Welcome

The 4^th MoniQA International Conference in Budapest, Hungary, 26 February - 01 March 2013 - a great success!
The 5^th MoniQA International Conference to be organized in Porto, Portugal in 2015!

Some 200 participants from some 40 countries attended the 4^th MoniQA International Conference in Budapest, Hungary. The main focus of the conference was "Food Safety under Global Pressure of Climate Change, Food Security and Economic Crises".

Emerging issues and the various aspects of the interrelation between food safety, food security, economy development and globalization were presented and discussed in some 80 oral presentations in 20 technical sessions and close to 80 posters. The 6 keynote speakers at the start and at the end of the conference embedded the conference topics in both a global picture of the current situation as well as gave an expert glimpse into the future. We were proud to have had the following keynote speakers with us:

• Franz Fischler, president of the European Alpbach Forum and former European Union's Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Austria
  "Impacts of economic crises on food markets and how to make the food production sector sustainable"
• Vish Prakash, Distinguished Scientist of CSIR - India, President ISNNAN, India
  "A sustainable nutrition security through a food security for health and wellness in developing countries by adaptable, accessible and affordable food technologies"
• Eleonora Dupouy, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Officer Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, FAO, Hungary
  "Safe food supply in a globalized world: a sustainable development perspective"
• Elke Anklam, Director, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Joint Research Center, ISPRA, Italy
  "Emerging food safety risks and global trade"
• Frans Verstraete, DG SANCO, Belgium
  "Regulating for emerging food safety concerns as regards mycotoxins and phytotoxins"
• Dieter Brigitta, European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, Belgium
  "Horizon 2020 – Future Research for a Safe, Secure and Nutritious Food Supply"

In various pre-conference workshops, young scientists and professionals were able to get in-depth insight and training in various food safety management and risk communication aspects as well as hands-on training in food safety analytical methods. The Young Scientist Forum and a Best Poster Awarding session offered opportunities to present new and ongoing research work. MoniQA would like to congratulate the winners of the 3 Best Poster Awards: Olivia Csernus, Central Environmental and Food Science Research Institute, Hungary, Isabel Mafra, ICETA, Portugal and Ljiljia Torovic, Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Serbia which were sponsored by the organisers of the conference MoniQA Association (www.moniqa.org), based in Vienna, Austria, and Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary together with QAS Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods, the official media partner of the conference.

The 5^th MoniQA International Conference will be held in Porto, Portugal and will be organised by the MoniQA Association together with the MoniQA Association member ICETA - "Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares da Universidade do Porto".

We look forward to meeting you in Porto in 2015!

Prof. Dr. Roland E. Poms
Secretary General MoniQA Association

About MoniQA Association

MoniQA is an international and interdisciplinary network of professionals from institutions working in food research, regulatory bodies and trade, providing solutions to promote a safer and secure food supply worldwide. MoniQA Association was launched in 2011 to succeed the highly rated EU-funded Network of Excellence on Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total Food Supply Chain (MoniQA, 2007-2012).

MoniQA has a proven record of international collaboration (involvement of more than 500 experts from over 40 countries on 5 continents) and successfully developing harmonized guidelines, tools and services for monitoring and quality assurance in the total food supply chain. MoniQA Association aims at improving global collaboration in food safety & quality assurance and at facilitating international research cooperations. MoniQA offers and industry consultancy and serves international organizations, governments, and local authorities by providing expertise, tools and services to ensure a safer and secure food supply. MoniQA Association is registered as an international, non-profit-distributing association.

To achieve our mission:

• We foster an international pool of experts with multidisciplinary expertise
• We provide privileged information
• We provide a portal for facilitating guidelines, protocols, links, and scientific publications
• We offer membership to interested institutions in all countries
• We participate in Technical Committees (ISO, CEN, Codex, etc.)
• We organise training workshops, webinars, and educational courses
• We organise scientific conferences and provide a platform for networking and cooperation
• We conduct research and enable collaborative research projects, consortia, funds, project management services, and mobility and exchange programs
• We provide Reference Materials and manage validation studies