2016 AAFP Conference Recap

The 8th annual Arkansas Association of Food Protection (AAFP) conference was held September 13-15, 2016 at the Chancellor Hotel in downtown Fayetteville, AR.

This conference was our best roster of speakers and topics which helped this year’s conference continue our tradition of high quality conferences and attracted almost 300 registrations.   Our great conferences have helped the Arkansas Association of Food Protection (AAFP) become an award winning Chapter of IAFP.   We were very honored to offer the rare FBI Food Defense Workshop that provided certification from the FBI at this workshop.   This is the first year we offered Continuing Education CEUs and Certifications for the conference as well as the FBI certification.  

Our speakers came from respected industry and regulatory entities, such as the Grocery Manufacturer’s Assoc, AMI, National Chicken Council, FSIS, McDonalds, OSI, FDA, etc.  We provided highly respected speakers for Lunches on both Wednesday and Thursday:   

• Robert Tauxe, M.D., M.P.H. Director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
• Donald Zink, Ph.D, is the former Senior Science Advisor for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in College Park, Maryland. Prior to his current position, he served as a Senior Food Scientist in the Office of Food Safety with CFSAN.   He is now with IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group (IEH) as the President of the Division of Foods and Regulatory Compliance.

CONFERENCE TOPICS OVERVIEW:

• Security Data Management
• Whole Genome Sequencing
• Emerging Issues
• Food Safety Modernization Act- We provided a Transportation session in this year’s conference too.
• Sanitation
• Pet Food
• FBI Food Defense Initiative and Workshop
• Vendor Tech symposium

Chapter Award – AAFP Fellow

Hillary Hagan of Tyson Foods was awarded this year’s AAFP-Fellow award which is a recognition and appreciation for her dedication to the field of food safety and service to the Arkansas Association for Food Protection.

SPONSORS

Our Sponsors have been key to the growth of the conference and this year was no different.   We are proud to have these great companies as sponsors.