Protect Your Family From Food Fraud – What To Look For (A Panel Discussion)

REGISTER NOW: https://tinyurl.com/9tudcjrp

The Cropper Foundation and partners will be hosting a webinar at 2 pm, Tuesday, July 20, 2021, to highlight the occurrence of food fraud in Trinidad and Tobago and educate consumers on steps they can take to protect themselves and their families.

The webinar titled “Protect Your Family From Food Fraud – What To Look For” will feature an interactive panel discussion that brings together a diverse group of experts and stakeholders in food safety to answer questions from the general public.

Participants can look forward to information about decoding food labels on food products, understanding the validity of various food safety certifications and seeking redress where food fraud is suspected.

This webinar will last one and half hours long and will be moderated by Andrea Mulraine-Ash, Biotechnology Unit Programme Leader at The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI).

PANELISTS:

Ena Harvey, IICA Representative, Barbados and Hemispheric Agrotourism Specialist

Ena Harvey currently serves as Representative of the IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) Delegation in Barbados.  Prior to joining IICA in 2002, she held the post of Food Technologist with CARIRI and worked as a private consultant to several regional and international agencies on projects covering trade, export competitiveness, food security, education and training, sustainable agro-industrial development, and agro-tourism linkages across Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Mauritius, Morocco, Vanuatu and Samoa.

She holds a B.Sc. First Class Hons. Degree in Agriculture (University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago), and an M.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering (University of Guelph, Canada), as well as certification as a Trainer in HACCP, Foodservice Safety and World Class Benchmarking for SMEs.

Since 2002 she has led the Institute’s initiatives in agrotourism in Barbados, and at the hemispheric level in Latin America and the Caribbean.  She is IICA’s representative on the CTO Board of Directors and has served as Vice-Chair on the CTO Sustainable Tourism Committee. Her work in agrotourism is focused on: Strengthening of the policy and institutional framework in support of trade linkages with tourism and hospitality, and rural tourism; Generation of knowledge products; diagnostic assessments of potential agrotourism sites; and facilitation of business and investment opportunities.

Rajiv Diptee, President, The Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago

Jamillah David, Quality Health and Safety (QHSE) Team Lead, VEMCO

Farz Khan, Director Chemistry Food and Drugs Division, Ministry of Health

The mission of the Chemistry Food and Drugs Division in the Ministry of Health is to: Ensure safe quality of an equitable standard for use by consumers of food, drugs, cosmetics and medical devices; Ensure safety in use, the proper management and acceptable standards for pesticides and toxic chemicals; And provide technological and laboratory services in the areas of food, drug, cosmetics, medical devices, pesticides and toxic chemicals.

The Division is the body responsible for the administration of the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations and the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Act and Regulations.

Ahliya Gobin, Food Technologist, CARIRI

Food Technologist Ahliya Gobin holds a M.Sc. degree in Food Science and Technology from UWI, St. Augustine. She is a qualified ISO 22000: 2005 Lead Auditor, as well as a trained PCQI, and holds several other training food industry-related certifications such as HACCP, GAP and FSSC 22000.

At CARIRI she trains food production workers on food safety theory and practices, agro-processing, HACCP and other food safety management systems. Her work also includes assisting local manufacturers to develop and implement food safety management systems in order to meet export market entry requirements. As a Food Technologist, she is also involved in the development of new food products, from concept to prototyping at the CARIRI food laboratory. She is also heavily involved in the food safety audits of local suppliers for an international brand.

REGISTRATION & PARTICIPATION

The panel discussion will be held virtually via Zoom and will be broadcast live to social media via The Cropper Foundation’s Facebook page. Members of the public wishing to engage with panelists during the question and answer segment are invited to register using the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JNI01CQ-S2OdTmYaj5ii-g

This webinar represents the fourth in a series of six (6) panel discussions to be hosted under a multi-stakeholder SAFE Food Campaign that was launched for World Food Safety Day, June 7, 2021.

– Learn more about the SAFE Food Campaign: https://tinyurl.com/2w36p2jt

– View SAFE Food Campaign Launch Webinar: https://tinyurl.com/k6d8jcjy

– Discover The SAFE Food Challenge with prizes to be won: https://tinyurl.com/y2bd38yy

The SAFE Food Campaign stakeholders include: The Cropper Foundation, The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), The National Food Safety Coordinating Committee, The National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO), Trinidad & Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS), Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture Delegation in Trinidad and Tobago (IICA) and The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI)

This campaign has been implemented under the IDB Lab-funded action “Making Agriculture Profitable and Sustainable”.

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