International Association for Food Protection- IAFP Annual Meeting

Date:  July 12, 2009 - July 15, 2009

Location:  Grapevine, Texas

The International Association for Food Protection is committed to serving the unique life-long learning needs of our Members. You'll find this to be the goal of every Annual Meeting, which draws an international audience of food safety professionals. Educational sessions are dedicated to timely coverage of key issues and cater to multiple experience levels.

The Annual Meeting has become the leading meeting concerned with the protection of the worldwide food supply. Each meeting is attended by over 1,800 of the top industry, academic and government food safety professionals. This broad mix of attendees includes professionals in quality control, processing operations, regulatory inspections, consulting groups, risk assessment, research and development, microbiological research, plant management, technical services and HACCP management.

With a reputation for quality content, the Annual Meeting features over 500 technical papers, posters and symposia, detailing current information on a variety of topics relating to food safety. The quantity and quality of contributed presentations provide information on the latest methods and technologies available.

The Annual Meeting exhibits are designed to be educational in nature, complementing the scientific content of the educational sessions. The Association emphasizes this by providing exhibitors and attendees a personalized setting where they can interact on a one-on-one basis. The exhibit portion of the Annual Meeting provides attendees the opportunity to gain "hands-on" knowledge of available technologies.

The Challenge

The task of assuring the security of our homeland involves protecting the citizens of the United States, the nation's critical infrastructure and key assets. This is necessary to sustain the nation's vitality against terrorism and other threats. This protection must originate at the community level. It requires discovering, developing and deploying new technology that will support first responders and key decision makers in local communities.

The Mission

NIHS' mission is to discover, develop and deploy solutions that protect and preserve the critical infrastructure of the nation's communities.

The Institute

NIHS aligns projects and research objectives with the needs and requirements of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The strategy is to manage a distributed research enterprise that effectively transitions research and development into solutions. NIHS works with DHS to determine technology needs at the community level. Then, teams are quickly assembled from multiple universities to develop solutions to the needs.

The Strategy

Through management of the Kentucky Critical Infrastructure Protections Program (KCI), the National Institute for Hometown Security (NIHS) provides an ongoing, integrated program dedicated to developing new technologies and devices. NIHS works through qualified academic institutions to accomplish the technological objectives.