2007 Worldwide Food Expo To Feature Free Educational Sessions on Saturday

Washington, DC - Dairy processors and meat packers who attend 2007 Worldwide Food Expo on Saturday, October 27, will receive free admission to the Expo along with a choice of one of these valuable educational sessions: Running a Family Business or Listeria Intervention and Control. Worldwide Food Expo, sponsored by the American Meat Institute (AMI) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), will be held October 24-27 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The biennial event attracts 25,000 industry leaders from 100 countries to see the largest North American display of food industry suppliers in one location.

Attendees can chose from two concurrent sessions:

Food Safety Short Course – Listeria Intervention and Control
This course is designed to provide in-depth discussions on industry best practices, implementing appropriate and effective microbial interventions, and compliance with regulatory requirements. Taught by operations and safety experts from the field and noted industry scientists, the course is ideally suited for new and future food safety and quality assurance personnel. Speakers will include: Randy Huffman, Ph.D., vice president, scientific affairs, AMI Foundation; John Butts, Ph.D., vice president, research, Land O’Frost; Dale Fredell, manager, education services, Ecolab, Inc.; John Weisgerber, president, Weisgerber Consulting, LLC; Bob Reinhard, director, food safety, Sara Lee Food and Beverage; and Tim Freier, Ph.D., director, global food safety technologies, Cargill, Inc.

Industry Short Course: Family Business
In this program, attendees will learn to define and optimize the roles and responsibilities of owners, family members, independent board members and the executive team as they face the unique set of challenges posed by family business governance. This session will be led by Drew Mendoza, managing principle, Family Business Consulting Group.

Both sessions will run from 8 a.m. to noon. Saturday exhibit hall hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., providing attendees plenty of time to visit the 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, which displays more than 1,000 exhibiting companies. Free Saturday registration is open to qualified buyers (packers and processors). For additional information or to register, see the registration form on http://www.worldwidefood.com/.
Worldwide Food Expo 2007 features the Food, Dairy & Beverage Exposition and the AMI International Meat, Poultry & Seafood Industry Convention and Exposition. Show registration is available now at http://www.worldwidefood.com/, along with updated agendas, hotel and housing information, and a new feature, “MyExpo” – an interactive guide to helping attendees get the most out of their visit to the Expo.

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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.

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 530 companies representing a $90-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 http://www.idfa.org/.