Produce food safety has remained at the top of the agenda in the US this year, and an interactive town hall meeting as well as other educational workshops at PMA’s 2008 Fresh Summit International Convention & Exposition will tackle this head on.

The issue is in the spotlight this year, due in part to a recent high-profile foodborne illness outbreak linked to fresh produce. Substantial changes are needed to restore consumer confidence in produce safety, and to address regulators’ and legislators’ concerns, according to the PMA.

Fresh Summit will be held on October 24-27, in Orlando, Florida, and food safety will be in focus on each of the first three days.

PMA president Bryan Silbermann said: “We continue to discuss ways to improve food safety practices within the produce industry - but our consumer research and government interactions make it clear that we need to do less talking and more changing to retain our customers and avoid more government involvement in our business. If it is not already, food safety must become an integral part of your company’s culture.

“Food safety will also be a major theme in my annual ‘State of the Industry’ address [general session, October 24], and I expect it will also be a prominent feature in the comments of outgoing chairman Bruce Taylor and incoming chairman Dave Corsi [breakfast general session, October 26],” added Silbermann. “Food safety is an integral part of our produce business now, and that will be evident at Fresh Summit.”

A town hall meeting on the recent Salmonella saintpaul outbreak has been added to the convention’s food safety educational track. The two-hour interactive meeting, to be held on October 24 from 2.45-4.45pm, will rely heavily on questions and content from the audience. The session - Town Hall Meeting: A Candid Discussion of Foodborne Illness Investigations - will review lessons learned from the recent Salmonella outbreak and invite questions from the audience. In a no-hold-barred town hall-style meeting, public health authorities, government officials and industry experts will discuss the investigative process, provide insight and information they have learned from these outbreaks, and answer industry members’ questions.

Several other food safety-themed workshops are also planned for this year’s Fresh Summit.

• Food Safety + Risk Management = Profitability, to be held on October 25, 9.35-10.50am, will provide a whole new way to look at your food safety programme - not just as a social responsibility, but as a critical risk assessment/risk management tool. Speakers will offer tips on how to determine which areas of your business are most vulnerable and how to measure the impact of a crisis, as well as discuss the positive effect a risk assessment programme can have on your bottom line and how crucial it can be to the vitality of your business.

• Finding Your Place in Whole Chain Traceability, also on October 25, 9.35-10.50am, will look at how the entire produce supply chain will be affected by new initiatives to achieve whole chain traceability. Find out the Produce Traceability Initiative’s next steps, when they will be implemented, what the industry expects of its companies and how taking your traceability capability to the next level can benefit your company. Attendees of this session - principally aimed at senior executives and information technology managers - will discover why internal traceability systems may no longer be enough, what needs to be done and where to turn for help.

• Food Safety: Keeping Your Business Healthy, on October 26, 9.15-10.45am, will review the latest regulatory updates and initiatives, and look at food safety from an ROI perspective. Attendees of this session will gain an understanding of why food safety programmes are essential for a healthy business.

Two other workshops - Packaging With Impact, on Saturday, October 25 from 9.35-10.50am, and Saving Dollars and Making Sense of Sustainability, on Sunday, October 26 from 9.15-10.45am, will also include food safety elements.