The 24th Annual Food Safety Summit concluded last Thursday for the first in-person event since 2019, marking a tremendous success. The food safety community was energized to be back in person to share knowledge, network, and see the latest solutions on the exhibit floor. Food safety professionals from Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, Publix Supermarkets, The Kraft Heinz Company, Aramark, Blue Bell Creameries, The Wendy’s Company, McDonald’s, Costco, and many others, as well as experts from FDA, USDA, CDC, DOJ, AFDO, and other state and local regulatory organizations attended the event. 

“We are excited we were able to highlight, in-person, the powerful partnership of the Food Safety Summit and Food Safety Magazine, two industry-leading brands, coming together as part of the BNP Media family of food and beverage brands. We are well positioned to leverage this merger moving forward to benefit the food safety professionals we serve,” said Stacy Atchison, publisher, Food Safety Magazine, producers of the Summit. “Attendance levels were impressive—full conference and certification course participation were about equal to the 2019 event. We received strong feedback from premium sponsors and exhibitors who have already committed to participating in the 2023 event, marking the 25th anniversary of the Food Safety Summit.” 

On Wednesday evening during the Food Safety Summit Gives Back networking reception, the Summit presented Wayne Melichar, managing director of food safety for Feeding America, with a check for $10,000, which included donations from exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees. A special thank you to Ambassador sponsors: Purell, Share-ify, and StateFoodSafety; Advocate sponsors: Instant Recall and Viking Pure; and Ally sponsors: ELISA Technologies, FlexXray, Infor, Redzone, Plex, and Zenput. Donations were generously matched by BNP Media. These donations will provide 100,000 meals to families in need around the country.  

On the final day of the Summit, Frank Yiannas, deputy commissioner, food policy and response, Food and Drug Administration; Rob Tauxe, M.D., M.P.H., director, DFWED, NCEZID, DDID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Sandra Eskin, deputy under secretary for food safety, United States Department of Agriculture joined the Summit’s Town Hall virtually as Steve Mandernach, executive director, Association of Food & Drug Officials participated in person from the stage. Each of the panelists shared updates from each of their organizations and participated in a lively Q&A session with attendees. The Town Hall was moderated by Gary Ades, Ph.D., president, G&L Consulting Group and chair of the Educational Advisory Board (EAB) that develops content for the Summit. 

In addition to dozens of education sessions as part of the conference and in the Solutions Stage and Tech Tent in the exhibit hall, attendees had the chance to participate in a closing workshop on In the Trenches with Sanitation: Challenges and Key Learnings from Solving Problems in the Field. Joe Stout, president, Commercial Food Sanitation and Eric Moorman, Ph.D., corporate manager of food safety and scientific affairs, Butterball, LLC led an interactive discussion focused on the recent thinking of reviving tried-and-true historical and new approaches to sanitation, hygienic design, and the best of plant controls for food safety in the food industry.  

During the three-day event, hundreds of professionals visited with nearly 150 leading vendors to learn about the latest food safety solutions through exhibit booths and Solutions Stage and Tech Tent presentations. The Exhibit Hall featured Gold Sponsor Purell; Silver Sponsors Intertek Alchemy and InstantRecall; and Bronze Sponsors Infor, Redzone, and Zenput.

Plans are already being made for the 25th Annual Food Safety Summit, which will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL from Monday, May 8 through Thursday, May 11, 2023. For more information on sponsorship or exhibiting opportunities, contact Kim Hansen at hansenk@bnpmedia.com or Adam Haas at haasa@bnpmedia.com. For more information and updates for the 2023 event, visit www.foodsafetysummit.com.

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.