SHOW PREVIEW

The Food Safety & Security Summit ramps up for its 10th gathering.

For its 10th anniversary, the Food Safety & Security Summit has pulled out all the stops.

Held in Washington, D.C. from March 17-19, 2008, the FSS Summit will hold 30 seminars in five different areas covering testing and technology, sanitation and operations, process control and quality assurance, foodservice and retail, and food security and the supply chain.

The Summit will feature a top slate of experienced professionals in the activities to be held during the event. Members of the FSS Summit Executive Educational Advisory Council, who contribute to planning the event, include Michael C. Robach, corporate vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs at Cargill, Susan Forsell of McDonald’s USA, and Dr. Gary Smith of Colorado State University. Seminar presenters include Joe Scimeca of Cargill, Inc., Dave Franz of the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center and Syed Hussain of ConAgra Inc.

The event begins March 17 at 1 p.m., with half-day workshops at the Washington DC Convention Center. The workshops cover topics on the implementation of a HACCP plan, international standards in food safety and the importance of handwashing. The opening night reception starts immediately after the workshops at 5:30 p.m., ending at 7 p.m.

Seminars begin at 8 a.m. March 18, with sessions for each of the five tracks. Tuesday also features keynote speeches from Rick Frazier, senior vice president of technical stewardship at the Coca-Cola Co., and Richard Rivera, chairman of the board of the National Restaurant Association. Their presentations are at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively. The Food Quality Award presentation and reception is at 6:30 p.m. March 18.

Seminars start at 8 a.m. again on Wednesday, with the final keynote speech at 9:30 a.m. The keynote features Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Dr. Steve Solomon of the Office of Regulatory Affairs and ORO, and Dr. Jeff Farrar of the California Department of Health Services. The Summit Luncheon and National Science Foundation Food Safety Leadership Awards Presentation starts at 12:30 p.m.

The seminars will cover a variety of topics within the five tracks. The classes have titles such as “Increasing Control of Results When Outsourcing Your Lab,” “Surviving and Succeeding as a Food Safety Professional,” “Trends & Interventions for Food Safety and Quality,” “Crisis Management & Recall Strategies” and “Issues & Trends in Supply Chain Management.”

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, the Summit exhibit hall opens at 10:30 a.m. More than 200 suppliers will be exhibiting during the show.

The Exhibit Hall also has some new additions. The Vendor Track Theatre will provide video from the exhibitors on the show floor. A New Products Showcase also takes place, showcasing products that have debuted since the 2007 Summit. Dr. Daniel Y.C. Fung, professor of food science at Kansas State University, will lead a team reviewing the Posters & Papers Research Program. The posters will be displayed throughout the exhibit hall and feature graphic displays of insights that show case scientific findings.