The World Food (Research and Innovation) Forum is an initiative of the Emilia-Romagna Region, in Italy, aimed to create a permanent platform available to national and international policy makers, the science, research, business and investment communities to gather, share and develop strategies and initiatives to support food security and food safety globally.

The forum is intended to be launched as a biennial event dedicated to food-related issues as part of the legacy of EXPO Milano 2015 : “Feeding the Planet, Energy for life”, with a first edition to be held on 22-23 September 2015 at the Italian Pavilion of the Expo.

As part of the preparation for this event, I am honoured to chair a meeting of experts held in Brussels on March 26th to discuss trends, areas of priority, emerging food safety issues and opportunities where this forum can serve as an international platform to bring together food safety partners and stakeholders to promote food safety globally.

A few areas of discussions have already been identified including How food safety promotion can be an engine for innovation and how food safety capacity building efforts can be developed and promoted at the global scale.

I look forward to engaging with colleagues and peers at tomorrow’s discussions.

Samuel Godefroy, Ph.D. – Personal opinion / input