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FMI, NRA TEAM UP ON FOOD-SAFETY CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON - The Food Marketing Institute and the National Restaurant Association this year plan to launch a food-safety education and food policy conference."I think it's a great opportunity for suppliers and those who work in the food-safety field to reach both food-service people and supermarket people at one event," said Tim Hammonds, president and chief executive officer of FMI.The NRA and the

WASHINGTON - The Food Marketing Institute and the National Restaurant Association this year plan to launch a food-safety education and food policy conference.

"I think it's a great opportunity for suppliers and those who work in the food-safety field to reach both food-service people and supermarket people at one event," said Tim Hammonds, president and chief executive officer of FMI.

The NRA and the FMI were originally involved with the Food Safety Summit, which recently changed hands and moved its annual conference from Washington to Las Vegas.

"We decided we wanted to continue on with a conference based in Washington. It also made a lot of sense for us to come together on this to look at the entire supply chain and the channels, both retail and food service," said Mary Adolf, president and chief operating officer of the Chicago-based National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

The conference will be held Oct. 11 to 13 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here.

Hammonds said attendees will be a combination of those who are primarily responsible for food safety, and merchandising people who oversee the ready-to-eat food side of the business.

"We want to create a forum for food-service industry executives, quality assurance and regulatory officials that come together to look at, address and provide solutions and directions relative to key food-safety and regulatory issues impacting the food-service industry," Adolf said.

Efficiency also played a part in the decision to sponsor a conference jointly.

"We like to do things in partnership with other organizations where we can and where it makes sense," Hammonds said. "It is also respectable of everyone's time and budgets to let them do at one event that which could only be accomplished at multiple events in the past. It is a way for the industry to save people time and increase the impact."

Although the educational seminars have not been finalized, the NRA will focus on topics for restaurant employees and FMI will concentrate on training programs for supermarket employees. FMI will also feature its certification and audit programs, which retailers can utilize to ensure their suppliers are using state-of-the-art food-safety practices, particularly with fresh produce, Hammonds said.

The full range of fresh foods will be addressed as well as food safety and food security.

"The potential for bioterrorism is something the industry works very hard to understand and prevent, and this would be addressed. And because there is the potential for new problems like avian flu, we would have room on the program for some contemporary issues that might be new on our radar screen this year," Hammonds said. "So, it will be a mix of traditional basics of food safety and policy, and new emerging issues."

The two groups intend to continue sponsoring the conference as a joint event, he said.

"We're excited about this conference and really are committed to making it something that's of real value to the retail and food-service industries," Adolf said.