Register now for the Food Defense Awareness Workshop

The National Grain and Feed Association and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have partnered to offer a Food Defense Awareness Workshop on July 29 in Kansas City, Mo. Registration deadline is July 12.

The goal of the full-day workshop is to provide members of the grain, grain and oilseed processing, flour milling and other industry sectors with information on food defense, the tools and resources available from FDA and industry and to walk participants through a series of exercises on how to create a food defense plan for their facilities.

Much of the day will be spent providing information on the FDA’s Food Defense Plan Builder Tool that companies may find useful in helping develop a facility security/food defense plan. The FDPB is a desktop tool that, once downloaded from the FDA website, resides only on the user's computer. FDA does not track or monitor its use and does not have access to any content or documents saved using this tool. Participants will be guided through a series of exercises using the tool. There will be open discussions and Q&A sessions throughout the day.

Meeting Location

Westin Kansas City at Crown Center
1 East Pershing Road
Kansas City, MO 64108

Click here for further details on hotel reservations; deadline is July 1 at the special room rate of $129 per night, single occupancy.

Participation and RSVP

As a member of the grain, grain processing and food processing industry, you are invited to this workshop free of charge; however, RSVP is required. Reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Battelle Memorial Institute is supporting the NGFA and FDA in this effort. Because space is limited to 100 attendees, please RSVP by July 12 to Catherine Hart at hartc@battelle.org. Please include your name, occupation, organization, email address and telephone number. The Early Bird discount rate of $325, for both NGFA members and non-members, ends on July 12. If you have any questions regarding logistics, please contact Catherine Hart at 703-416-5823.

Workshop Preparation

Please download and install the Food Defense Plan Builder tool to a Windows platform laptop computer prior to the workshop from the FDA website and open the program prior to the workshop to ensure that it has been properly installed. Please bring the same laptop computer to the workshop so that you can operate the tool during the workshop. The FDPB tool is not compatible with a Mac operating system.

NGFA-Grain Journal Safety Conference

We also wanted to let you know that following the Food Defense Workshop, the NGFA and Grain Journal will be hosting a Safety Conference at the same location – the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City. The conference begins with an evening trade show reception on July 29 followed by a day and half of presentations and panel discussions on key safety issues facing the grain, feed and grain/oilseed processing industries. The conference also includes time to network and visit safety equipment suppliers. Click here to review the program topics.