Something exciting is happening — face-to-face scientific meetings! This past week I attended the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) meetings in Phoenix. It was such an exciting time! We were once again interacting in the scientific world where ideas were exchanged and the newest and most cutting-edge data were shared. Scientific meetings are so valuable because the top minds, upcoming superstars, newly minted PhDs and students along with the industry and government leaders can meet and debate food safety. It is truly a place for a philosophical exchange of ideas. Let’s be honest: No one fully participates in virtual meetings. It’s always a “multi-task” with email, other virtual meetings and maybe even online shopping competing for attention with the speaker. It’s hardly an ideal situation for moving the scientific bar forward.

This year IAFP was a hybrid meeting. The sessions were solid with interesting topics and speakers who had various options for presenting either virtually or in person. The overall in- person attendance was lower than the pre-pandemic normal, but it’s a step in the right direction. The lack of participation from government scientists left a noticeable gap in the entire meeting; I look forward to the day when they can travel again.

I’ve heard many people say that the trend will be for all meetings to go virtual from now on and there is no need for face-to-face meetings. I fully disagree! Saving a few travel dollars is not worth the risk it creates. As a matter of fact, I think we have finally identified a “silver bullet” to address many issues facing the industry today: relationships and human interaction. Although the meeting was small, the theme was consistent among participants — “This is so much better than a virtual meeting” — and many participants expressed to me that they have actually learned something again.

Here is a snapshot of a few personal highlights from the meeting:

Discussions surrounding the fact that new and innovative control and detection methods for Salmonella are emerging and getting better each day.
“Ghost Kitchens” exist and they are “unregulated.”
Students are eager to learn and want to further their education in graduate programs.
Pre-harvest interventions are at the forefront of everyone’s mind and we need to be moving forward in detection and innovation in this realm.
Many of my former students are thriving, collaborating and outperforming their major professor!!

The list could go on and on but there is a word limit to this blog. My point of listing these personal discoveries is that none of them were made in a planned session. All were made during side conversations with individuals and interacting with companies at the trade show. I don’t know if it was because of the lack of personal interaction in the past months, but in several of the sessions people were identified as the key element of success to food safety. The science is foundational and of critical importance but it’s the boots-on-the-ground moments that lead to new collaborations and implementation in the food industry. Building relationships and nurturing the human factor can’t be neglected.

The biggest highlight of the meeting for me was getting to see three former Texas Tech PhD students step foot onto the awards stage. The three of them have transitioned into scientific positions at Hygiena and worked together as a team to bring a rapid enumeration technology, Bax SalQuant, to the market. The work was conducted as a part of one of the scientist’s PhD dissertation and subsequently was foundational to AOAC approval of the technology for the industry. This allows the industry to quantify Salmonella rather than simply detecting it and is the future for addressing pathogens in food systems. Not only was the technology awarded the New Innovation Award by IAFP, it was used by multiple scientists in presentations as a method for their research. It’s a full circle of training students, developing technologies and implementation to impact food safety. It was all about relationships! Industry funding of academic research can and does pay off! My greatest accomplishment will always be investing in the lives of students and seeing their success. This was a pinnacle moment for me.

IAFP isn’t the last meeting of the season. I hope to see some of you and further build relationships as this week I will travel to the Southwest Meat Association annual meeting and the Reciprocal Meat Conference which is happening in mid-August. Track me down, introduce yourself and we can either take a selfie or even debate this blog in person!

PS: This isn’t a COVID post, I am well versed in mitigations and restrictions!!

Finally, a 'silver bullet' for food safety!

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