The Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH) Annual Meeting which took place recently on September 17-18, 2013 marked the 25th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cooperative Research Agreement with IIT on food safety research.

The meeting’s 25th anniversary dinner event was capped off with three significant distinguished awards:
The Darsh Wasan IFSH Food Safety Award to Dr. Donald L. Zink, FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) for Outstanding Contributions to Food Safety across Government, Academia and Industry; A Special Achievement Award to Dr. Phillip L. Minerich of Hormel Foods for his Lifetime Contributions to Food Safety across Government, Academia, and Industry; and a Legacy Award to Dr. Darsh Wasan for his Vision and Leadership in Establishing the National Center for Food Safety
and Technology (NCFST) and IFSH.

There were over 185 attendees at this year’s meeting which is the highest attendance since the establishment of NCFST in 1988. This year also marked the highest ever enrolled IFSH membership at 65 member companies. A total of 25 posters, representing various aspects of the current collaborative science projects, were presented followed by a one hour networking session. Many of the poster presenters were IFSH/Department of Food Science and Nutrition (FdSN) students.