Companies wanting to participate in the Center but not on the Board of Advisors can become patrons of the Center by contributing $5,000 annually for companies with greater than $2 billion in food sales or $1000 (minimum) annually for companies with less than $2 billion in food sales.
Contributions to the Center are used to support timely research on food safety and quality issues. The University of Georgia has agreed to treat these contributions as gifts, hence no indirect costs will be charged against them. This means that all of these monies will be used for conducting and communicating research of the Center. The mechanisms of communicating with the industry include hosting annual meetings, publishing an annual report, and distributing a quarterly or bimonthly newsletter (At A Glance).
The purpose of the Annual Meeting is to update industry on timely research ongoing at CFS and to provide a forum for industry to meet informally with CDC scientists, and USDA and FDA scientists and regulators. Our recent Annual Meeting, which included participants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and faculty of the Center, provided timely information on today's food safety issues. Presentations addressed innovative methods to control pathogens, "inside" thoughts of regulatory agencies on regulatory matters (the press is not invited), foodborne outbreak updates by CDC, and results of the successful combination of food safety with quality research (a trademark of the Center). Most of the information discussed was presented for the first time. The meeting provides a forum for an open dialogue among participants that will not be reported in the trade publications.
Our Annual Report, which is provided only to industry contributors of the Center, summarizes the past year's results and accomplishments, and activities of Center faculty. As an additional benefit, our faculty members provide special consideration in responding to requests of CFS industry members.
For more information regarding membership in the Center, contact:
Dr. Michael P. Doyle
Director, CFS
The University of Georgia
1109 Experiment Street
Griffin, GA 30223-1797
Tel: (770) 228-7284
Fax: (770) 229-3216
E-mail: mdoyle@uga.edu