 |  |
IUFoST REGIONAL
BODY:
Federation of Institutes of Food Science and Technology in ASEAN
(FIFSTA)
Report by Prof. Luu Dzuan, Correspondent
The IUFoST Regional Group, FIFSTA, held its General Meeting on 13 June 2002 in Bangkok, Thailand with representatives from associations in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar and Bhutan and these members reported on their country’s activities.
FoSTAT of Thailand
Dr Sakrindr reported that FoSTAT today has some 450 individual members and 150 corporate members. The association was promoting its youth program more aggressively by bringing more awareness of FoSTAT activities to young graduates. For human resources development, the association organized one or two seminars a month by tapping the expertise and know-how of members and expert visitors.
The association became an Affiliate Member of IFT last year and has been associated with IUFoST for a long period. Such affiliations brought useful exchanges of technical matters and opened another avenue to obtain foreign experts for conferences.
FoSTAT was working with key institutions like US EPA in certifying members for providing better process control tools. It also had linkage with the agricultural departments of eight universities for an Academic Forum for Agro Industries. A link was also set up with the Food Section of the Federation of Thai Industries to look into academic certification of various functions of food science and technology. It would register professionals at the request of the government agencies. There was a Food Risk Promotion Program with the Thai FDA as well.
Myanmar
Ms Win Win Kyi, the National Technical Consultant to FAO Projects in Myanmar, made a comprehensive oral presentation on the recent industrial development in Myanmar, particularly in areas of food crops. She stressed that Myanmar required help in technology transfer and would welcome the members to visit her country.
Dr Alastair Hicks, FAO, added that there were some USD 15 million projects in three regions of Myanmar today and the country would appreciate any sort of technical linkage. Members were urged to keep contacts with Ms Win Win Kyi to facilitate such process. He noted that there was a rather weak linkage with the Royal University of Cambodia. Dr Sakrindr remarked that at this initial stage, a proper channel would be through the ASEAN COST for help.
Dr Ruud said that COST had on-going projects such as the ASEAN-China Functional Food Focal Point for Vietnam to help in human resources training programs by offering two fellowships with training in Thailand for four months. The ASEAN Foundation could be of financial help. COST would welcome any proposal for joint collaboration.
Bhutan
Mr Gyem Dorji of Bhutan Agro Industries told the meeting that Bhutan was looking for direction from ASEAN and FIFSTA. It had a lot to learn from them. Bhutan has many small scale productions and the country is involved mainly in traditional agricultural activities.
PAFT of the Philippines
Dr Escueta reported that PAFT membership was growing fast and had about 100 corporate members and some 1500 professional members throughout the country. The growth was helped by an increase in the number of universities offering food science and technology courses.
Since 2001, 14 student charters had been formed, based in universities to encourage student participation and to provide venue for graduate students to present their research findings. The affiliation with IFT and IUFoST helped to bring in expert speakers for their national conventions.
PAFT provided services to the small and medium enterprises such as providing grants to get two-week HACCP training at the University of Georgia of the US.
The law to regulate the practice of food technologists had been passed, meaning that the food technologists in the Philippines now have professional status.
MIFT of Malaysia
Dr Nik said that MIFT was first formed in 1971 and had more than 20 corporate members and some 500 individual members. MIFT has helped in the government process to regulate various practices in relation to food technology, namely:
MIFT activities included:
SIFST of Singapore
Mr Lim Chee Kian reported that SIFST was set up in 1976 and today it had 26 corporate members and about 200 professional members. Student members came mainly from the three tertiary institutions in Singapore. The institute was planning to allow three student representatives to attend the council meetings to facilitate better communications.
The institute had representations in government organisations. It had successfully organized a conference in conjunction with Food Ingredient Asia exhibitions this April and launched a HACCP Consultant Registration Scheme in March. The web page of the institute was set up last year and had been regularly maintained.
A GM Food Conference was being organized and would be held on February 27 – March 1, 2003. Members of FIFSTA were welcome to participate in this conference and the Presidents of FIFSTA would be invited to Singapore. A FIFSTA meeting could be arranged then.
A technical trip to Thailand would be made in November. FoSTAT had kindly agreed to help in making local arrangements. The other activities of the institute included the publication of SIFST Annual by the end of the year and conducting short courses on HACCP and GMP to food industry.
VAFST of Vietnam
Prof Le Doan Dien reported that the association had about 178 scientists and technologists, 57 industrial/business members, 47 members from the government and administration plus 36 student members. The many seminars organised in 2002 included:
Other projects for 2002-2005 included:
The focus of these programs was on:
The association set up a website for the ASEAN Food Conference in 2003 and aimed to get international support for food science and technology development in Vietnam, particularly in human resource qualification and food safety and quality training.
PATPI of Indonesia
Ms Winiati reported that PATPI had about 800 members, mostly from the universities and few from the local food industry. It published a journal called Food Technology and organised an annual conference in October 2001 with 112 oral presentations and 71 poster papers. This year’s conference would be held in July in Malang.
PATPI was working on "Total Food Safety" from farm to table with the National Institute of Food Safety and prepared to give awards for food industry based on its hygiene and sanitation. It was also looking into programs to increase consumer awareness on food safety.
|
||||
|
© Copyright 2009, IFT and IUFoST | IUFoST | IFT | CONTACT | |
|
|
||||