2022 AGENDA

Ready to mingle and enjoy the Florida sunshine?! Join friends and colleagues old and new as we welcome back our community of food safety professionals in an open-air setting.

In this year’s update, we’ll share recent updates to the SQF program including the SQF Code Edition 9, current results from the Compliance and Integrity Programs, new and existing implementation solutions, enhancements to the SQF assessment database, a GFSI benchmarking status report for key modules, the status of key SQF documents, and a peek at upcoming training and events. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of SQFI expectations for registered SQF Professionals and ways to enhance the assessment, implementation, and maintenance of an SQF System.

Registration and additional fee required.

A light breakfast will be served from 7:30 AM to 8:00 AM for registered attendees of the workshop.

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Back by popular demand, emcee, Rachel Sheerin will kick off the conference in her signature style.

Josh Sundquist, Paralympian and Author

Josh Sundquist is a Paralympian and bestselling author. His life story is a reminder of how all our stories are interconnected, how even our smallest actions and decisions impact the world around us. You’ll walk away with a fresh perspective on everything you have to be grateful for, with resolve to overcome personal and professional challenges, and with a commitment to do 1MT1MT to reach your fullest potential. You’ll carry Josh’s empowering message of hope and determination in your heart and mind long after the conclusion of SQF Unites.

You’ll learn how to:

• Be resilient during times of change

• Maintain a sense of humor within stressful circumstances

• Face adversity with strength and courage

• Reverse negative trends and rebound from disappointment

• Plan for the future with an expanded vision of what could be possible

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Join one of 20+ food sector category focused discussion groups to get ideas, swap best practices and share your successes and challenges with your food safety peers.

• Egg Processing | Room: Celebration 1-2
• Food Ingredient Manufacturing | Room: Celebration 1-2
• Recipe Meals Manufacturing | Room: Celebration 1-2
• Dietary Supplement Manufacturing | Room: Celebration 1-2
• Food Processing Aides Manufacturing | Room: Celebration 1-2
• Production, Capture, And Harvesting of Livestock And Game Animals and Apiculture | Room: Celebration 3-4
• Intensive Farming of Seafood | Room: Celebration 3-4
• Slaughtering, Boning, and Butchery | Room: Celebration 3-4
• Manufactured Meats and Poultry | Room: Celebration 3-4
• Seafood Processing | Room: Celebration 3-4
• Dairy Food Processing | Room: Celebration 7
• Bakery and Snack Food Processing | Room: Celebration 8
• Fruit, Vegetable, and Nut Processing, and Fruit Juices | Room: Celebration 9
• Manufacture of Food Packaging | Room: Celebration 10
• Indoor Growing and Harvesting of Fresh Produce And Sprouted Seed Crops | Room: Celebration 13
• Growing And Production of Fresh Produce and Nuts | Room: Celebration 13
• Fresh Produce, Grain, and Nut Packhouse Operations | Room: Celebration 13
• Extensive Broad Acre Agricultural Operations | Room: Celebration 13
• Honey Processing | Room: Celebration 14
• Preserved Foods Manufacturing | Room: Celebration 14
• Canning, Uht, and Aseptic Operations | Room: Bayhill 23
• Ice, Drink, And Beverage Processing | Room: Bayhill 24
• Confectionary Manufacturing | Room: Bayhill 25
• Oils, Fats, And the Manufacture of Oil Or Fat-Based Spreads | Room: Bayhill 26
• Processing of Cereal Grain | Room: Bayhill 27
• Food Catering and Food Service | Room: Bayhill 28
• Food Retailing | Room: Bayhill 28
• Repackaging of Products Not Manufactured on Site | Room: Bayhill 29
• Storage and Distribution | Room: Bayhill 29
• Pet Food Manufacturing | Room: Bayhill 30
• Animal Feed Manufacturing | Room: Bayhill 30

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Take your pick of a wide range of food safety topics and join industry experts as they lead a Q&A session in small discussion groups.

SQF Audit Excellence
Goranka Platisa, PCR
Rajko Platisa, PCR
The SQF Audit provides the site with the confidence that their food safety system is working as intended. This “Ask the Experts” will share some ways that a site can get the most out of the SQF Audit to build continuous improvement.

Food Defense: Cyber-Security Risks
Neil Colle, BSI
Food defense is ever evolving. What do you need to know about the latest threats to your site? Join this interactive session to find out

Micro 101
Lory Revel, AFFI
Pathogens, sampling, and testing oh my! Come prepared to ask questions and get answers from our food micro expert.

