Webinar Archive

Archived Webinars

• The Critical Role of Hygienic Engineering in Today’s Food Production Apr 30, 2026

  Organized by the Sanitary Equipment and Facility Design PDG

  Hygienic Design is often misunderstood and undervalued in food safety management systems within food manufacturing companies, leading to severe negative effects. Including microbiological and chemical contamination, foreign objects, and allergen management issues. In this webinar we will provide an introduction to and definition of Hygienic Design to build a foundation of understanding to work from when answering the second question, “Why is Hygienic Design important to the food industry?” We will answer this second question by explaining the importance of Hygienic Design to the food industry and how it fits into a holistic food safety management approach.

  Learning Objectives:

  Participants will learn what is meant by the term Hygienic Design. This will be done by posing and answering the Question "What is Hygienic Design?"

  Participants will learn why Hygienic Design is important to the food industry and the history behind Hygienic Design Standards. This will be done by posing and answering the Question “Why is Hygienic Design Important to the food industry?”

  Presenters

  • Patrick Wouters, Speaker EHEDG
  • Dan Erickson, Speaker 3-A
  • Jason White, Moderator Fortrex
• Intro to Gen-FS: An overview of the Genomics for Food and Feed Safety Collaboration Apr 30, 2026

  Gen-FS, the Interagency Collaboration on Genomics for Food and Feed Safety, unites several federal agencies: CDC, FDA, NIH-NLM-NCBI, USDA FSIS, APHIS, and ARS, alongside state public health laboratories and academic partners, to advance genomics-based food safety surveillance. As whole genome sequencing and related technologies become standard tools in pathogen detection and outbreak investigation, understanding how Gen-FS coordinates methods, validates sequencing approaches, and standardizes data will benefit the broader food safety community. This webinar will introduce participants to the structure, mission, and core activities of Gen-FS, with a focus on how publicly available genomic surveillance data is generated, quality-assured, and made accessible. Attendees will gain foundational knowledge to better utilize Gen-FS resources in research, regulatory, and applied food safety contexts. This webinar will be followed up by a half-symposia session focused on recent advances in Gen-FS at the 2026 IAFP Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

  Learning Objectives

  By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the structure and mission of Gen-FS, including the roles of participating federal agencies and collaborating partners such as state public health laboratories and academic institutions.

  2. Explain how Gen-FS coordinates genomics methods and data standards, including efforts to improve sequence data quality and support machine-readable contextual data across clinical, food, and environmental samples.

  3. Identify key Gen-FS resources such as NCBI Pathogen Detection and describe how these can be accessed and applied by academia, third-party laboratories, food production companies, and government scientists.

  Presenters

  • Heather Carleton, Speaker CDC
  • William Klimke, Speaker NCBI
  • Ruth Timme, Moderator FDA
• Life in the Dry: Food Safety and Risk Management Options Associated with Low Moisture Foods Apr 22, 2026

  The reduction in water activity through drying or solute addition represents one of the oldest preservation methods known. Low Moisture Foods (LMF) represents a broad sector and encompasses cereals & grains, spices, tea, seeds, nuts, fruit & vegetables, preserves, meat and dairy, amongst others. The commonality between LMF is a low water activity (<0.88) to prevent microbial growth. However, LMF have been implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks with Salmonella contaminated pistachios being a recent example. The following presentation will provide an overview of food safety of LMF along with examples of outbreaks and pathogens of concern. The response of pathogens to enable persistence in the dry state will be outlined along with potential risk management options. With regards the latter, a focus will be placed on gas phase hydroxyl-radical process treatments that facilitate pathogen inactivation without contributing moisture to the product.

  Learning Objectives:

  Be aware of classification of low moisture foods and examples of foodborne illness outbreaks linked to LMF

  Understand how pathogens such as Salmonella adapt to low moisture environments

  Identify the significance and challenges in studying dry biofilms

  Be aware of risk management options to control human pathogens in low moisture foods and environments

  Presenters

  • Keith Warriner, Speaker University of Guelph
  • Jennifer C. Acuff, Speaker University of Arkansas
  • Siyun Wang, Moderator University of British Columbia