An international conference on food quality and safety was organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture by the Veterinary Research Institute "Bilal Golemi, Food Research Institute and the Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with the IFDC/AAATA Project, Land OLakes, GTZ, and the Technological Education Institute, Thessalonica, Greece. Several Albanian and foreign business institutions, including INSIG, SOROS, HIT, Floryhen, AM-Grup, EHW GmbH, EN-ZY, AJKA, JAL, BLOJA, MeatMaster, Delta S.A (Greece), Hellenic Catering (Greece), Tsantalis (Greece) and Nestle & Co (Greece) also contributed to organising the conference. The two-day conference addressed issues related to quality and safety of foodstuffs of animal and plant origin with special emphasis placed on the safety of locally produced food products. The importance and relevance of the issues related to food safety and quality, which were addressed by the Conference, were emphasized by high level Government Officials, including the President of the Republic of Albania, Prof. Dr. Rexhep MEIDANI, and the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Agron DUKA. Emphasis was placed on the work done thus far in regard to the food industry in Albania and the need for further measures to be taken to improve the industry. The discussions of scientific papers presented in both sessions of the Conference focused directly on major concerns of the food industry. The following proposals were generated by the Conference regarding a range of further improvements required for the industry in the area of legal issues; the role, construction and strengthening of control services; and, the need for collaboration between national and foreign institutions.