A Look Ahead at the 2025 Food Safety Summit—And Another Look Back From FSM

It's that time again—the Food Safety Summit is almost here! To be held in Rosemont, Illinois at the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center, the 27^th annual Food Safety Summit will take place from May 12–15, 2025. Join us for four days of high-level certificate courses, hands-on workshops, impactful education sessions, exhibit hall festivities, and of course our Tuesday and Wednesday night receptions!¹

We're excited to welcome returning and new attendees to the 2025 Food Safety Summit, which will take place exclusively on Level 2, Hall G of the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center. Level 2 is accessible via the main lobby and via the skybridge, which is connected to the parking garage and nearby hotels. We look forward to making the Food Safety Summit a dynamic and educational event for you, your team, and your colleagues. (Don't forget that group discounts are available—bring your whole team to learn and network together!)

For the past 26 years, the Food Safety Summit has been more than just a conference. It has been a gathering place—a space where regulators, industry leaders, and experts come together to share, learn, and push the industry forward. In times of change and uncertainty, the strength of our community becomes even clearer. The Summit is about creating a platform where all voices—across every sector—come together with one shared mission: to protect public health.

In light of that mission, here's a sneak peek at what's new at the Summit for 2025. Read on to find out what you won't want to miss!

2025 Summit Featured Sessions

Monday and Tuesday encompass a variety of one- and two-day certificate courses for food safety professionals looking to continue their education and become certified in areas such as food safety professional (CP-FS), food fraud prevention, hazard analysis, risk-based inspections for retail, and preventive controls for human food.

Also on Tuesday, our workshops kick off with a full-morning session on "traceability next steps" and practical implementation for the supply chain, steered by a high-level, expert group of industry, trade association, and government officials. Additional workshops will tackle deposition training for the C-suite, food safety culture, sanitation basics, and data analysis for food safety professionals. A welcome reception will be held on the exhibit hall floor (also located on Level 2, Hall G) from 5–7 p.m., capping off the day.

On Wednesday morning, our Keynote will be delivered by Dr. Jason Evans, Dean of the College of Food Innovation and Technology at Johnson & Wales University, and address the topic of how to be an effective leader amid significant challenges. Education sessions that day will encompass a number of timely topics, including: innovative processing technologies, allergen management, sanitation and hygiene, the limits of finished product testing, AI tools, outbreak investigations, recall modernization, effective food safety culture tools, women's leadership in food safety, food donations and food waste, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The education session rooms, Keynote Theater, and certificate programs are all located on Level 2, Hall G.

Wednesday evening's Food Safety Summit Gives Back Networking Reception, held from 5:30–7:00 p.m. in the exhibit hall, will once again benefit STOP Foodborne Illness. The total donation will include voluntary attendee donations, which can be made at registration or onsite.

Also, the exhibit hall will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on both Wednesday and Thursday. Don't miss Food Safety Magazine's Podcast Theater Live, as well as Solutions Stage presentations and Tech Tent talks from innovative solutions providers and partners.

Thursday morning will see the return of the popular Town Hall event with regulators and government advisors, who will share regulatory updates from their organizations and participate in a live Q&A session with attendees. Education sessions on Thursday will explore a number of critical and trending topics: the ongoing HPAI outbreak, chemical safety in food processing, lessons from food safety failures, social media misinformation, climate change, communications between industry and researchers, performance metrics, monitoring out-of-compliance alarms, and an interactive closing session on strategies for requesting food safety resources, led by an expert industry panel.

With an abundance of opportunities to learn and connect with your fellow professionals and leading experts in food safety, the Food Safety Summit is the premier event to attend for all food safety professionals! If you haven't yet registered to attend, you can do so here. Also, make sure to follow the Food Safety Summit LinkedIn page for event updates and community connections. You can also stay updated with Summit news and info via email here.

We look forward to welcoming you to a stellar event in Rosemont next month!

Another 'Look Back' From FSM

As we prepare to host this year's Food Safety Summit amid a time of turbulent change, it feels apt to take another look back at food safety—in particular, public confidence in the food safety system. As I noted in the February/March editorial column, Food Safety Magazine (FSM) turns 30 this year. While much has changed in the world of food safety since 1995, some things appear to have stayed the same—or come back around again.

The October/November 1995 edition of Food Testing & Analysis, the precursor to FSM, contains an insightful segment² (Figure 1, bottom right) on the state of public confidence in the safety of the U.S. food system. The segment discusses the results of a survey conducted by the Agriculture Council of America's FoodWatch program, in which 1,000 Americans were polled on their opinions about food safety and food industry communication. Of those polled, approximately 30 percent expressed "extreme concern" about food safety, especially with regard to food additives, pathogenic contamination, biotechnology, and mishandling along the supply chain. "Consumers seek reassurances of safeguards in the system, but are somewhat skeptical of their effectiveness," the segment reads.