Overcoming GFSI Certification Challenges For Very Small Suppliers
Janna Hamlett, University of Idaho Extension
Implementing the SQF Code requirements is a daunting task regardless of the size of the site, but can be particularly overwhelming when resources are limited. This interactive session will share tips on how to overcome many of these challenges, including where you can find resources.

What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?
Shawna Wagner, AIB
Auditor? Consultant? Trainer? The list is endless. Join this session to learn more about the requirements for each of these SQF professional designations.

Grab a bite to eat and join our sponsor partners to hear their thought leadership on a variety of timely topics.

Grab a bite to eat and join our sponsor partners to hear their thought leadership on a variety of timely topics.

Supplier Risk Mitigation
Tracie Sheehan, Mérieux NutriSciences
How can companies reduce the risks from suppliers of ingredients, packaging, and service providers? Every day SQF Certified companies deal with risks brought into their facility by others. Learn about some of the methods to reduce risks for microbiological, chemical, allergen, and physical hazards

How managers can make digital records faster and better than paper for non-technical ESL operators
Kevin Davies, Provision Analytics
Food safety software has been on the market for more than a decade – yet many SQF certified companies still have binders full of paper. What challenges have blocked adoption among non-technical operators, and which new breakthroughs can turn the tides? This case study will show how a new generation of managers are applying digital tools to save time, cost, and risk in SQF compliance.

Key Actions to Be Prepared for Future Disruptions
Oscar Camacho, Superior Food Safety Franchising
From plant shutdowns to employee absenteeism and turnover, and supply chain disruptions; the capability for companies to maintain the food safety programs has been disrupted in the last 3 years. In this session you will learn how you can use the food safety management system to overcome plant disruptions and be better prepared in the future.

Protection Against SQF’s Top Non-Conformances with Cleaning Tool Selection, Care, and Maintenance
Amit M. Kheradia, Remco: A Vikan Company
Managing cleaning tools significantly addresses section 11.213.1 of SQF Food Manufacturing, Ed. 9.

FSMA
Derek Hannum, Repositrak

Get ready to hit the ground running! SQF Unites emcee, Rachel is going to lead us into jam packed 2nd day of programming!

Natalie Dyenson, VP Food Safety & Quality, Dole Food Company
Hilary Thesmar, PhD, FMI

At the end of 2021, Dole experienced a recall that required retailers to pull product off their shelves. With a quick response and effective follow-up Dole quickly restored the supply chain. Join a candid conversation with Dole as they discuss how this recent recall had an impact on their operations and the supply chain. You’ll hear from Natalie Dyenson, VP Food Safety & Quality at Dole, on this recent experience, including the root cause and the impact from farm to fork.

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Brent Kobielush, The Acheson Group

How should you prepare for tomorrow’s regulatory challenges?  Join this session to hear the latest regulatory update and gain insight into FDA’s current priorities. Food safety experts will discuss what regulatory changes are on the horizon and how they could impact your facility and your food safety programs.  This session will explore some of the biggest issues in food safety, including traceability, allergen labeling, toxic elements in foods, FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative, implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, and more!

Polly Tartaro, Killer Brownie
Peter Begg, Hearthside Foods

We’re now more than a year into the release of food safety culture requirements in edition 9 of the SQF Code, and it’s time to evaluate where we are and where we need to be. Join a panel of industry experts as they share some of the challenges to implementing a food safety culture and the key metrics used to assess and measure culture. Listen in on best practices for keeping food safety culture ever present and how to prevent it from stagnating.

Gary Smith, Harry & David

Explore the SQF Code’s common expectations for testing your site’s food defense, crisis management, withdrawal and recall, and trace programs. You’ll understand the difference between conducting risk assessments and annual reviews and actually testing your systems.  Dive into examples of mock tests and learn how to utilize lessons learned from actual events.

Continue the conversation and make new connections as we explore the learning session topics in more depth during group discussions.

Test Your Systems: Food Defense
James Scanlon, SAI Global
You just heard about the common themes when testing your systems. Join this discussion to share those key takeaways as they apply to recall programs.

Test Your Systems: Crisis Management
Corey Chapman, Ring Container
You just heard about the common themes when testing your systems. Join this discussion to share key takeaways as they apply to crisis management.

Test Your Systems: Recall
Tammie Van Buren, SQFI
You just heard about the common themes when testing your systems. Join this discussion to share key takeaways as they apply to recall programs.

Culture: Implementation Strategies
Polly Tartaro, Killer Brownie
Peter Begg, Hearthsie Food Solutions
Join us as we discuss implementation strategies for implementing and maintaining food safety culture at your site.

