His Excellency Dr. Hamad AlManei, Minister of Health will sponsor the 4th Saudi Conference on Food and Nutrition next Sunday, which will be held on the 10th and 11th of December 2006 and takes place at King Fahd's Cultural Center in Riyadh under the theme "The Future of Food and Nutrition in Light of New Advancements". The conference is organized by the Saudi Food and Nutrition Society and invitations to specialists and professionals in the food and nutrition fields have been sent.

The Society has set a program that enables participants to follow up on food and nutrition science advancements, latest research on the areas of production and technical development of food. The program ensures the importance of food safety, underlining interest on health problems and diseases resulting from food contamination that we and the rest of the world face. It also emphasizes on diseases transmitted from animals to humans such as; avian influenza and other food diseases. It also shed light on the importance of applying strategies to deal with and protect consumers from these threats. The program covered nutritional variables change associated with nutritional behavior and its effect on segments of society, especially children and adolescents.

The Arabic language will be used during the conference. English can be used for non Arabic speakers with simultaneous Arabic interpretation. The conference attendance certificates are recognized by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties and account for 21 credits towards their continuing education program.

Participating in the conference will be scientists, researchers and specialists in all areas of food science and human nutrition, as well as government officials, manufacturers, businessmen and professionals in the food and nutrition areas.

Accompanying the conference will be the Food and Health Exhibition. The exhibition will be open during the conference and two days beyond it to allow singles and families to visit it, where Wednesday and Thursday are dedicated to families.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) will sponsor a panel discussion entitled “Food Contamination in the Kingdom”, for which a select group of researchers in the field of food science for whom their research was conducted on reasons for food contamination in the kingdom, will participate and discuss the extent of food contamination in the kingdom and ways of preventing it.

Based on the SFDA’s policy of ensuring food safety by building an affective regulatory framework, Dr. Ibrahim AlMuhaizie, Vice President of Food Sector, arranged for all the sector’s staff members to attend the conference, in order for them to view the latest technologies and benefit as much as they can.