This year’s Pack Expo International will welcome a whopping 45,000-plus attendees under one roof for the packaging industry’s most dynamic show. Set to take place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, this dynamic tradeshow will feature a new food safety resource, while the GMA looks at the impact of the Food Safety Modernization Act.


Pack Expo International 2010, which is set for Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, will bring in more than 45,000 visitors, including international attendees from nearly 110 countries, to showcase everything processors need to increase efficiency, reduce recalls, maintain equipment and protect brands.

For starters, Troy, Mich.-based BNP Media, organizer of the Food Safety Summit and parent company ofSnack Food & Wholesale Bakery, and the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), producer of the Pack Expo family of tradeshows, are jointly promoting the Food Safety Summit Resource Center. Experts will provide attendees with information they need about food safety breakthroughs, challenges and solutions to ensure the safety of packaged foods before, during and after processing and packaging.

“With the 2010 show, Pack Expo has expanded to provide processing and packaging solutions, and food safety is certainly a leading issue across both industries. BNP’s Food Safety Summit Resource Center will support attendees and exhibitors seeking total systems solutions,” says Charles D. Yuska, president and CEO, PMMI, Arlington, Va.

Promoting brand value via packaging is a vital way to entice consumers to notice - and ultimately buy - products. To help brands develop that critical identity and preference with consumers, PMMI debuts The Brand Zone.

Occupying more than 60,000 square feet, The Brand Zone will showcase a variety of innovative containers and materials designed to meet consumer demands for convenience, portion control, portability and sustainability among other features. Exhibits will include advances in glass, plastic, metal and paperboard and a variety of decorating and labeling techniques and reclosable packaging options.

“Packaging is an essential marketing vehicle – keeping brands competitive and relevant with consumers even as priorities and tastes change,” Yuska explains. “The Brand Zone helps brand owners stay connected to the latest technologies so they can position themselves for long-term success.”

Attendees will also learn about the future of packaging with Project 2020: The Consumer Experience. Sponsored by DuPont, this new area will look at consumer demands expected to drive packaging innovation 10 years from now.

From a field of 20 finalists, judges also will select one grand prize winner to receive the Complete Studio Bundle from EskoArtwork. The other 19 finalists will receive copies of Studio Designer, EskoArtwork’s 3D visualization plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. Judges will include representatives from PMMI; media partnerPackage Designmagazine; software partner EskoArtwork; and ABI, PMMI’s marketing public relations partner.

Meanwhile, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), Washington D.C., will host a full schedule of conference sessions co-located with Pack Expo, Nov. 1-2. One of the GMA Manufacturing Excellence Conference topics will examine the new world of FDA food safety modernization, as we find out how consumer products companies manage expectations of the impending impact of the 2009 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, specifically at plant level.

A stakeholder panel comprising regulatory and food, beverage and consumer products manufacturing professionals will address some of the Food Safety Modernization Act’s key components, such as facility hazard evaluation and preventive controls, food facility re-inspection and allocation of inspection resources based on risk profiles of food facilities. Panelists include: Brent Brehmer, Hormel; Joseph Levitt, Hogan Lovells; Matilda Freund, Kraft Foods; and Robert E. Brackett, director and vice president of the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).  

More information about all of the sessions is available at http://www.packexpo.com/pei2010/public/Content.aspx?ID=1075. To register for Pack Expo, the Food Safety Summit Resource Center, The Brand Zone and the many other events taking place during the show week, visit www.packexpo.com or contact PMMI’s show department at 703/243-8555 or expo@pmmi.org.