The International Association for Food Protection set the Preliminary Program for IAFP 2018 – the Association’s Annual Meeting, July 8–11 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The meeting has earned recognition as the leading food safety conference. Online registration and the preliminary program are available on the Association Web site.

The meeting begins Sunday evening, July 8, with the Opening Session featuring the Ivan Parkin Lecture, followed by the Cheese and Wine Reception held in the Exhibit Hall. This year’s honored lecturer is Gary Acuff, Ph.D., Professor of Food Microbiology in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Monday morning starts three days of sessions with more than 1,100 presentations including 69 symposia, 19 roundtable sessions, 136 technical presentations, and 702 poster presentations.

Samples of symposium topics include: “One Size Does Not Fit All:” Food Defense Planning for FSMA Compliance; Best Practices for Safe Transportation of Food; Food Fraud – Progress and Plans for Prevention and Management; and Novel Processing Technologies to Improve Food Safety and Quality. The Annual John H. Silliker Lecture will be presented on Wednesday afternoon, featuring Ann Marie McNamara, Ph.D., Vice President of Food and Essentials Safety and Quality Assurance at Target, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For additional educational opportunities, IAFP 2018 will present four Pre-meeting Workshops on July 6 and July 7.

Attendance is expected to exceed 3,600 of the top industry, academic and government food safety professionals. This broad mix of attendees includes professionals in quality control, processing operations, regulatory inspections, food safety consulting, risk assessment, research and development, microbiological research, plant management, technical services, and HACCP management. The meeting will also showcase nearly 200 companies and organizations demonstrating the latest products and technologies in the Exhibit Hall.

For more information and registration visit www.foodprotection.org/annualmeeting