The Food Safety Summit is the leading forum on food safety with an in-depth conference program offering solutions for today and planning for tomorrow, featuring the world's leading authorities examining the most up-to-date innovations in the food industry. The Food Safety Summit has announced its Educational Advisory Board (EAB) for the 2014 event who will set the direction for the content of the education program including high profile keynotes, hands on workshops, specialized training and detailed informational sessions. The EAB is comprised of industry leaders including eight new members for 2014. The EAB has representation from the entire food industry including growers, processors, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, foodservice operators, regulators and academia. The EAB has opened a Call for Papers for the 2014 event; taking place at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD April 8-10.

 The New EAB members include:

  • Joe Corby- Executive Director, Association of Food & Drug Officials
  • Bryan Farnsworth - VP Quality Management at Hormel Foods
  • Faye Feldstein- DC Senior Advisor, FED TS&A FHS, Deloitte Consulting LLP
  • Jorge Hernandez- Sr. VP Food Safety & Quality Assurance, US Foods
  • Hal King, PhD- Director Food and Product Safety, Chick-fil-A
  • Richard H. Linton, PhD- Dean College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, North Carolina State University
  • Joan Menke-Schaenzer- Global Chief Quality Officer, ConAgra Foods, Inc.
  • Mark Miklos - Consultant; Formerly VP Food Safety & Training; Waffle House, Inc.

Returning EAB members include:

  • Gary Ades, PhD- President, G&L Consulting Group
  • Al Baroudi, PhD- VP, Quality Assurance & Food Safety, The Cheesecake Factory
  • Jason Bashura- Food Defense Oversight Team, FDA/CFSAN
  • Will Daniels- Sr. VP Operations and Organic Integrity, Earthbound Farms
  • Jay Ellingson, PhD- Corporate Director Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Kwik Trip
  • Craig Henry, PhD- ERS Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP
  • John Marcy, PhD- Professor and Poultry Processing Specialist, University of Arkansas
  • John Spink- Associate Director & Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
  • Sharon Wood- Director, Food Safety & Environmental Affairs, HEB

"We had a terrific response from the industry about the content of our most recent Food Safety Summit and are very excited to work with our Educational Advisory Board to produce another stellar program for 2014," says Scott Wolters, Director of The Food Safety Summit. "Our goal is to offer a solutions oriented program in a safe harbor environment where real issues can be discussed and solutions discovered.  With a nice mix of returning members and the new members to our EAB, we are extremely confident we will accomplish this goal."

The Call for Papers for the 2014 event is now open at http://www.foodsafetysummit.com/index.php/call-for-speakers. All session proposals must be educational and non-commercial in nature-sales pitches and product-centric presentations will not be considered. The EAB will review the submissions, which must be received by September 6, 2013, and reserves the final right to select the speakers and topics to be presented. Proposals will be evaluated in terms of:

  • Importance of topic to conference attendees
  • Inclusion of an end user as either lead or co-presenter
  • Objective, educational, non-commercial content
  • Clearly defined / profit-centric attendee benefits
  • Knowledge, experience, and presentation skills of the speaker(s)

Sessions must address up to three of the following Food Safety Solutions: Allergens, Auditing, Crisis Planning, Effective Risk Communication, Emerging Issues Retail / Foodservice and Grocery Operations, Environmental Monitoring, FDA and USDA Regulations and Guidelines, Food Fraud / Defense / Security, Food Safety Modernization Act, Global Food Supply, GMPs and Prerequisite Programs, HACCP, Imports / Exports, Interaction of Public and Private Sectors, Interventions, Market Trends and Landscape for the Future, Packaging, Pathogens, Pest Control, Predictive Microbiology and Testing, Produce, Quantitative Risk Assessment, Sanitary Design of Equipment, Sanitation, Software Solutions, Traceability, Training, Transportation / Distribution- Protecting Products, or any other topics applicable to the audience.

Source: Food Safety Summit