Foreword Vol.2 Nr.4

This issue of Affidia is the last one of 2020, but it is the first issue in our new format, designed as a fully digital magazine.

What you see is part of a larger editorial program, not just a different look. The Journal, which will continue to be available in its printed form, is now more than just a quarterly publication: it is a dynamic, continuously updated website, too.

At AffidiaJournal.com you will find more articles, a news stream, and on-demand access to our multimedia content (as seen on the facing page, our first webinar is on 5 February 2021). Affidia will still cover topics in depth. More content does not mean we will be superficial. We will continue to offer the deep and fully independent insights that you have come to appreciate Affidia for, primarily through a new parallel publication: Affidia Reviews. Affidia Reviews will complement the Journal with selected monographs that provide in-depth content that takes into consideration the evolving needs of food safety managers. We will explore food safety and testing issues with a focus on the supply chain and the value chain.

This means, for instance, that you will have access to a series of papers that cover every issue related to coffee or spices or seafood instead of broader discussions of mycotoxins, drug residues, or dioxins.

Additionally, to satisfy the analytical chemists and the technology suppliers, we will offer monographs on potential topics like “The evolution of lateral flow in agro-food diagnostics” or “Reliability of food testing results: bias, errors, fraud, and poor communication”. Considering the breadth of our editorial activity, I invite all of our readers to submit articles or to suggest topics for articles and webinars.

In this issue, you will find a wide range of topics, everything from food oil quality standards to the differences between US, EU, and China regulations on chemical contaminant limits in food of animal origin. I hope you also appreciate the second edition of my column about food testing laboratories.

I visited Neotron, one of the most important food testing laboratories in Europe, recently acquired by COTECNA. I think we can all agree that what is currently happening in service labs is of paramount importance for the food industry now that most tests are outsourced.

I want to thank all of the authors and everyone who has contributed to this issue, both as we transitioned to our new online format and as we prepared for publication in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


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