Following up on a well-attended cooking and cooling deviations webinar that took place in February 2025, the American Association of Meat Processors is hosting Cooking & Cooling Deviations in Meat & Poultry Processing: Part 2. The webinar will take place Aug. 12 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. This free, all-new webinar will feature Jim Dickson, professor emeritus at Iowa State University, as well as experts from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

AAMP Outreach has identified the need for education in the industry covering deviations and identifying when processing procedures do not go according to plan. Experts from FSIS will discuss processing deviations and Appendix A compliance, as well as different options to demonstrate food safety and when to choose these options. Additionally, Dickson will walk through a come-up time deviation.

Speakers include Dickson and Aaron Beczkiewicz, a food technologist in FSIS' Office of Policy and Program Development. Beczkiewicz focuses primarily on policy for ready-to-eat and further processed meat products including HACCP, HACCP validation and corrective actions in response to deviations and unforeseen hazards.

Dickson retired as the Morrison Endowed Chair in Meat Science and a professor in the Department of Animal Science and the Inter-Departmental Program in Microbiology at Iowa State University. Dickson's research focused on the control of bacteria of public health significance in foods of animal origin. Prior to his appointment at Iowa State University in 1993, he was employed by USDA-ARS as a research food technologist and lead scientist of the Meat Safety Assurance Program. Dickson has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has authored or co-authored 16 book chapters on topics relevant to food safety.

Source: American Association of Meat Processors