IAFP Annual Meeting Recap

This week I had the opportunity to travel to lovely Grapevine, Texas (where it was a sizzling 106 degrees!) to attend my first IAFP annual meeting. The show was held at the beautiful Gaylord Texan Resort, and with an immense atrium including four and a half acres of indoor gardens and winding waterways it was a refreshing refuge from the heat.

We were able to showcase our R.A.P.I.D.® LT Food Security System and our EAT (Easy Accurate Timely) campaign and I was able to learn first-hand what a great forum for education and learning about protecting our food supply this annual meeting provides.

This was the 96th IAFP annual meeting and I was in the midst of over 1,800 attendees from the top industry, academic and government food safety professionals. The meeting also featured over 500 technical papers, posters and symposia, detailing current information on a variety of topics relating to food safety. Idaho Technology was proud to submit two posters: “Sensitivity and Specificity Testing of the new Escherichia coli O157:H7 PCR-based Detection Assay using Idaho Technology’s R.A.P.I.D. ® LT Food Security System” by Kelly Winterberg and “Evaluation of Idaho Technology’s R.A.P.I.D. ® LT Listeria Food Security System in Select Foods and on Environmental Surfaces” by Traci Hayes.

All in all, it was a great meeting and I’m looking forward to attending next year in Anaheim, California (I’m thinking Disneyland….)!

Food Safety Tip of the Week: Cut or cooked produce items such as baked potatoes or vegetable casseroles, should never be left out or held at room temperature for an extended time period.