Athens, Ga. – Although the food supply in the United States
is one of the safest in the world, illnesses from contaminated foods, such as
bagged spinach and peanut butter, have been making U.S. newspaper headlines
recently. Reports increasingly reveal that tainted foods and food ingredients
are the products of China, Belgium, Peru and other countries. So how safe is the food we eat? Can we protect
ourselves from unsafe imported foods and products?
The University of Georgia College of Public Health and
Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute hope to address some of these issues
with a public lecture on food safety. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. on
Tuesday, Jan. 29 in Masters Hall at the University of Georgia Center for
Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
The evening lecture, titled “Is your food safe to eat?” is
part of a new series featuring Georgia experts and aimed at increasing
community knowledge and awareness about the public health issues in the media
and at home. The program, which originated in the BHSI, now partners with the CPH’s Outreach
and Engagement activities, run by associate dean and professor of epidemiology Robert
Galen.
The featured speaker will be international food safety
expert Michael Doyle, Regents Professor of Food Microbiology and director of UGA’s
Center for Food Safety. He is one of the country's leading authorities on E. coli bacteria and his research
focuses on developing methods to detect and control foodborne bacterial
pathogens at all levels of the food continuum, from the farm to the table.
Doyle has also served as a scientific advisor to many
groups, including the World Health Organization, the Food and Drug
Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of
Defense and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Doyle’s talk will be followed with a presentation on the
restaurant inspection process and other food safety issues relevant to the Athens community. It will
be led by Dr. Claude Burnett, director of the Georgia Division of Health
Northeast Heath District and CPH adjunct professor.
“One of our major goals is to improve the health of
Georgians, and providing useful information about health risks to the community
is one way to do this,” said Galen.
Audience members will be able to address their own specific
concerns at the question-and-answer session at the end.
For more information about this event and the UGA Community
Lecture Series on Public Health Issues, see www.biomed.uga.edu.
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