2011 Food Safety Summit Adds to Outstanding Conference Program

NEHA Offers Continuing Education Credits for Program


DEERFIELD, IL--(Marketwire - March 4, 2011) - The Food Safety Summit announced a few exciting changes to the already stellar educational program, including the addition of a 4th workshop focused on HACCP, the approval on CE credits from NEHA and the addition of Dr. Robert Corrigan as a prominent speaker in the newly titled Pest Management session. The 13th annual Food Safety Summit will take place April 19-21 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC.

"Our educational advisory committee is on the front lines every day in the fight for food safety, and are always looking for the best ways to enhance the program for our attendees," said Emily Patten, Director of Tradeshows and Conferences for BNP Media, producers of The Food Safety Summit. "Having prominent speakers like Robert Corrigan and sessions on HACCP makes our program that much stronger and more worthwhile. We are also pleased to announce that The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) has approved 23.25 contact hours of continuing education credit for classes taken at The Food Safety Summit."

A well known name in the industry, Bobby Corrigan, Ph.D. 2011, Industrial Pest Management Specialist, RMC Pest Management Consulting from Richmond, IN will lead the session The New Thinking in Pest Management for Food Safety Systems. Dr. Corrigan is a part time consultant to the pest management and food industry and also serves as a part time scientist for The City of New York working on the war on rats. Prior to becoming a consultant, Bobby was a staff member of Purdue University's Department of Entomology for 16 years where he worked as a teacher and staff specialist in the Center for Urban Pest Management. Dr. Corrigan is the author and/or co-author of three textbooks on pest management, and has also published over 150 technical articles for a variety of magazines and Universities fact sheets. Dr. Corrigan was inducted into the Pest Management Hall of Fame in 2008.

In the session, Dr. Corrigan will address the heightened emphasis in food safety as a result of the Food Safety Enhancement Act as well as the significant outbreaks of food borne illness around the United States during the past several years. While each outbreak has been unique in profile, vermin-related causes and issues are usually an important part of the early considerations in diagnosing what may have gone wrong. Thus, pest management as both a science and as a service to the food industry continues to increase in importance.

This session addresses the critical need for pest management in food safety systems and emphasizes that the old model of a pest technician merely checking evenly-spaced mouse traps or "spraying" around the exterior walls to keep pests under control can no longer suffice in meeting the high demands of protecting food during production, distribution and onto "for sale" at the retail level.

Another enhancement to the program is the addition of a 4th workshop on Tuesday afternoon from 1:00pm to 5:00pm titled: HACCP is NOT a 4-Letter Word being led by Donna F Schaffner, MS, Director of Food Safety, Quality Assurance & Training, Rutgers Food Innovation Center.

Despite being touted as the cure-all for Food Safety issues by some government officials, HACCP is often cursed by food processors as being difficult to understand and impossible to actually "do." This session gives practical "real-life" examples of what HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) IS and what HACCP is NOT capable of doing for a food processing business. Since "death is in the details" quite literally, when it comes to Food Safety, this session outlines components of a successful HACCP program and allows participants to ask questions for advice on creating or updating a HACCP plan for their specific products. This is a "must attend" workshop for HACCP Team members, individuals working in a QA/QC or Management capacity, or anyone having oversight in the quality, sanitation, maintenance or production departments in a food processing facility.

Other conference sessions on Wednesday and Thursday will feature important government issues including Food Regulations: What New Mandates Face the Food Industry in 2011 and Beyond; The FDA Food Code: Content, Adoption and Implementation to manufacturing issues including Traceability, Managing Allergens and Food Defense to pressing issues including Food Safety Media Training and Working with Public Health Officials.

Several companies including ECOLAB, IFS Food, Siemens Industry, Bureau Veritas Certification NA, Inc., Romer Labels, Alchemy Systems, New Leaf Food Safety Solutions, Eurofins Scientific, Ingersoll Rand, DeltaTRAK and LUBRIPLATE LUBRICANTS will offer education sessions in the Vendor Theaters. The Food Safety Summit Gold Sponsor is Abbott Nutrition, Silver Sponsor is Siemens Industry and Bronze Sponsor is Covance Laboratories.

About the Food Safety Summit
The 13th annual Food Safety Summit will be held Tuesday, April 19 through Thursday, April 21, 2011 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Over 1,400 food manufacturing, retail, foodservice, academic, military and government professionals attend The Summit to share their knowledge and experiences in interactive workshops, general sessions and on the Exhibit floor where more than 150 companies display products and services and the latest information in fighting contamination. For more information, call 847/405-4000 or visit www.foodsafetysummit.com.

Contact Information:

For further information, Contact:
Amy Riemer
Media Relations Contact
978-475-4441 (office)
978-502-4895 (cell)