During 26-28 June 2013, Ambassador Apichart Chinwanno together with Minister Chulamanee Chartsuwan, Minister (Agriculture) Tritaporn Khomapat, Minister Counsellor (Science and Technology) met with Ms. Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, Executive Director, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as well as EFSA’s experts namely 1) Mr. Djien Liem, Lead Expert in International Scientific Cooperation 2) Mrs. Claudia Roncancio, Head of FEED Unit 3) Mr. Mari Eskola, Acting Head of Contaminants Unit and 4) Mr. Michael Sulzner, Policy Officer, Scientific Committee and Emerging Risks Unit at the EFSA’s headquarters in Italy. Additionally, the meeting was attended by Mr. Patrick Deboyser, Advisor to the Director General, DG-SANCO.
They held substantive discussions on risk assessment system on EU’s food and feed safety as well as established cooperation network between the Mission of Thailand to the European Union and the EFSA. In this connection, Ms. Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle agreed to support the Mission’s seminar to be held in September 2013 in Thailand aimed at early-warning sharing current state of affairs and future trend regarding EU regulations on food and feed safety to the Thai government agencies and Thai private sectors.
In addition, Ambassador Apichart Chinwanno unofficially met with Mrs. Paola Testori Cogg, Director-General of DG-SANCO. As Italy placed the second rank as a GI production leader in EU, and placed the first rank as the EU’s largest exporter of GI agricultural and food products, Ambassador and the delegates visited three sites of production of Italy’s products which was registered as EU’s Geographical Indication (GI) namely 1) Parmigiano Reggiano in Parma 2) Acetaia Picci traditional balsamic vinegar in Reggio Emilia and 3) Prosciutto di Parma in Parma.
