From the tenth to the thirteenth of February 2015 at the University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, will be held the seventh seminar on "Modern analytical approaches for ensuring quality and safety of food, beverages and feed".

Traditionally, the seminar is organized jointly by the Centre for Training for quality and food safety, Department of Biotechnology, UFT and Association MoniQA, Vienna, Austria. This year the organization of the seminar includes the Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety.

At workshops held so far, a great interest was shown and they were attended by representatives of various organizations.

UFT, which is the main organizer of the training is a national leader with more than 60-year tradition in the field of education and researches, related with the production, quality and food safety.

The partner in the training Association MoniQA (https://www.moniqa.org/) is an international interdisciplinary network which brings together experts from over 45 countries from all continents working in the field of food safety - production, safety management control, regulatory measures, training. With its activity, MoniQA contributes to the development and validation of analytical methods, offers training, advices and socio-economic assessments, develops instructions and protocols, organizes scientific conferences.

Since this year the organization and conduct of the seminar includes the Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety (NVS). The Agency is a single authority controlling above the safety and quality of food in Republic of Bulgaria. Established in early 2011, NVS follows the best European practices in the application of high standards in the monitoring of the safety and quality of the foods, food supplements and beverages, veterinary medicine and animal welfare, plant protection and fertilizers, phytosanitary control feed, border control, etc.

The purpose of the training is to give to the participants theoretical and practical knowledge of current analytical methods for rapid identify and quantify the chemical and microbiological hazards in foods, beverages, fodder and water.

The program of the course covers topics that provide theoretical knowledge about the most common types of pathogens in food and hygiene indicators, about the modern rapid methods for microbiological control and approaches for their validation as well as the requirements of the Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety of the objects ot the food chain. There will also be examined the principles of molecular genetic methods, specifically the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the control of microorganisms, and methods for control of mycotoxins and other chemical hazards in food, beverages and feed. The lectures and invited speakers are:

• Safety in the food chain, decisive factor of global food security – prof. Dr. Angel Angelov, University of Food Technologies;
• Natural products – quality, safety and human health – acad. DSc Atanas Atanasov, Joint Genome Center, Sofia;
• Official control of contaminants in food laboratories NVS-DR Maya Makaveeva, Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety;
• Trace analysis of heavy metals in food and feed by the methods of atomic spectrometry: ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AAS – Dr. Veselin Kmetov, Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski"
• Challenges in food labeling and new aspects in Regulation 1169/2011, the – Dr. Velichka Gocheva, University of Food Technologies;
• Announcement of the nutritional value - requirements of Regulation 1169/2011 and tolerances declared value, according to the EC guidelines – DR Liubina Donkova, Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety;
• Analysis and control of safety during the manufacture of beverages – Dr. Hristo Spasov, University of Food Technologies;
• Persistent organic pollutants and toxic metals in the Black Sea fish – prof. Mona Stantcheva, Medical University, Varna;
• Classic PCR and RT-PCR analysis in real time – methodology, platforms, applications – Dr Maya Kicheva, Progen Ltd;
• Chemical contaminants in food. Mycotoxins and modern methods for their determination – Dr. Terry Vrabcheva, MD, National Center for Public Health and Analysis;
• Monitoring of hazards and veterinary control on meat and meat products – Dr. Todor Stoyanchev, DVM, Trakya University, St. Zagora.

The occupations include practical introduction to alternative methods to control microbiological pathogens in food, beverage and feed; conducting qualitative and quantitative determination of pathogens standard PCR and with qPCRmetod, analysis and statistical treatment of results; qualitative and quantitative determination of mycotoxins.

The program of the training includes also firm presentings of new products for classical and rapid methods for chemical and microbiological analysis. Media partners of the course are the editions "Food Industry", "Agrocompass", "Bulletin of meat" and "Milk plus". During the seminar there will be held an exhibition of the companies, offering analytical equipment, reagents and consumables for chemical and microbiological analyzes.

The training is suitable for representatives of chemical and microbiological laboratories, managers of quality management of food, pharmaceuticals and other proceedings, regulatory personnel and supervisory bodies, research, higher education, students and many others.

RIDACOM, as a leading provider of complete solutions in tests for the quality and safety of food, beverages and feed and longtime partner of training seminars in the theoretical and practical side, will present a very interesting and topical lecture on the topic "Methods of analysis of food allergens".