Food Safety is Evolving!

The Florida Association of Food Protection (FAFP) has a legacy of strong, committed leaders, and I am truly honored and humbled to follow their footsteps. Thanks to Natalie Dyenson for her excellent leadership over the past 2 years and the funding proved by our corporate sponsors for the advancement of this association’s mission.

2007 marked FAFP’s hosting of the annual International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) meeting in Orlando, Fla. The conference was a huge success, holding one of the largest registrations to date. Many of our members demonstrated wonderful support for this event by volunteering their time and resources.

Over the last year, concerns associated with imports have increased focus on the supply chain and safety related to products, ingredients and packaging components. In addition, Pet food, tomatoes, leafy greens, peanut butter, almonds, chili and many other product recalls have shown that we — as food safety professionals — must stay informed and prepared to continually improve and maintain the safety and wholesomeness of products for consumers and our families.

That leads us to our focus for 2008 — how will your association help you to be more informed and prepared this year?

Our 2008 Annual Education Conference is shaping up to be another successful event. The conference will bring our members a collection of timely topics, excellent presenters and a platform for building strong business relationships. This is our largest event for the year. So I encourage you to block your calendar now for May 13 – 15 at the St. Petersburg Bayfront Hilton and register Annual Education Conference (AEC). You don’t want to miss it.

We are working to organize educational luncheons at Florida universities such as the campuses of the University of Florida, and University of South Florida. These and others are designed to provide education and networking opportunities at a minimal cost. Stay tuned for these dates and locations.

Provide a quarterly newsletter with relevant topics written by experts within their industries.

All of these goals are designed to help you develop professional relationships, increase your food safety knowledge of current and emerging concerns and provide you with opportunities to help promote food safety within Florida.

I am excited about these and other activities that our association will support for its membership this year. If you have any ideas or areas that you would like to serve in, let us know. Please don’t hesitate to contact me through e-mail at todd.rossow@publix.com or any of the board members whose contact information is listed on the website.