The 2020 Virtual Food Safety Summit will offer four days of education with 26 sessions, access to vendors who will be showcasing the newest and most innovative food safety solutions and several online networking opportunities. This online event will take place Monday, October 19 through Thursday, October 22, 2020 and will feature an opening session on COVID-19 – The New Normal for the Food Industry; a keynote by Will Daniels, president, Produce Division, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group who will talk about Back to Basics: Consumer-Focused Food Safety; the Summit’s Annual Town Hall with leaders from FDA, USDA, CDC and AFDO and an interactive closing session Foodborne Illness Outbreak Mock Criminal Trial – A View from the Jury Box featuring Shawn Stevens. These four sessions as well as access to the exhibitors and networking are all free to attend. The early bird discount savings of $100 has now been extended for the full education program through September 30, 2020, by using special code: FSS100VIRTUAL.

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“We thank our Educational Advisory Board and all of our exhibitors for their continued support of our new virtual format. We are excited to bring our community together online to have access to four days of live and on demand sessions, robust content, networking opportunities with peers, and an interactive exhibit hall,” said Scott Wolters, chief events officer, BNP Media, producers of the Summit. “We have developed a stellar education program which will kick off Monday, October 19 with an opening session on  COVID-19: The New Normal for the Food Industry where subject matter experts from Epidemiology, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Foodservice and Retail will discuss first-hand what they did to address the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis for their organizations, customers and consumers.”

The COVID-19 Opening Session will feature Steve Mandernach, executive director, Association of Food & Drug Officials; Jorge Hernandez, VP, Quality Assurance, The Wendy's Company; Craig Wilson, VP, GMM Quality Assurance, Costco; Joan Menke-Schaenzer, chief quality officer, Van Drunen Farms/FutureCeuticals; Glenn Stolowski, manager Retail Quality Assurance, HEB; and Lee-Ann Jaykus, PhD, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University. The session will be moderated by Gary Ades, PhD, president, G&L Consulting and Chair of the Food Safety Summit Educational Advisory Board and Craig Henry, PhD, food safety consultant.

In addition to the General Sessions there will be four two-hour workshops focused on What Am I Getting Into? Suppliers & Co-Packers Linked to Food Safety; Food Fraud Prevention – Introduction, Implementation and Management; Practice Improves Performance - Internal Audits for Food Processors and Managing Allergens & Sanitation in Food Processing Facilities. The Summit has also partnered with the FSPCA to offer the Intentional Adulteration: Conducting Vulnerability Assessment Certificate Course. 

The one hour sessions will offer insight from subject matter experts on such hot topics as Food Safety Challenges; Difficult to Detect Organisms; How to Control Allergens; How Hep A Prepared Us for COVID; Novel Processing Technologies; Developing Food Safety Disaster Plans, Supply Chain Traceability; Foodborne Outbreaks; Labeling; Indoor Farming; Risk Communications; Best Practices around COVID; Partners with a Common Purpose; and Hot Topics.

From 12:00 – 2:30 pm CT, each of the four days of the event, the virtual exhibit hall featuring Gold Sponsor Purell; Bronze sponsor Elisa Technologies; as well as Conference Sponsor Zebra will be open. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from technology companies in the Tech Tent and attend live sponsored education sessions on the Solutions Stage. Visit https://www.foodsafetystrategies.com/agenda to get the most up-to-date sessions and speakers.

The virtual Summit is $299 to attend the full conference with the Early bird rate discount code FSS100VIRTUAL which expires on September 30, 2020. Those who pay to attend the Summit will have complete access to the entire platform, including virtual exhibit booths, all live and on-demand education sessions, the ability to participate in group discussions and networking events with colleagues and speakers, and more! There is also a FREE option to attend the Summit for those that would like to visit the Exhibit Hall and attend only the General Session each day (4 sessions total) Registration is now open at https://www.foodsafetystrategies.com/registration/rates. 

The new platform extends a number of exciting new opportunities for exhibitors and sponsors that are unique to a virtual event. For additional information about exhibiting at the Summit or sponsorship opportunities contact Kim Hansen, national sales manager at 248-786-1233 or hansenk@bnpmedia.com. 

The Food Safety Summit is produced by 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.