A similar poll, conducted in mid-2024 by Gallup³ on U.S. consumption habits, found that 42 percent of American adults have low or no confidence in the federal government's ability to ensure the safety of the food supply. This figure represents a drop from previous Gallup polls going back to 1999, with other dips in consumer confidence recorded after Salmonella outbreaks in 2007. Roughly the same number of Americans were polled by Gallup as by FoodWatch.

While the 1995 FoodWatch poll² focused on food safety assurance by industry, and the 2024 Gallup poll³ measured food safety assurance by the federal government, it is evident that consumer confidence in the U.S. food supply is still faltering. With a number of deadly foodborne illness outbreaks associated with major brands in 2004, it's not entirely surprising that Americans are reporting a lack of confidence in the food supply. "The [recent] drop in [food safety] confidence could reflect Americans' recognition of the difficulty in responding to the large number of health threats in the food supply, as well as declining trust in the government in general," Gallup stated.³

The Here and Now

More recently, FSM has been tracking a series of swift and surprising changes to federal oversight of U.S. food safety, imposed by the Trump Administration in early 2025. These changes range from the elimination of the longstanding National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI),⁴ to unforeseen spending and communications freezes for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),^5,6 to mass firings at FDA, CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).^7,8 In some cases, employees who were fired were shortly called back to resume work on critical issues such as the spread of avian flu among poultry and dairy cattle, as well as chemical food safety.^7,9 In response to the FDA firings, the first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, James (Jim) Jones, who assumed the role in September of 2023, resigned from his position in mid-February.¹⁰

With so many changes happening so quickly to the federal food safety system, it will be interesting to see how consumer confidence in food safety fares over the next few years. It remains to be seen if the recent staffing and budget cuts to federal agencies will jeopardize the safety of the U.S. food supply.

During times of significant change, it's even more important for food safety professionals from every sector to come together to collaborate, share ideas, and find solutions to pressing food safety issues and questions. We look forward to an inclusive, open, and respectful dialogue with colleagues from around the world at the 2025 Food Safety Summit—make sure you're there with us!

“Big data and AI technologies, such as machine learning, show promise for informing AMR surveillance and mitigation efforts.”

References

1. Food Safety Magazine and Food Safety Summit. "2025 Food Safety Summit: May 12–15 at the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois." BNP Media. 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/food-safety-summit/.
2. Bricher, J.L. "All for Good Science." Food Testing & Analysis. October/November 1995.
3. Yi, R. "Trust in Government Assurance of Food Safety Hits Record Low." Gallup. September 6, 2024. https://news.gallup.com/poll/650024/trust-government-assurance-food-safety-hits-record-low.aspx.
4. Henderson, B. "Key Federal Food Safety Advisory Committees, NACMCF and NACMPI, Have Been Terminated." Food Safety Magazine. March 7, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10196-key-federal-food-safety-advisory-committees-nacmcf-and-nacmpi-have-been-terminated.
5. Food Safety Magazine Editorial Team. "FDA Spending Freeze Leaves Staffers Feeling 'Dangerously Unprepared' for Next Foodborne Illness Outbreak." Food Safety Magazine. March 7, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10197-fda-spending-freeze-leaves-staffers-feeling-dangerously-unprepared-for-next-foodborne-illness-outbreak.
6. Henderson, B. "Letter from 85 Congresspeople Urges End to Federal Public Health 'Gag Order,' Addressing Bird Flu." Food Safety Magazine. February 26, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10162-letter-from-85-congresspeople-urges-end-to-federal-public-health-gag-order-addressing-bird-flu.
7. Henderson, B. "U.S. Office of Personnel Management Walks Back Orders to Fire Federal Employees After Court Ruling." Food Safety Magazine. March 5, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10192-us-office-of-personnel-management-walks-back-orders-to-fire-federal-employees-after-court-ruling.
8. Food Safety Magazine Editorial Team. "Major Advocacy Groups Say Mass Layoffs at FDA Could Jeopardize Food Safety, 'MAHA' Agenda." Food Safety Magazine. February 19, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10146-major-advocacy-groups-say-mass-layoffs-at-fda-could-jeopardize-food-safety-maha-agenda.
9. Henderson, B. "FDA Moves to Rehire Some Human Foods Staffers Who Were Previously Fired." Food Safety Magazine. February 25, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10158-fda-moves-to-rehire-some-human-foods-staffers-who-were-previously-fired.
10. Henderson, B. "FDA Leader Jim Jones Resigns After 89 'Indiscriminate' Firings in Human Foods Program." Food Safety Magazine. February 18, 2025. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10138-fda-leader-jim-jones-resigns-after-89-indiscriminate-firings-in-human-foods-program.