The Global Food Safety Management Program organized by Cornell-in-India and Sathguru’s Center for Executive Education was held from 10 to 13 January, 2010 at the Taj Deccan in Hyderabad, India. Over 35 participants from India and other countries were addressed by an internationally renowned faculty drawn from the premier school for agriculture and life sciences studies and research in the world. These included professors Kathryn Jean Boor, Martin Wiedmann, Syed Rizvi and K. V. Raman from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell, University, Ithaca, New York. Mr. K. Vijayaraghavan of Sathguru Management Consultants, Hyderabad was also present to provide participants with an insight on the importance of food safety from a business perspective.

In his key note address, Mr. K. Vijayaraghavan of Sathguru Management Consultants stated that the primary focus of the program would be to enhance the awareness, knowledge and skills of food industry personnel and the government bodies through the sharing of perspectives from developed and developing countries on food safety concerns and how national food safety policies influence the international trade.

Prof. Wiedmann spoke of how the expansion of international trade, consumer preference for lightly processed food, unknown limits of refrigerated perishable foods, mass production and changes in eating habits have resulted in factors that affect the presence and persistence of food borne pathogens. Elaborating on the basics of hazard analysis and critical control points program, its regulation in US food sectors and global importance of food safety culture and awareness among personnel involved in every step of the food chain, he emphasized the importance of a surveillance system that could help detect and plug loopholes in the food safety network.
Prof. Kathryn Boor discussed the product recall process in the USA and spoke on the importance of risk identification, assessment, management and communication in microbiological food safety.

Prof. Raman discussed the importance of genetically modified foods in India and the current regulatory approaches adopted to monitor and evaluate these cutting edge products using the case of Bt. Eggplant to illustrate his points.
Prof. Rizvi made a presentation on the innovation of new technologies and its incorporation into the food industry for production of safer and better quality food.

The program highlighted various strategies that could be employed to ensure a healthy, globally competitive and prosperous food industry in India and other emerging economies. These include