Webinars

The list below shows upcoming webinars held by IAFP and IAFP’s Professional Development Groups (PDGs). Please note that all opinions and statements are those of the individual making the presentations and not necessarily the opinion or view of IAFP.

Upcoming Webinars

  • Kickoff Workshop for Student Competition on Food Safety AI Benchmark Datasets Jan 9, 2026 (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time)

    This 1-hour webinar will serve as the official kickoff for the AI Benchmarking Student Competition on Predictive Food Safety Models, which has been initially accepted by IAFP as a symposium for the 2026 Annual Meeting. The session will introduce participants to the competition’s goals, timeline, and evaluation criteria, and provide an overview of the curated datasets drawn from the Cornell Food Safety ML Repository, Agroknow’s Foodakai platform, and academic computer-vision sources. Presenters will outline best practices for developing reproducible ML/DL pipelines applicable to food-safety prediction tasks, including pathogen presence modeling, food-incident forecasting, and image-based bacterial classification. The webinar is designed to help teams begin work effectively ahead of the March submission deadline and will conclude with a live Q&A. This educational, non-commercial session supports IAFP’s mission by advancing data-driven approaches to food safety.

    Learning Objectives:

    1. Participants will describe the objectives, timeline and submission requirements for the AI benchmarking student competition in the food-safety domain.

    2. Participants will identify the curated datasets available for the competition and understand how to access and prepare them for modelling.

    3. Participants will outline standard machine learning/deep learning pipeline steps suitable for predictive food-safety modeling (data preparation, feature engineering, training, validation, reproducibility).

    4. Participants will evaluate use-cases demonstrating how predictive modeling (environmental pathogen detection, food-incident forecasting, image classification) can be applied in food safety.

    5. Participants will formulate strategies for team organisation, code management and reproducibility best practices applicable to the competition.

    Presenters
    • Konstantinos Pechlivanis, Speaker AgroKnow
    • Luke Qian, Moderator Cornell University
  • Food Safety Culture PDG: Advancing Food Safety Culture Together - A Dialogue Between Auditor and Auditee Jan 13, 2026 (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern Time)

    In this engaging webinar, the Food Safety Culture PDG will host a dialogue between both sides of the audit process. Together, we will explore how audits can not only verify compliance but also serve as a powerful catalyst for cultivating a strong food safety culture.

    Key Objectives:

    • Discuss how food safety culture is evaluated during audits from both auditor and auditee perspectives.
    • Discuss common challenges and opportunities in demonstrating culture through audit processes.
    • Explore strategies to turn audit outcomes into collaborative dialogues that build trust and encourage continuous improvement.

    Key Take-aways:

    • How auditors approach evaluating food safety culture during an audit.
    • The auditee’s perspective: challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned when culture is put to the test.
    • Practical ways both parties can use to build trust and continuous improvement.

    Presenters
    • Brad Shillito, Speaker President/CEO at EAGLE
    • Dr. AI Baroudi VP of Food Safety and quality at The Cheesecake Factory
    • Melody Ge, Moderator Chief Technical Officer at EAGLE
  • Role of Hazard Assessments in Driving Risk-Based Testing Jan 21, 2026 (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern Time)

    In today’s complex food supply chain, microbiological testing is only as effective as the hazard assessment it supports. This webinar will explore how to align testing of food ingredients and products for microbiological contamination with a food safety hazard assessment to verify control of identified hazards. Drawing on real-world examples of misaligned testing programs and the downstream consequences (such as false alarms, inefficient resource use, and public-health risk), attendees will learn an approach to designing specifications and sampling plans that reflect product-, process- and ingredient-specific risks. The session will highlight why “COA-driven” testing without hazard justification can mislead decision-making, and will provide practical steps for linking hazard analysis, microbiological criteria, and testing strategy into a robust verification system.

    Learning Objectives:

    1. Describe the rationale for risk-based testing rather than unsubstantiated hazards

    2. Identify examples of misaligned testing and articulate the implications for food safety management

    3. Understand approaches that link hazard analysis with suitable microbiological specifications and testing programs to effectively control hazards

    Presenters
    • Laurie Post, Speaker Deibel Laboratories
    • Amanda Brookhouser-Sisney, Speaker Midwest Laboratories
    • David Legan, Speaker Eurofins Microbiology
    • Caitlin Karolenko, Moderator Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS)