Enabling food safety research: New Singapore centre seeks food industry applicants
Successful applicants will be provided with a fully-stocked prep lab, an analytical lab and office space complete with conference room facilities in order to comfortably complete their projects.
“Innovative research is essential to the future safety and sustainability of our food and water supplies,” said the IFWRC on its website.
“[We] believe in providing access to the most advanced specialty instrumentation, scientific minds, and funding options, in order to support meaningful projects and enable valuable research to be undertaken quickly and effectively.”
Touting a ‘state-of-the-art research environment’, access to ‘advanced analytical instruments and informatics’ and ‘unbiased and insightful feedback from global industrial and academic experts’, the IFWRC laboratory will also comprise scientific staff who will work closely with the project owners.
Located in Singapore, the IFWRC is led by a Scientific Advisory Panel comprising international experts from the United Kingdom, France and Singapore. These experts encompass both academic and industrial areas, and will offer advice for ongoing projects in the centre.
“In past decades, Singapore has become a major hub for food and water research that has far-reaching impacts around the globe. The country has long had well-established academic laboratories where scientists have done significant work,” said Mike Harrington, Senior Vice President, Global Market, Waters.
“Based on that, along with Waters’ storied history in Singapore, we are thrilled to open the IFWRC, a model for scientific collaboration between industry, government and academia that will ultimately drive significant advances in food and water quality.”
According to the IFWRC website, any scientist with a food and water safety-related project who cannot access the necessary equipment for their methodology is invited to apply.
‘Typical applicants might include principle scientists and investigators working in universities, food companies, government agencies, NGOs and other research organizations with projects on (but not limited to) food safety and quality, water quality, nutrition management, new ingredient discovery, and diet and health management,’ it said.
Food safety concerns
The IFWRC mandate and central location in Singapore come as no surprise, in light of recent developments in the food safety arena within the Asia Pacific region.
These include China Vice Premier Han Zheng’s push for harsher penalties for food safety violators, including lifetime bans, as well as Vietnam raising fines for food safety violations by 350%.
As such, the IFWRC is not the first nor the only centre focusing on food safety in Asia Pacific.
Earlier this year, the Vietnam Food Integrity Centre (FIC) announced its intentions to focus on blockchain technology to improve food traceability, safety and standards within the country.
