Monty Python says Americans like to talk.

Europeans sure like to talk. Amy is faux European, being a French professor, and she talks all the time.

And who uses dick fingers around the word community?

But talk doesn’t help people who are barfing: like the 53 who were killed and 4,400 who were sickened by raw sprouts last year.

Hundreds of the world’s leading food safety experts are gathering in Parma this week to take part in a high-level scientific conference organized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to mark its tenth anniversary.

Does high-level mean they are all stoned?

The two-day event, “Challenging boundaries in risk assessment – sharing experiences”, which kicked off this morning (7 November), brings together global specialists from a wide range of scientific disciplines who will be debating the frontiers in risk assessment and considering future key issues and opportunities.

Hubert Deluyker, EFSA’s Director of Science Strategy and Coordination, outlined the Authority’s critical role in developing risk assessment in Europe, emphasized the necessity for a continued commitment to scientific cooperation and re-affirmed the need for a regulatory environment that evolves with scientific developments yet remains predictable.

“EFSA functions thanks to the EU risk assessment community,” said Dr Deluyker. “And we are central to its progress, for instance through the development of guidance that has harmonised and modernised methodologies relating to risk assessment for food and feed over the past decade.”

Awesome.