The  Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Faculty of Public Health at LGU took part in an interuniversity competition entitled “Innovation in Food Control – IFC2014″ organized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade during February 2014. LGU competed with 20 Lebanese universities and won first prize on its project.

The purpose of the competition was to get the academic sector involved in the development of projects carried out by the Ministry of Economy and Trade in order to devise new tools that would enhance consumer protection and boost consumers’ confidence in the government.

The participants had to abide by a one-month deadline to come up with an innovative idea, analyze it, and present the procedural implementation of its economic and technical aspects. Time constraint resulted in the withdrawal of a few participants, yet did not affect the determination of LGU team.

Directed by Dr. Zeina Mehyou, Director of the Faculty of Public Health, Mrs. Diana Boulos, Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, and Mr. Elie Bteich, co-director of the team and instructor at the Faculty, students Yara Atallah, Eliana Boueiri and Joelle Abi Khalil were inspired by the recent scandals on rotten meat supplied by renown figures in the industry to work out their project theme. They chose to implement a new system of traceability on imported meat based on electronic «RFID Tags» prints that allow food to be tracked from the moment it gets into the country to when it exits storage houses.

Despite their young age and limited experience, LGU students were able to deliver a task of high quality that revealed their ingenuity and their determination to fulfill their ambition.

Keep it up LGU!