Insights: A Dive Into Traceability Regulation
Hilary Thesmar, FMI
FDA is expected to release FSMA 204 (traceability rule) on November 7th. Join our FMI experts as they provide an overview of the requirement and how it may affect your site.

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Peter Johnston, Cavendish Farms

When it comes to validation and verification do you seek clarity? Through real life examples learn how to develop an effective verification and validation program. Get your questions answered about these two widely misunderstood topics, and then figure out what comes next.

Natalie Dyenson, Dole
Alvin Lee, Illinois Institute of Technology

An environmental monitoring program, or EMP, is the key prevention step to controlling foodborne recalls and outbreaks, but not everyone believes their site needs to implement this program. This session will provide real-world scenarios and dive into who needs to implement an environmental monitoring program and walk you through a case study that had actionable outcomes and share the lessons learned and corrective action to improve environmental monitoring at the site. This session is for everyone, whether you are just starting out on your own EMP journey or discovering what you need to know to improve your own environmental monitoring program.

Danielle Ismirle, Georgia Tech

Site growth and new requirements add layers to the internal audit and inspection program, leading to duplicated and overlapping efforts. Internal audit reports can take significant time to write and often include confusing and duplicated non-conformities. Discover how to ensure safe and efficient growth using scalable internal audit and inspection processes. In this session, you’ll learn to identify hidden efficiencies to drive assurances in preparation for the certification audit using lean methods to streamline the audit planning, implementation, and follow-up processes.

Continue the conversation and make new connections as we explore the learning session topics in more depth during group discussions.

Validation
Lory Reveil, AFFI
Validation activities and frequency can be confusing. Bring your insights from this session or come to this post-session dialogue to learn more about validation activities.

Verification
Polly Tartaro, Killer Brownie
When and how to verify is often misunderstood. Join this discussion to share examples and hear from others on how verification is applied at the site.

EMP: Risk Assess Your Approach To EMP
Sherell Bourn-Lynch, Schnucks
Risk assessments show us the way. This post session dialogue will share how we can use the power of the risk assessment to determine the best program approach to setting up and evaluating your environmental monitoring program.

EMP: Root Cause And Implications Of Findings
Natalie Dyenson, Dole
Knowing the problem is the first step to creating the answer. Join this discussion to learn about conducting a root cause analysis and implementing solutions.

Audit: Identify hidden efficiencies to drive assurances in preparation for the certification audit
Danielle Ismirle, Georgia Tech
Creating efficiencies helps us focus on the results of the internal audit o that we can improve the food safety system. Hear about some efficiencies that are being used to get the most out of the internal audit.

Audit: Scalable Internal Audit and Inspection Tools
Join us as we discuss audit inspection tools
Brady Cauderwell, iAudit
What tools can we use to better utilize the results? Learn from each other on the variety of tools that help us create efficiencies in the internal audit process.

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

This fast-paced session, brought to you by our sponsor partners will introduce you to a variety of industry topics in a 5 x 5 format (5 slides in 5 minutes)

3:50 PM – Recall Management

Colin Christmas, EAGLE Certification Group

The time to prepare for a crisis is before it happens. Having an effective recall system in place is the key to minimizing the impact of a recall. This 5X5 will share do’s and don’ts for managing recalls.

3:56PM – How to Build Confidence and be Confident in your SQF System!

Brian Neal, Eurofins Food Assurance Certification

SQF can support global consumer and industry expectations and requirements, by solidifying confidence in the SQF program and food safety and quality with manufacturers. This 5X5 will share how to achieve clarity and and confidence in the SQF requirements.

4:02 PM – Food Safety and Food Fraud Risk – Using Data to Inform Critical Risk Decisions

Don Milne, Food Chain ID

Historical data on food supply safety threats and fraud records can give food safety professionals insight into how to apply finite organizational resources against risk mitigation. The session will look at the previous 12 months of data from HorizonScan and the Food Fraud Database, then apply recent threat examples to principles of ingredient and supplier quality/safety management.

4:08 PM – Minding The Gaps For Better Audit Results!

Jeff Chilton, Intertek Alchemy

It is important to mind the gaps of your SQF system to improve audit results. We will share 3 key critical areas that are commonly underutilized along with the role training has to promote a strong food safety culture.

4:14 PM – Insights of Trending Audit Results Over Time

Shamonique Schrick, SafetyChain Software

Leverage your audit results to provide insight on how to improve compliance as well as operational improvement over time.

4:20PM – Empower the frontline to be the eyes and ears of your workplace

Brady Kaplan, Safety Culture

Information is your ultimate asset, protect it! Gain insights on how to defend your operations from information security problems by leveraging international standards. Information is everywhere from farm to fork – see how to preserve it!

