Animal and Pet Food Safety Professional Development Group

Webinars

• Global and Integrated Approaches to Animal Health and Food Safety Mar 31, 2026

  This symposium explores the challenges of antimicrobial resistance and biosecurity in food animal production, integrating regulatory, academic, and industry perspectives. An FDA representative will highlight national surveillance and monitoring efforts, emphasizing emerging trends, priorities, and policy implications. Academic experts will examine how biosecurity strategies influence pathogen persistence across diverse production systems. An industry speaker will share practical lessons and challenges in applying food safety measures under evolving expectations. Recent issues—including H5N1 impacts on swine, screw worm outbreaks in beef cattle, and avian influenza in poultry—underscore how animal health events disrupt production and shape consumer perception of food safety. While examples focus on U.S. production, strategies and insights are broadly applicable to small- and large-scale operations worldwide. Students, early-career professionals, and local industry members will gain actionable takeaways for improving food safety practices. The session concludes with an interactive Q&A, enabling participants to discuss implementation challenges and science-based solutions with experts from multiple sectors.

  Learning Outcome / Audience Takeaways: Participants will learn to integrate regulatory, scientific, and industry approaches to reduce antimicrobial resistance, apply biosecurity strategies effectively across production systems, and identify practical solutions for overcoming implementation challenges in diverse operational contexts. 

  Presenters

  • Heather Tate, Speaker FDA
  • Valentina Trinetta, Speaker KSU
  • Ansen Pond, Speaker Pilgrim
  • Michelle Sayles, Moderator Diamond Pet Foods
• Modernizing the Ways of Traditional Smoking: Application of Liquid and Dry Smoke in Meat, Poultry and Pet Foods Sep 30, 2024

  Organized by: IAFP's Meat and Poultry Quality and Safety PDG and Animal and Pet Food Safety PDG

  Smoking of poultry, fish and red meat has been increasing in popularity. Liquid smoke is obtained by condensing wood smoke from combustion of hardwood. While traditional smoking of foods like meat produces harmful heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, manufacturers purify liquid smoke via filtration resulting in a safe and natural food additive with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and flavor characteristics. The first presentation will discuss the background of liquid smoke as well as regulations pertaining to its commercial application in meat and poultry products. The next presentation will explore the role of designer smokes and multifunctional smoke systems for antimicrobial and antioxidant properties in food applications. The final presentation will cover some additional applications of liquid smoke in the mitigation of mold and mites in pet foods.

  Learning Objectives:
  -Learn about potential application of liquid smoke to meat and pet food products in preventing and inhibiting the growth and survival of foodborne pathogens and enhance overall food safety and shelf life.
  -Learn about multifaceted role of liquid smoke as an all-in-one additive to enhance food safety, sensory properties, and promote health with intrinsic antioxidants.
  -Learn about the dominance of liquid smoke over traditional smoking based on in its diverse applications, product uniformity, reproducibility in favorable sensory qualities, and in the fusion of environmental consciousness with effective functional properties.
  -Learn about liquid composition; carboxylic acids, carbonyls, and phenolic compounds, which act synergistically to impede microbial growth.

  Download Slides

  Presenters

  • Joshua Gurtler, Presenter USDA-ARS
  • Aiswariya Deliephan, Presenter Kraft Heinz
  • Surabhi Wason, Presenter Kerry
  • Saurabh Kumar, Moderator Kerry