FOOD SAFETY SUMMIT ATTRACTS TOP INDUSTRY EXPERTS

FOOD SAFETY SUMMIT ATTRACTS TOP INDUSTRY EXPERTS

WASHINGTON, DC April 19, 2010 – Over 1,300 food manufacturing, retail, foodservice, academic, military and government professionals attended The 12th annual Food Safety Summit which wrapped up its annual three day meeting on April 14. Even though there was heightened security at the Washington DC Convention Center due to the 47-nation Nuclear Security Summit, food professionals attended and shared their knowledge and experiences in interactive workshops, general sessions and on the Expo floor where 150 companies displayed products and services and the latest information in fighting contamination.

"We received a lot of very positive feedback about how smoothly the event went, even with the additional security logistics that had to be implemented," said Emily Patten, Director of Tradeshows and Conferences for BNP Media, producers of the event. "Attendees really enjoyed the educational programming, the networking events, the Poster Abstract Area and the Vendor Track Theaters where exhibitors had an opportunity to present data in their particular area of expertise."

The Food Safety Summit keynote speakers gave detailed, informative speeches about the issues facing the food industry. In front of a standing-room only crowd Mike Robach, Vice President, Corporate Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs, Cargill, Inc., kicked off the event with a keynote presentation on global food safety systems. ”We need to have more harmonization and consistency as we deal with food safety and security issues that are truly global in nature,” Robach said.

On Wednesday morning, over 500 people attended a keynote presentation by Michael R. Taylor, JD, Deputy Commissioner for Foods U.S. FDA who talked about Food Safety and the FDA. Prior to his speech the NSF International, a not-for-profit public health and safety organization, presented the 7th Annual Food Safety Leadership Awards to several organizations and individuals. The Training Award was presented to the California Strawberry Commission, Food Safety Team. The Education Awards were presented to William Marler, Manager Partner, Marler Clark, LLP, PS and to Catherine H. Strokbehn PhD, RD, CP-FS HRIM Extension Specialist/Adjunct Associate Professor Iowa State University. The Equipment Award was presented to FoodSafe Team at Intralox. The Systems Improvement Awards was presented to Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu and the Southern Nevada Health District.

On Tuesday evening the Food Quality Award was presented by Food Quality Magazine to the Michigan Turkey Producers. The Award was sponsored by DuPont Qualicon and during the evening, R. Dale Morton, Director of Food Safety Programs, PepsiCo North America and Quaker Tropicana Gatorade discussed how companies are meeting the evolving challenges in today’s food safety culture.

Exhibitors in the Expo Hall and sponsors included Abbott Nutrition, Covance, 3M Food Safety, BD Diagnostics, DuPont Qualicon, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Ecolab, Inc., Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Refrigeration, R-Biopharm, Inc., Siemens Industry, Silliker, Inc., Weber Scientific and others. The Expo floor offered two packed days of presentations by exhibitors in the Vendor Track Theater as well as networking luncheons.

The show floor also offered Poster Abstracts located in the attendee networking lounge. The posters were titled “The Efficacy of OvoControl® P (nicarbazin) as a Contraceptive for Pigeons,” by Dr Alexander MacDonald, Chief Science Officer and Erick Wolf, Cen Innolytics, LLC Rancho Santa Rey, CA. “Sample Preparation for Real-Time Detection of Food Borne Pathogens,” by Robert D. Tebbs, Priya Balachandran, Patrick Zoder, Olga V. Petrauskene and Manohar Furtado from Life Technologies. Foster City, CA. “Development of High Volume Reagant Kits for Idaho Technology’s R.A.P.I.D. Food Security System to Increase Sample Throughput by David Neilsen presenting author and Sarah Fowden, Traci-lyn Hayes, Stephanie Thatcher, Haleigh Millward and Kelly Winterberg from Idaho Technology. Walker Lake City, Utah. “Implementation of HACCP in Juibail Industry City,” by Rasheed Ahmed, Environmental Health Supervisor and Ahmed S Al-Harkan, Director of Property Department, Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.

At the close of the Show Brad Witte from Petersons Farm won an iPad and Christy McLelland also from Petersons Farm won an iPod Nano. Steve Sohn, Senior Staff Scientist with Reynolds America and Alton Bradshaw, Jr, Senior Scientist from Ocean Spray Cranberries won full conference registration for the 2011 event. Plans are already being made for the 2011 Food Safety Summit which will be held Tuesday, April 19 through Thursday, April 21, 2011 and will return to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. For more information, call 847/405-4000 or visit www.foodsafetysummit.com .

For further information, Contact:
Amy Riemer, Media Relations Contact
978-475-4441 (office)
978-502-4895 (cell)
amy@riemercommunications.com