IDFA, AMI Annouce Food Safety Track Schedule at Worldwide Food Expo 2009

From implementing appropriate interventions to compliance with regulatory requirements, Worldwide Food Expo 2009 will offer a wide range of educational sessions and short courses focused on food safety during the show, which will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago October 28-31, 2009.

The sessions and short courses will provide attendees with the most up-to-date information available and include extensive time for participants to ask questions and solve problems in their own operations.

Scheduled sessions/short courses include:

Wednesday, October 28

Ensuring Food Safety

Ensure consumer confidence by learning more about food safety and its impact on your business. This session will show the impact that regulations have on your business, the correlation between sanitation and profitability, and how all members of the supply chain can collaborate to ensure optimal safety.

 Is Your Company Crisis-Ready?

Participate in a mock drill that could better prepare your plant or company to handle a crisis in the dairy industry. This program will outline how to build a crisis communication plan for your company. By broadening the base of crisis-ready dairy processors and suppliers, the dairy industry can return more quickly to business-as-usual following a large-scale recall or crisis.

Thursday, October 29

Using "Natural" Antimicrobials in Food

Review the latest research on the use of protective cultures to inhibit yeast and mold, Listeria monocytogenes, and other microbial contaminants of cultured dairy products.

Plant Operations Short Course: Food Safety for the Meat Industry

This session will focus on how the proposed FSIS Public Health Information System (PHIS) program, including analytics and inspection methods, and will discuss how the program may affect business.

Friday, October 30

What to do when the FDA knocks on your door

Learn about the inspection process, your rights during an inspection and how to create a plan of action when the FDA comes knocking at your door. This short course will detail what you need to do to prepare for a Food and Drug Administration inspection.

Saturday, October 31

FREE SHORT COURSE: Listeria Intervention and Control ($700 Value)

Examine industry best practices and engage in in-depth discussions on appropriate and effective microbial interventions and compliance with regulatory requirements. This short course is taught by operations and safety experts from the field and a noted industry scientist; it is ideally suited for new and future food safety and quality assurance personnel.

Dairy processors are eligible for complimentary registration to Worldwide Food Expo when they register for any of the Pre-Expo workshops.

The Worldwide Food Expo attracts approximately 900 exhibitors, who display the newest technologies in equipment, packaging, ingredients and services for processors of dairy, meat, frozen food, beverages, snack foods, poultry and seafood. Food and beverage professionals attend Worldwide Food Expo to find solutions spanning the entire manufacturing process - from receiving and blending to processing and packaging to material handling and distribution. Attendees have the opportunity to view more than 1.2 million square feet of exhibits offering everything that food and beverage companies need to run more efficiently, create new products and improve profitability.

The show features two co-located events: the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) Food, Dairy & Beverage Exposition and the American Meat Institute (AMI) International Meat, Poultry & Seafood Exposition.

For more information about each session, including registration fees and daily agendas, please visit www.worldwidefood.com.

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The American Meat Institute (AMI) represents the interests of packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal and turkey products and their suppliers throughout North America. Together, AMI’s members produce 95 percent of the beef, pork, lamb and veal products and 70 percent of the turkey products in the United States. The Institute provides legislative, regulatory, public relations, technical, scientific and educational services to the meat and poultry packing and processing industry. www.meatami.com

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $110-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.

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