The 1st Scientific Committee Meeting of ASEAN Risk Assessment Centre for Food Safety (ARAC) was held in ARAC Office, Putrajaya from 23 – 24 March 2016. The Meeting was attended by 26 participants consisting of eight (8) Scientific Committee members from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam; three (3) ARAC Secretariat and 15 observers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE) as the funder.
Dr Paul Chiew King Tiong from Singapore and Ms Norrani Eksan from Malaysia have been elected as the Chair and Vice-Chair of Scientific Committee respectively for 3 years (2016-2019).
The Meeting reviewed and evaluated three (3) risk assessment requests on food safety submitted by the ASEAN sectoral bodies, as follows:
- Total Aflatoxins (AFT) and Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) through the consumption of peanut and corn, including their products
- Salmonella spp in Chicken
- Cyclamates through the consumption of food sweetened with cyclamate
