Food Safety Summit Offers What's New - From Technology to Regulations
The Food Safety Summit and Expo, being held next week in Washington DC, is designed for food processors, food service managers, scientists, and regulatory officials concerned with protecting the nation's food supply from bacteria and other hazards.
The three-day meeting offers specific programming for a variety of audiences, as well as an exposition featuring 70 suppliers of laboratory and testing services, microbiology services and equipment, quality assurance consulting, HACCP and sanitation systems, training and education programs, and more.
Vice President, Al Gore, Jr., who is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on Tuesday morning, will offer insight into the future of Federal food regulation and enforcement. Other government officials to address the conference include Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa); Rosa Menza-Morrison and Mark Manis, USDA; and George Pauli, FDA. Food industry experts from Nabisco, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Pillsbury and Hormel will also speak.
The Food Safety Summit includes sessions on application of new technologies in food safety. One session shows how cleanrooms, the ultra-sterile facilities usually reserved for computer chip manufacturing, are being used to make frozen lasagna. Other instruments on display can provide nearly instant testing for a variety of pathogens.
New methods in pasteurization, sterile food packaging, microbe detection, and food irradiation will also be showcased. An entire session will be devoted to Listeria alone. Food processors and restaurants will hear the latest research and new methods of controlling the growth of this and other infectious agents.
Beyond the science and regulations, the conference will also include a "Hand Washing Olympics". Scientists and quality control executives will compete using technology such as electronically timed sinks that don't let you rinse off the soap until you've scrubbed clean, and other machines that actually wash your hands for you. An ultraviolet detector that reveals what's left behind after hand washing will determine the winner.
The event, co-sponsored by the National Food Processors Association (NFPA), begins Monday, June 14 and runs through Wednesday, June 16. It will be held at The Washington Hilton and Towers in Washington, DC. For more information, or for media registration for the Food Safety Summit, contact Eaton Hall Expositions at 800-746-9646, ext. 105, or visit the conference Web site at www.foodsafetysummit.com.
The NFPA is the voice of the $430 billion food processing industry on scientific and public policy issues involving food safety, nutrition, technical and regulatory matters and consumer affairs.