In the frame of a cooperation project with TIFSIP Boecker® announces initiative to provide AUB students with privileged access to latest food safety knowledge and practices

Beirut, March 23, 2015: In line with their ongoing partnership and campaigns to fight the food safety threats facing Lebanese citizens, the Nutrition and Food Sciences department of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Boecker®, the largest public health services provider in the region, held a Symposium at the Charles Hostler Hall at AUB, on Monday 16 March 2015. This event came under the theme of “New Trends in Food Safety and updates on latest developments” by TIFSIP (The Institute of Food Safety Integrity and Protection), an offshoot organization from the globally reputed Chartered Institute of Environment Health (CIEH). The Symposium saw the participation of a crowd of renowned local personalities from the academia, business and food safety sectors, including current and AUB Alumni Nutrition students. Dr. Nahla Hwalla, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, welcomed the participants and stressed on the importance of the cooperation with Boecker® on many levels including technical training of students on food safety and launching joint initiatives such as this Symposium. Mr. Steven Miller, Member of the Board of Trustees at CIEH, was the honor guest who unveiled a crucial initiative. The initiative announced by Boecker®, consisted in enabling AUB students to join TIFSIP as privileged members. This distinguished membership bestowed on AUB students holds special privileges, allowing thus members to enjoy unlimited access to the most important food safety resources as well as direct interaction with TIFSIP experts, consequently advancing their researches and careers, and spreading better food safety standards in their respective countries. Commenting on this event, Dr. Nahla Hwalla stated: “The ongoing series of food corruption scandals in Lebanon confirms our country’s needs for well-trained nutrition specialists, who are equipped to help in designing and enforcing world-class food safety rules, and monitoring restaurants and suppliers’ compliance with these regulations. The responsibility of training those specialists should be a common obligation between governments, food-focused companies and academia.” Speaking about the added value of the partnership with TIFSIP, Michel Bayoud, CEO of Boecker® explained: “We recognized the importance of partnering up with the academic sector to build an improved understanding around food safety standards. We chose to work with AUB in light of its longstanding role and pioneer status in this field, as it was the first university to establish a dedicated department to teach Nutrition and Food Sciences in Lebanon and the region. The tie-up with TISFIP will bring a lot of benefits to AUB students, and will allow them to have unlimited access to scientific resources owned by the organization which is part of the world-reputed CIEH. Our main objective remains to help our local academic institutions assisted by global expert establishments to improve researches and studies that will advance the creation of better processes and mechanisms in preserving food safety in Lebanon and the Middle East.”