The second session of the Mujib Centenary Seminar Series was jointly organised by the Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka and Dhaka University Microbiology Alumni Association (DUMAA) on May 30, 2021 in a virtual platform. Prof. Dr. Salina Parveen of the Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA spoke on “A journey to food safety research and education” at the webinar.

She spoke on the various novel detection and enumeration methods of foodborne and waterborne pathogens including viable but nonculturable (VBNC)Vibrio, Salmonella and Listeria etc. The logistic regression models proposed by her team could conclude the high concordance with microbiological(MOB) and Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR) techniques in terms of detection. She highlighted the importance of industry academia collaboration for quality research and taught courses progress. She also emphasized on the risk-based food safety management in the overall food chain,from farm to fork. Dr. Parveen shared her experience of training programmes that could be adopted in Bangladesh to implement a risk-based food safety management in the overall food supply chain, from farm to fork for ensuring food safety.

Dr. Parveen is currently the President of Bangladesh Association for Food Protection (BAFP) in North America. She invited the students, teachers and alumni to join the association to share their problems and information to encourage food protection and ensure quality in food.

This interactive session was presided over by Prof. Dr. Sabita Rezwana Rahman and co-ordinated by Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahaman. The students, graduates, teachers and alumni all over the world joined this webinar. Indeed, it was a great gathering, that initiated the audience to look upon the problems and prospects of food microbiology in Bangladesh.

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Mahmood Alam
Director
Public Relations Office
Dhaka University