Leading Experts to Discuss the Role of Foodborne Disease Outbreak Investigations at Featured Session at 2015 Food Safety Summit Conference

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2015) - The foodborne disease outbreak at the 2014 Food Safety Summit showed the industry that an outbreak can happen at any time, anywhere, and at any event. The outbreak and the subsequent investigation process by the Maryland Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene will be used as a case study on the role of outbreak investigations at the 2015 Summit.

A distinguished panel of speakers moderated by Hal King, Ph.D., Director, Food and Product Safety, Chick-fil-A and Founder/CEO, Public Health Innovations LLC will discuss why outbreak investigations by local, state, and federal agencies are important, what we can learn from them, and how to use this valuable information to implement improved food safety management systems to prevent future outbreaks. Speakers on the panel will include state, national, and industry experts in the investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks. The lead state investigator on the Summit outbreak, Alvina Chu, Maryland Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, will review the Baltimore, Maryland outbreak investigation. Christopher Braden, MD, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infection Diseases, CDC will discuss how national outbreaks are investigated and how they are changing with new technology. Ruth Petran, Ph.D., CFS, Ecolab, will discuss how we can use outbreak investigation data to improve food safety management and prevent outbreaks from occurring.

According to Scott Wolters, Director for the Food Safety Summit, "When we learned that attendees to the Food Safety Summit were ill after attending the 2014 event we fully cooperated with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene regarding this matter and assisted them with their investigation as requested. We continued to do so while the investigation was conducted and while the final investigation report was being prepared. The Food Safety Summit has never had an incident like this happen before, and we feel it's important to share with our attendees the details of the investigation to learn and to help prevent similar outbreaks from occurring in the future."

The Summit has worked closely with Centerplate, the exclusive caterer of the Baltimore Convention Center, to develop a pre-event and onsite Oversight Plan to ensure that all steps and procedures regarding the preparation and foodservice process before and during the 2015 Food Safety Summit are done with active managerial control experts in the kitchens and serving areas. The Summit has also contracted with Gina Nicholson Kramer, Executive Director of Savour Food Safety International, Inc. to assist in overseeing this process. Savour FSI is committed to assisting companies in developing long-term food safety culture and behavior change programs starting with the top to the front line employee. Click here to view the Food Safety Summit 2015 Food Service Oversight Plan.

Complete details regarding the Food Safety Summit outbreak including the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Investigation Summary Report, internet survey to 2014 Summit attendees, and internet survey letter to 2014 Summit attendees are available at www.foodsafetysummit.com.

The Food Safety Summit is a solution based expo and conference designed to meet the educational and information needs of the entire food industry including processors, distributors, growers, retailers, foodservice operators, regulators and academia. The Summit will be held April 28-30, 2015 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. Pre-Conference Certification Courses in HACCP and Seafood HACCP will begin on Monday, April 27. Details and registration information is available at www.foodsafetysummit.com.