects/committees/networks.
Dr. Carsten Fauhl-Hassek
Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin, Germany
Dr Carsten Fauhl-Hassek is a food chemist and works at the department for Safety in the Food Chain based within the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Germany. He is head of the unit Product Identify, Supply Chains and Traceability and has special expertise in wine analysis and appreciation, authentication of food and feed, NMR and stable isotope analysis.
Prof. Rudolf Krska
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, IFA-Tulln, Austria
Rudolf Krska is full professor for (Bio-)Analytics and Organic Trace Analysis at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). He is head of the Center for Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Agrobiotechnology (IFA-Tulln) at BOKU with some 50 staff. From 2010-2015 Prof. Krska also served as head of the BOKU-department IFA-Tulln with more than 200 staff. Rudolf Krska has established intensive interdisciplinary cooperation with universities and companies and has been coordinator and work package leader of several European Commission funded projects dealing with the determination and reduction of mycotoxins and hidden allergens in food. As member of JECFA (Joint Expert Committee for Food Additives) of the FAO/WHO he has evaluated the impact of trichothecenes on humans. Rudolf Krska was also member of the Working Group Fusarium of the Scientific Panel on Contaminants of the European Food Safety Authority. 2009/2010 he worked for one year as A/Chief of Health Canada's Food Research Division where he was responsible for the research on chemical contaminants in foods carried out within Health Canada's National Food Chemical Safety Laboratory Network in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Prof. Rudolf Krska has received 10 scientific awards and is (co-)author of more than 300 SCI publications (h-index: 51; citations in 2016: >1200). In 2015 and 2016, Thomson Reuters (Web of Science) identified Prof. Krska as one of the world's most influential contemporary researchers due to his ranking among the top 1% most cited authors in the field of agricultural sciences. His current research interests are in the area of plant-fungi metabolomics, IR-spectroscopy and novel mass spectrometric methods for the determination of multiple mycotoxins including their conjugation and transformation products in food, feed and other biological matrices. As of March 2016, Prof. Krska acts as coordinator of the European Commission funded project MyToolBox (Safe Food and Feed through an Integrated ToolBox for Mycotoxin Management) with 23 partners (including 40% industry participation and 3 partners from China) and a funding volume of more than 6 Mio Euro. Since 2017, he is also Green Area Leader at the Austrian Competence Centre for Feed and Food Quality, Safety and Innovation (FFOQSI) with 18 company partners and a project volume of >5 Mio Euro.
Prof. Michael Rychlik
Technische Universität München, München, Germany
Prof. Michael Rychlik is the Head of the Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry at the Technische Universität München, Germany (TUM). He graduated in food chemistry at the University of Kaiserslautern in 1988. His PhD studies on the flavor of bread were completed in 1996 and he was appointed full professor at the TUM in 2010. His group has been working for 15 years in the field of developing analytical methods for bioactive food components, in particular for vitamins, mycotoxins, odorants and lipids. For these compounds, he developed stable isotope dilution assays (SIDAs) that reveal superior accuracy. Moreover, his research is focused on the application of these methods to recent areas in food chemistry, technology, toxicology and nutrition.
Dr. Michele Suman
Barilla Food Research Labs, Parma, Italy
Michele Suman obtained his Analytical Chemistry Degree, Summa Cum Laude, at University of Ferrara in 1997. He won the National Prize for Young Researchers promoted by the Italian Chemistry Federation (Federchimica) in 1998.
Then he took a master's degree in 1998 (Master in Science, Technology and Management from University of Ferrara, working at the same time at the "Natta Research Center" of Shell-Montell Polyolefins) and a doctorate in 2005 (PhD in Science and Technology of Innovative Materials from University of Parma), landing the role of Food Chemistry & Safety Research Manager in Barilla Spa company in 2003. Here he has been working in an international contest with public and private research centers\organizations on research projects within the field of food chemistry, food safety-quality-authenticity, food contact materials, sensing and mass spectrometry applications for food products.
He is member of working groups in European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and Vice-Chair of the ILSI Process Related Compounds & Natural Toxins Task Force; Leader in the Food Safety Section of Italian National Cluster Agrifood, member of the Board of Mass Spectrometry Division - Italian Chemistry Society; editorial boards of important peer-reviewed journals (World Mycotoxin Journal, Food Additives and Contaminants,...).
He has been involved in various National/European Funded Projects and presently he is WP Leader in the EU-FP7 FoodIntegrity Project and in the EU-H2020 MyToolBox projects.
He has developed experience in academic teaching activities, masters\PhD projects supervision, coordination/chairmanship of international conferences (Recent Advances in Food Analysis, World Mycotoxins Forum, FoodIntegrity, MS Food Day, Rapid Methods Europe, ...).
His scientific production is documented by five book chapters, 104 contributions at national and international conferences and 66 papers in international ISI journals.
Prof. Yongning Wu
China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, Beijing, China
Dr. Wu is Chief Scientist of China National Center of Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA), director of MOH Key Laboratory on Food Safety Risk Assessment, director of WHO Collaboration Centre for Food Contamination Monitoring (China). He obtained his Bachelor degree in public health from Nanjing Medical College in 1983, and received his Master's and Doctor degree in Nutrition and Food Hygiene from Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in 1986 and 1997, respectively. He is UICC follow worked in International Agency for Research on Cancer (Lyon) from 1991 to 1992, the Royal Society KC Wong fellow in the MRC Toxicology Unit (Leicester University). Dr Wu serves as a key members in several national and international food safety committees. He is on the roster list for FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additive (JECFA), e.g,. Expert Panel for Chemical Exposure in Food, as well as Expert Panel for Food Additives, Contaminants and Toxins Analysis, Monitoring and Control. He is a member of the USP Food Ingredients Expert Committee and its Intentional Adulteration Expert Panel as well as Joint Referance Material Standard Committee. He is chairperson of Subcommittee on Food Contaminants of the National Food Safety Standard Reviewing and Approving Committee in China, and the Review Expert Panel on Negative List for Non-edible Food Ingredients as Intentional Adulteration. He has edited 5 books and published 200 papers.
Prof. Christopher Elliott
Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Great Britain
Prof. Chris Elliott is currently Professor of Food Safety and Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published around 300 peer review articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants. His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across the agri- food chains. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal. Over the years Chris has developed a high level network of collaborators across Europe, the United States and Asia. He co-ordinates and participates in multiple European framework research projects. He is a founding member of the International School for Advanced Residue Analysis in Food based in France. He is also a visiting Professor at the China Agriculture University in Beijing, a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Food Science and Technology.