4:26 PM – The Importance of Information Security in the Food Supply Chain

Warren Hojnacki, SGS

Information is your ultimate asset, protect it! Gain insight on how to defend your operations from information security problems by leveraging international standards. Information is everywhere from farm to fork – see how to preserve it!

4:31 PM – Food Waste Reduction – Join the Cause!

Kris Middleton, Bureau Veritas Certification North America

The United Nations has made reduction of food waste one of its Sustainable Development Goals, and the food industry is needed to take an active role in achieving these targets. Many companies require sustainability commitment from their supply chain so a Food Waste management system is not only good for their ecosystems, but it is simply better for business. Hear Kris Middleton provide an introduction to food waste and how a site can implement a Food Waste Management System.

4:36 PM – How to Easily Identify Costly FDA Violations in Your Supply Chain

Coley Anderson, Registrar Corp

Garbage in; garbage out. A healthy supply chain supports document efficiency, and meet corporate compliance.

Take a break from cerebral activities and join your peers for an evening of festivity and fun. More details coming soon!

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

LeAnn Chuboff, SQFI
Kristie Grzywinski, SQFI
Tammie Van Buren, SQFI

You have questions, we have answers. Join us for an interactive Q&A session with the SQFI technical team. We’ll also recognize this year’s nominees for the SQF Excellence Awards and the winners of the FMI Foundation Food Safety Auditing Scholarships.

In the SQF Unites Expo, you’ll find 40+ companies with everything you need to move your food safety practice forward.

Join SQF Unites speakers as they lead a Q&A session in small discussion groups.

What’s New In Remote Audits And Inspections
James Scanlon, SAI Global
Are remote audits here to stay? Hear some success and failure stories to help you understand where remote audits are going and how we can improve this potentially helpful tool.

The Global Food Safety Training Study: Insights And Analysis For Optimizing Your Program
Laura Nelson, Intertek Alchemy
Why do some training programs succeed where other fail? Hear the insights from our expert, Laura Nelson at Intertek Alchemy, on the results from a recent global food safety survey.

Food Fraud: Development, Implementation, And Continuous Improvement
Neil Coole, BSI
Food fraud programs need to be continuously evaluated to be successful. Join this ask the expert session as we discuss best practices in the development, implementation and continuous improvement strategies for food fraud programs.

Contract Service Providers: Myths, Facts, And Most Frequently Asked Questions
Samantha Hunt, KTL
Contract service providers are often misunderstood and overlooked. We will share some of the most frequently asked questions about contract service providers and share solutions as to how to better control these extensions to the site.

Traceability Rule
Hilary Thesmar, FMI
FDA is expected to release the traceability rule on November 7th. Join our FMI experts as they provide an overview of the requirement and how it may affect your site.

Geoff Farrell,  NSF International

Harness the power of the risk assessment, the best-kept secret to successful SQF System implementation. The risk assessment is the backbone of an effective food safety system with the power to understand the risks associated with your processes. To prevent it from becoming complicated and time-consuming, the key is keeping the process simple. We’ll show you how! This interactive roundtable will review best practices for conducting a successful risk assessment and guide attendees through real-world examples using a risk assessment tool.

Martin Fowell, MXNS
Shawna Wagner, AIB
Kris Middleston, BV
Tammie Van Buren, SQFI

Based on an analysis of hundreds of audit reports, it’s clear that sites and auditors alike struggle with understanding certain code elements. Join our all-star panel of SQF auditors for an interactive discussion on the most misunderstood SQF Code elements of 2022.

April Bishop. TreeHouse Food Services, LLC
Michael Roberson, Publix Supermarkets

As food supply chains continue to evolve, increase in complexity, and face the continued threat of unanticipated external forces, supplier programs must adapt to ensure the integrity and safety of the products we consume. Join industry experts to take a deep dive into best practices for developing and sustaining an effective approved supplier program that promotes knowledge sharing, drives continuous improvement, is crisis-ready, and adheres to SQF Edition 9 Code requirements.

Ben Nemtin

In this personal keynote, bestselling author Ben Nemtin, weaves the remarkable story of how The Buried Life grew from 100 impossible dreams into a global movement and connects his lessons to the fabric of our daily lives.

His message of radical possibility combined with his ‘5 Steps to Make the Impossible Possible’ will leave you not only inspired but also equipped with tools to tackle the seemingly insurmountable.

Ben reminds us that it’s never too late to start your list and leave your lasting impact on the world.