The 24th Annual Food Safety Summit kicked off on Tuesday with an engaging Mock Civil Trial, four dynamic workshops, and a Welcome Reception on the Show Floor. The event is taking place through Thursday, May 12 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. The Conference Sessions begin at 8:00 am on Wednesday and Thursday.  To access the conference program visit https://www.food-safety.com/food-safety-summit/agenda. Below are highlights from the opening day, and the schedule of the events. 

The 24th Annual Food Safety Summit education program began with a dynamic opening session for a packed room of hundreds of food safety professionals. The Mock Civil Trial 2.0 was presented by Shawn Stevens and Joel Chappelle from the Food Industry Counsel who argued a large-scale foodborne illness outbreak with the audience deliberating the case. After deliberations, 14 jury tables found the company not at fault for the Listeria that caused the death of an 11-year-old, ten juries said yes, and there were eight hung juries. 

Over 200 people attended the afternoon workshops which included a standing room only session on Internal Audits, Moving Beyond a Checking the Box Mindset with Jen Fernan and Michael White from J&J Snacks, Joe Meyer from Kerry and Kara Mickkelson-Baldus from Hydrite. The two other workshops were on Cybersecurity and What it Means to the Food Safety Professional and Effectively Communicating with the Regulatory Community. 

The sprawling exhibit hall features more than 125 vendors showcasing products and services including Gold Sponsor Purell; Silver Sponsors Intertek Alchemy and InstantRecall; and Bronze Sponsors Infor, Redzone and Zenput. The Exhibit Hall will be open on Wednesday and Thursday from 10:30 – 2:30pm.

Attendees and exhibitors were able to network at the welcome reception on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday evening from 5:30–7:00 p.m., the Food Safety Summit will be hosting an evening reception to support Feeding America, where the Summit will match every dollar donated to support hunger relief in America.  

Highlights for Wednesday, May 11th included:

  • Morning Educational Sessions: 
  • What Make a Good Leader? 
  • Food Donations: How Edible Food Waste can be Used to Curb Food Insecurity 
  • Food Safety Culture: Theory into Everyday Actions 
  • Cost of Foodborne Illness and Related Impact 
  • Keynote Presentation: The Future of Food Safety Culture: Commitment and Collaboration. This panel discuss will include Conrad Choiniere, PhD, and Donald Prater, D.V.M both with the FDA, Matt Lash, Esq., with the DOJ Consumer Protection Branch, and Michael Roberson, Publix Super Markets. The session will be moderated by Shawn Stevens, Food Industry Counsel - 9:15 - 10:30am 
  • Presentation of the Food Safety Magazine Distinguished Service Award to Joe Stout, R.S. of Commercial Food Sanitation, LLC- 9:15 - 10:30am 
  • Exhibit Hall Open with lunch served 10:30am - 2:30pm 
  • Afternoon Educational Sessions: 
  • Development of Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) 
  • Foodborne Outbreak Investigation 101 
  • Virtual Tools for Food Safety Assessments: Lessons Learned and Best Practices 
  • The New Frontier for Food Safety in Produce: 
  • Data Driven Analytics and Insights Enhancing Traceability and Food Safety Programs 
  • Improving the Future of Recall 
  • Food Safety for Smaller Operations – Wearing All the Food Safety Hats at Once 
  • Moving Forward after Novel Outbreaks 
  • Microbial Challenge Studies: Putting The Pieces Together 
  • Food Safety Summit Gives Back Networking Reception to support Feeding America - 5:30 - 7:00pm  

The Food Safety Summit is taking place from May 9–12, 2022 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. The Food Safety Summit is owned and produced by Food Safety Magazine (www.food-safety.com) and BNP Media (www.bnpmedia.com), one of the country's leading business-to-business media companies serving industry professionals across 60+ industries through magazines, custom media, e-newsletters, webinars, events, and market research.