 |
Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition APPLE CIDER FOOD SAFETY CONTROL WORKSHOP July 15-16, 1999 |
 |
|
My name is Art Miller and I am with the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition here at FDA. I wanted to quickly run through the program to give a blueprint of where we're going and what we hope to accomplish at this workshop. You should all have copies of your program in your workbooks.
This morning we will have some presentations from the FDA explaining why we are here, what the problem is with unpasteurized apple cider, and the current thinking on this issue by FDA. We will move into what you might call an "orchard to jug" discussion of interventions that may contribute to the solution of the problem. We will then discuss things like Good Agricultural Practices as currently applied.
This afternoon we will hear a talk from the USDA Extension point of view, and then we'll move into the plant with a discussion of a couple of promising food safety intervention technologies. We will close with a discussion of post-pressing juice control measures. We will also be having question and answer (Q & A) sessions along the way.
On Friday we will talk about quantitative risk assessment and try to pull some of the current thinking together about promising or best control practices. We will then try to finish with a roundtable discussion on regional issues. As I'm sure you all know, what's true in apple cider making on the East Coast is not necessarily true on the West Coast or the Midwest. We have tried to bring together a variety of speakers, each representing a different part of the United States. The workshop should be completed by noon tomorrow.
If you look at who's here, you will find some common orientations. Most people who are in the audience represent what I would call "extension interest." You as the conduit to the apple cider producers. Let me give you an idea of the demographics. There are a number of representatives of State government. We also have representatives from academic and trade associations, and a few actual apple cider producers.
The information that you're going to receive today and tomorrow, and the handouts that you have, will be important in your role as conduits. We invite you to transfer this information to the people who really have the need to know, and that is those who are engaged in producing unpasteurized apple cider. That is, we hope that the information we share about FDAs current thinking, current technologies, promising future technologies will be taken and transferred back to the apple cider production folks in your regions and states.