CRN-I Announces Agenda for Fourth Annual Scientific Symposium—­Event to Take Place in Germany in November

MANNO, SWITZERLAND, 14 August, 2013—CRN-I, the international arm of the U.S.-based Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), is holding its fourth annual scientific symposium on Friday 01 November in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany. Titled “Bioactives: Qualitative Nutrient Reference Values for Life-Stage Groups?”, the one day event takes place just prior to the meeting of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU), and will attract regulators, policymakers, nutrition scientists and academics from around the world, focusing on issues of importance to the CCNFSDU.

“Holding this symposium in close proximity to the CCNFSDU meeting provides an opportunity for key delegates who attend Codex on behalf of their national regulatory agencies to engage directly with leading researchers and participate in question and answer sessions. This interaction is one way to advance the overall understanding and potential acceptance of science-based regulatory policies,” said Jim Griffiths, Ph.D., vice president, scientific and international affairs, CRN-I. 

The symposium will feature a keynote address from Joanne Lupton, Ph.D., the Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor, University Faculty Fellow and William W. Allen Endowed Chair in Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Texas A&M University.  Dr. Lupton’s research focuses primarily on the effect of diet on colon physiology and colon cancer with a particular focus on dietary fiber and n-3 fatty acids. Her remarks at the CRN-I symposium will explore the criteria that need to be considered when establishing dietary reference intakes and nutrient reference values for bioactive ingredients.
Additional speakers include:

  • Stephanie Atkinson, Ph.D., (McMaster University, Canada) who will speak on intake levels and methods for assessing status and Ben van Ommen, Ph.D., (TNO, The Netherlands) who will speak on the role of biomarkers;
  • David Richardson, Ph.D., (DPR Nutrition, UK) who will discuss risk analysis approaches for establishing maximum levels of essential nutrients and other bioactive substances in food supplements;
  • Namsoo Yang, Ph.D., (Ewha Womans University, South Korea) and Yuexin Yang (China Nutrition Society, China), both of whom will discuss the processes by which their respective regulatory agencies have set nutrient reference values for bioactive substances; and
  • Joseph Levy, Ph.D., (Ben Gurion University, Israel), Cesar G. Fraga, Ph.D. (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Mark Messina, Ph.D. (Loma Linda University, California) will focus on carotenoids, polyphenolics, isoflavones, respectively.  

The scientific symposium will be held at the Schlosshotel Kronberg, and participation is by invitation-only. There will be no registration fee for government regulators, delegates to Codex or full-time academics, and a nominal fee for other attendee categories. Summary proceedings of the first conference were published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and those of the second and third conferences were published in European Journal of Nutrition. CRN-I plans to publish a summary document of this fourth conference.  

For more information, contact Haiuyen Nguyen or visit the CRN-I website