Previewing the 2017 Process Expo

Pure processing, Proven results

Process Expo, North America’s largest food processing event, produced by the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA), will offer more than 15,000 industry professionals the opportunity to see thousands of products and services from 600 exhibiting companies, occupying more than 230,000 square feet of exhibit space under one roof. The trade show and conference will take place Sept.19-22 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center. Exhibitors will offer equipment, machinery and demos for buyers in all vertical industry sectors, including bakery, grains, seeds and snacks, beverage, dairy, meat, poultry and seafood, prepared foods, fruits and vegetables, confectionery, and pet foods.

The Process Expo team is diligently working on crafting this year’s event, elevating programming and the onsite experience and has negotiated partnership agreements with the Food Safety Summit, IFFA, AAMP and others that will add even more value to the event experience. The expansive Process Expo will be the first trade show to offer working production lines and will also feature the Virtual Reality Showroom, networking events, Innovations Showcase, the University Quad, student poster presentations, a Beer Garden and much more.

Working production lines

The Meat Industry Suppliers Alliance (MISA) is working closely with FPSA on developing two working production lines that will be featured on the show floor. These will include a deli line, which incorporates everything from stuffing to slicing and packaging and a sausage line with everything from grinding and mixing to stuffing, linking and hanging. This is the first time a collaboration of multiple suppliers will put together a running production line at a trade show. There will be several demonstrations each day, giving processors a chance to ask manufacturers questions and see the full line in action, and avoid potential purchasing mistakes.

Food safety education

The new food safety educational track is sponsored by The Food Safety Summit, the largest conference and expo on food safety in North America, will feature leading food safety experts to help manufacturers and processors gain insight on how to respond to food safety issues and challenges. The food safety educational track will offer six one-hour presentations on specific food safety challenges, for attendees to learn about the latest breakthroughs and gain insight into potential solutions. In addition, FPSA is offering a two-day HACCP Certification course that will cover current FSMA compliance requirements, with a focus on the Preventive Controls Rule.

Dairy Zone

The show floor will feature a special Dairy Zone with suppliers who understand the unique needs of dairy processors. Highlighting equipment, sanitation solutions and services, attendees will find value not only in the Dairy Zone but also from other food and beverage sectors. This area and the Process Expo show floor will feature prominent suppliers such as Alfa Laval, SPX Flow, GEA Group, Walker Engineered Products, Boccard Life Sciences, Axiflow Technologies, A.R. Arena Products, and Paul Mueller Company to name a few.

International support

FPSA developed a joint strategic agreement with Messe Frankfurt/IFFA the preeminent trade fair worldwide for Meat Processing. The endorsement and promotion of each other’s shows will increase the international reach and brand awareness of both events and greatly benefit both attendees and exhibitors. In addition, Process Expo 2017 has been selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Buyer Program Select, and will focus on Mexico, Columbia, Egypt, Russia and the Southern Cone (Argentina and Chile) for the 2017 event. This valuable program is a joint government-industry effort that increases U.S. export sales by promoting international attendance and recruiting pre-screened international buyers to U.S. trade shows.

Defeat Hunger

The FPSA Foundation has made a commitment to contribute $75,000 at Process Expo as part of their Defeat Hunger campaign and created an online portal for donations throughout the year and a food drive at this year’s event with the goal of supporting the Greater Chicago Food Depository in addressing food insecurity in Cook County. Over the past two shows, the Defeat Hunger campaign has generated enough donations to provide more than 560,000 meals. NP

David Seckman is president/CEO of the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) and Tom Kittle is chairman of the board for FPSA, as well as president of Handtmann. The Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) is a global trade association serving suppliers in the food and beverage industries. The Association’s programs and services support members’ success by providing assistance in marketing their products and services, overall improvement in key business practices and many opportunities to network among industry colleagues. For more information, visit www.fpsa.org or www.myprocessexpo.com.