Food Safety Summit unveils 2025 education slate
The conference will feature 20+ sessions, workshops, and courses.
Mary Weaver Gertz, chief food safety and QA officer, Yum! Brands Inc., speaks at a previous Summit keynote, “Being Right is Not Enough: Leading Food Safety in a Corporate and Global Environment." Courtesy of Food Safety Summit
Registration is now open for the 2025 Food Safety Summit education program, scheduled for May 12–15 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. The educational experience for food industry professionals will feature over 20 interactive sessions, workshops, and certification courses designed to address the most pressing food safety challenges and provide actionable solutions.
“We thank our incredible Educational Advisory Board, comprised of the best and brightest leaders in the food safety industry, who worked tirelessly to create a dynamic education program. This year’s program will feature over 80 subject matter experts who will share innovative and timely solutions for today’s most important issues,” says Gillian Kelleher, CEO, Kelleher Consultants LLC, chair of the FSS Educational Advisory Board. “We look forward to bringing the food safety community together to exchange ideas and achievements, discuss the issues, and engage in collaborative problem-solving.”
The Educational Advisory Board comprises food safety industry leaders from foodservice, retail, manufacturing, distribution, produce, trade associations, regulatory, and academia. Nine new members helped plan the program for the 2025 Summit including Steven A. Lyon, Ph.D., Chick-fil-A Inc.; Robin Forgey, Costco Wholesale; Kathleen O’Donnell, Wegmans; Ola Afolayan, Kellanova; Sharon Birkett, OSI Group LLC; Mahirwan Bhagia, PepsiCo; Monica Khoury, Nestlé; Laura Gieraltowski, Ph.D., M.P.H., CDC; and Matt Stasiewicz, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Five Certificate Courses will be offered on Monday, May 12, including NEHA’s Certified Professional–Food Safety (CP-FS) Credential Review Course; Food Fraud Prevention Workshop and Certificate Course; FSPCA’s Preventive Controls for Human Food Version 2.0; and two new courses including AFDO’s Implementing Risk-Based Inspections and Auditing for Retail Food Establishments and Application of the Principles of Hazard Analysis—Beyond the Basics.
On Tuesday, May 13, five half-day workshops will be offered. The event will kick off with a three-hour, interactive session featuring a panel of seasoned professionals who will discuss Traceability Next Steps—Supply Chain Implementation. The afternoon workshops will address Beyond Compliance: Harnessing Psychosocial Factors for a Stronger Food Safety Culture; Mock Trial 3.0: Deposition Training for the C-Suite; Effective Sanitation Basics; and Data Analysis for Food Safety Professionals: Modeling, Risk Assessment, and Analytics Tools for FSQA.
Jason Evans, Ph.D., dean of the College of Food Innovation and Technology (CFIT) at Johnson & Wales University, will discuss Surmountable Challenges: Leadership when Nothing is Easy during the Keynote presentation on Wednesday, May 14. Dr. Evans will share strategies for encouraging exceptional performance and developing accountable, engaged, and collaborative teams.
The 13th annual Town Hall: A Candid Dialogue on the Future of Food Safety will be held on Thursday, May 15, with updates from James (Jim) Jones, the Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director, Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO); and food safety leaders from USDA-FSIS and the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at CDC. Gillian Kelleher will moderate the Town Hall.
The Summit’s closing session on Thursday afternoon will focus on The Secret Sauce to Getting to ‘Yes,’ where industry experts, including a CFO, an HR professional, and seasoned executives, will reveal the unwritten rules of navigating corporate culture and securing resources. Learn how to unlock the strategies for transforming “no” into “yes” in this engaging and interactive session.
Wednesday and Thursday will offer 18 education sessions on timely topics such as Processing Technologies, Food Donation vs. Waste Diversion, Food Safety Culture Tools, Sanitation and Hygiene Success, Leveraging AI, Recall Modernization, Elevating Women’s Leadership, Allergen Management, UN Sustainable Development Goals, Outbreak Investigation, Performance Metrics, Bridging the Communication Gap, Lessons from Food Safety Failures, the Ongoing HPAI Outbreak, Navigating Misinformation, Chemical Safety, Global Climate Change, and more.
The Exhibit Hall will feature over 200 solution providers showcasing the latest products and services including Platinum Sponsor NomadX, Silver Sponsors Instant Recall and DNV; and Bronze Sponsors Bioionix, bioMérieux, Deibel Laboratories, Food Radar, NSF, SGS, Trustwell, and VAI. There will be educational opportunities on the show floor in the Solutions Stage and Tech Tent, which will host presentations on advanced technology solutions. The Community Hub will offer attendees a chance to listen to Food Safety Magazine’s Food Safety Matters podcast interviews with distinguished Summit speakers and other industry leaders.
An opening night reception will be held in the Exhibit Hall and offer food and drinks for a casual setting for attendees and exhibitors to mingle and network. On Wednesday night, the Food Safety Summit Gives Back networking reception will support the important work of Stop Foodborne Illness. The money donated goes to support the organization’s vision of “A World Without Foodborne Illness” and its over 30-year mission to be the voice of people affected by foodborne illness by collaborating with partners in academia, the food industry, and government to prevent foodborne illness. Click here for more information or to donate.
Registration for the 2025 Food Safety Summit is open, with early bird savings available through Monday, April 1, 2025. One-, two-, and three-day conference packages are available, along with group discounts. A conference pass provides access to the interactive half-day workshops, 27 in-depth education sessions, the Keynote and Town Hall presentations, lunch in the exhibit hall, two networking receptions, access to 200+ solution providers, free education at the Solutions Stage and Tech Tent, and NEHA continuing education credits.
The Food Safety Summit is owned and produced by Food Safety Magazine and BNP Media, 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.
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