The Food Safety Summit announced R. Dale Morton, director of food safety programs for PepsiCo North America will be the featured speaker during the reception for the Food Quality Award presented by DuPont Qualicon. Morton will discuss evolving challenges in today’s food safety culture during the April 13 reception. The 12th Annual Food Safety Summit will be held April 12-14 at the Washington D.C. Convention Center.

This year’s show will offer many opportunities to share ideas and experiences as well as to network with colleagues and peers in educational sessions and on the show floor.

“We are offering many more opportunities for attendees, exhibitors, speakers and press to network and share real-life experiences,” said Emily Patten, director of tradeshows and conferences for BNP Media, which is producing the event, in a statement. “Attendees to the summit are leaders of the industry, academia, government and the major trade associations and during the event they will be discussing real problems and solutions.”

The show will feature keynote speeches from Mike Robach, vice president of corporate food safety and regulatory affairs for Cargill Inc., and Michael R. Taylor, senior advisor to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

On the show floor, the summit will present a series of Vendor Roundtables, which will include discussions, such as “Auditing Solutions within the Food Industry,” “Traceability – Supply Chain-wide Adoption of Electronic Traceability,” and “Breaking Out of the Bubble - Protecting Your Food-Allergic Customers.” 

Four half day workshops also will be offered on topics, including “HAACP: A Fresh Look,” “The Three Pillars of a Successful Food Liability Program: Prevention, Response and Resolution,” “ISO22000 and PAS220: A Winning Combination;” and “Quantifying and Communicating the Business Risks of Food Safety, Food Fraud and Food Defense.”

The Food Safety Summit will feature more than 30 seminars with speakers from government, universities, foodservice companies and food manufacturers. Representatives from the Consumer Federation of America and the Food and Drug Administration will speak along with food safety professionals from Costco, Kraft Foods, Chick-Fil-A Inc. and Cargill. More than 1,000 food manufacturing, retail, foodservice, academic, military and government professionals are expected at the conference, Patten said. For information, or to register, visit www.foodsafetysummit.com.