The APEC FSCF PTIN would like to invite the participation of your country for the annual Regional Workshop to be held Dec 12 and 13, 2013 in the United States. The topic of this year’s workshop is:

Framework for Self-Assessment of Laboratory Capacity Building Needs

and Prioritization

The objective of this year’s activities is to develop a process of prioritization of laboratory building needs, which will involve a countrywide or local self-assessment and will be applicable across the region. This tool is meant to be used to obtain more details after the administration of a survey such as proposed by FAO in “Strengthening national food control systems: Guidelines to assess capacity building needs”. Two economies, Chile and China, have participated in pilot projects; the regional workshop will aim to share the information gained from these pilot projects and refine the prioritization process with input from all participating economies. Download Regional Workshop information in pdf. Who should attend? Each APEC country is solicited to nominate at least 2 participants for this regional workshop. It is recommended that the participants be laboratory analysts with sufficient analytical experience to contribute to round table discussions about the prioritization of laboratory capacity building needs. The participants should also be comfortable discussing laboratory methods in chemistry and/or microbiology. Optional Technical Assistance Activity: Dec. 4-11, 2013 The University of Maryland’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) is the implementing organization for this year’s regional workshop. The International Food Safety Training Laboratory at JIFSAN is pleased to offer an opportunity to augment the impact of your travel by attending hands-on laboratory-training workshop on the detection and quantification of aflatoxins and other mycotoxins in food. A special schedule and reduced registration rate are offered to participants of the APEC FSCF PTIN workshop. Space is limited to 18 participants and will be reserved upon registration and payment. Further information is available the attached invitation. Travel Assistance: Under the guidelines of the funding source, the following economies qualify for travel assistance: Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. The travel assistance will cover airfare, ground transportation in the U.S., hotel stay and meals for the regional workshop at the rates in effect at the University of Maryland (http://www.dbs.umd.edu/travel/services/rates/domestic.php). Participants are responsible for the costs of transportation to the airport in their country as well as visa, travel and health insurance and any other costs. If you decide to attend the laboratory training on mycotoxins, you will need to secure funding for registration, hotel and meals for the additional time spent in the U.S.  Location: University of Maryland, College Park, MD Stamp Union Building Contact: Dr. Janie Dubois (jdubois@umd.edu) University of Maryland, JIFSAN

Register

Information about Technical Activity on Mycotoxins

This Regional Workshop is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Emerging Markets Program.