Presidents End of Year letter

15th December 2009

Dear Member

2010 will be a momentous year for SAAFOST as we host the 15th IUFoST World Food Congress and it will be our 50th anniversary. 250 days to go!

The local organising committee headed by Nigel Sunley are hard at work finalising details. Gunnar Sigge (President Elect SAAFoST, Head of the Scientific Program Committee for 2010) has secured an amazing line up of plenary speakers including;

Sir David King (Scientific advisor to Tony Blair)
Werner Bauer (Global Head of R&D, Nestle)
David Schmidt ( CEO IFIC, previous Bush Administration's director of external affairs for the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Thomas Ohlsson (Emeritus Professor and Former Vice-President SIK, Gothenburg)
Erich Windhab (Professor of Food Process Engineering, Institute of Food Science ETH Zurich)
Prof Gebisa Ejeta, (Winner World Food Prize 2009)
Einar Risvik (Research Director Nofima)

This is a not to be missed occasion and as SAAFoST members you will benefit from the discounted member rate (A great reason to renew your membership as soon as possible).

But that's not all! The entertainment committee has a number of exciting events scheduled from the opening on Sunday 22nd August, through the fun event at Moyo or African Gourmet evening at the 7th Floor on Monday the 23rd to the Gala Banquet and SAAFoST 50th birthday party on the Nederberg Auction facility in Paarl on Wednesday the 25th August. See you there!

2009 has been a busy year for SAAFoST. In addition to having representation at numerous international conferences we have also been active at home. Owen Frisby has worked tirelessly and in addition to his usual workload has organised symposia covering labeling, innovation and food safety. Due to the economic climate we have, where possible, held events in two locations to minimise travel costs to our members.

This year we received a record number of applications for the SAAFoST Matric bursary. The aim of this bursary is to encourage school leavers to study Food Science and Technology so it is gratifying that awareness of the subject is increasing. We currently have 8 bursars at various stages of their studies. In addition, during 2009, SAAFoST also administered 16 postgraduate bursaries for the FoodBev SETA.

Any organization is only as good as its members. We currently have over 2000 members and numbers continue to grow. 25% of our members are students which is a positive indicator for the future of the Association if we can retain these youngsters once they graduate I should like to thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing you at IUFOST Congress and our 50th birthday party next year.

Wishing you and your families a peaceful and happy festive season and a healthy and prosperous 2010.

Rosie Maguire
President