20th - 21st November 2025

Agenda

DAY 1

08:00 - 08:50

REGISTRATION

08:55 – 09:00

CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS

09:00 - 09:30

Transforming Supply Chains: Scaling Excellence, Safety, and Efficiency

  • Redefining global operations and transitioning to a unified global supply chain model
  • Harnessing digital tools to enhance visibility and decision-making across supply networks
  • How to achieve cost optimization through strategic sourcing and lean practices
  • Embedding safety standards ensuring consistent safety excellence across all touchpoints
  • Aligning supply chain initiatives with Ingredion’s specialties-focused expansion
  • Building scalable, adaptive systems to address dynamic market demands

09:30 - 10:00

How do we overcome barriers for the effective regulation of precautionary allergen labelling (PAL)

  • Unregulated PAL has led to inconsistencies in application and proliferation of PAL
  • Regulated PAL was one of the recommendations of the FAO/WHO add-hoc expert group
  • The approach of global Regulatory authorities to application of PAL is non-harmonised
  • The regulation of PAL requires a multi-stakeholder approach
  • The recently launched expert group within ILSI Europe Allergen Task Force seeks to address the above issues

Simon Flanagan, Research Fellow – Global Food Safety, Mondelez International

10:00 - 10:30

Cleaning and Hygiene: Key Learnings as Customers move from Digitized Programs to Digitalized Processes

The move from paper-based cleaning instruction cards to rudimentary digitized tools such as spreadsheets and tables is an evolutionary development in food safety program management. However, the revolutionary step is the digitalization of cleaning & disinfection procedures and their accompanying pathogen environmental monitoring programs yielding living insights into a factory’s microbial ecosystem.

  • How a manufacturer is improving the conformance of their C&D program to meet company policies
  • Easing the burden and improving the timeliness of data sharing during customer and third-party audits
  • Targeted insights into deeper and richer root cause analysis for investigational purposes

Carmela Pennacchia, Food Safety Specialist, Ecolab Food & Beverage
Dr. John Hanlin, Vice President of Global Food Safety, Ecolab Food & Beverage

10:35 - 11:25

COFFEE BREAK

11:30 - 12:00

Turbo technologies for utilities’ efficiency and financial payback

  • High-speed turbo compressors and high-temperature heat pumps from Finland
  • Heat recovery into financial savings – 90% of compressed air electricity turns into heat – might as well use it
  • Turning residual waste heat into steam with high COP
  • Oil-free compressors offer higher efficiency and zero risk of contamination
  • Maintenance-free technology for reliability, uptime and savings

Olli Kuismanen, Co-founder, Upheat Solutions

12:00 - 12:30

Revolutionising Supplier Transparency: The Power of Digital Networks

  • Harnessing Digital Networks: Discover how digital networks are revolutionising supplier transparency and traceability, ensuring compliance with food safety standards while accelerating new product development (NPD)
  • Data-Driven Efficiency & Sustainability: Explore how real-time data sharing drives operational efficiency, fosters transparency, and supports sustainability goals across the food and beverage sector
  • Aligning ESG with Supplier Data: Understand the critical role of integrating ESG metrics with supplier data, ensuring ethical sourcing, regulatory compliance, and improved supply chain visibility
  • Risk Mitigation through Continuous Monitoring: Learn how continuous data monitoring and supplier verification can mitigate risks, maintain audit readiness, and strengthen compliance efforts

12:30 - 13:00

Food Safety in the Age of AI: Building Trust Through Digitalisation

Food safety can’t rely on outdated processes anymore — digitalisation and AI can deliver the transparency, speed, and trust today’s supply chains demand

  • Digitise to survive: Fragmented supplier data is the biggest barrier to food safety
  • AI as an ally: From instant COA checks to anomaly detection, AI makes risk visible in real time
  • Networks over silos: True transparency comes when suppliers, compliance, and R&D share one connected digital ecosystem

Michael Lippens, Account Executive – BENELUX, TraceGains

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Sustainable Packaging
  • Risk Management
  • Quality Assurance Systems
  • Aseptic Lines
  • Cloud ERP
  • Product Inspection & Detection
  • Food-grade Robots (Pick & Pack)
  • Origin Verification
  • Food Ingredients & Flavouring
  • Air Purification
  • Digital Technology
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Sanitation Preventive Controls
  • Hygienic Zoning
  • Compliance & Regulations
  • Sustainability 4.0
  • Cold Chain Management
  • CGMP
  • Food Safety Standards
  • Food Supply Chain Traceability/Visibility
  • Plant Safety & Inspection
  • Big Data & Manufacturing Information
  • Manufacturing Automation
  • Waste Sanitation
  • Waste Water Treatment
  • Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
  • Elemental Analysis
  • Microbiology
  • Food Sanitation/Hygiene
  • Laboratory Analytical Testing
  • Food Innovation
  • New Product Development
  • Certification in food safety, health, environmental and quality management standards

13:05 - 13:55

LUNCH

14:00 – 14:30

Supplier Qualification at METRO: Ensuring Quality, Food Safety and Partnership

  • METRO world-wide standard and requirements
  • Challenges in Qualification
  • Loss of certification
  • Development possibilities and requirements
  • Conclusion

Elza Palenik, Head of QA and Sustainability, METRO AG

14:30 – 15:00

Water in Food & Beverage Industry: (Re-)Use without compromising product safety and quality

  • Food and beverage Industry is using a lot of water
  • Ensuring adequate water quality is becoming a challenge in times of water scarcity
  • Reuse Water needs to be fit-for-purpose
  • How to define “fit-for-purpose water”?
  • Can risk assessments support that approach?
  • Overview of commonly used water treatments

Anett Winkler, Food Safety Advisor, Cargill Germany GmbH

15:00 – 15:30

TAKING EFFICIENCY AND QUALITY TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

  • Food Fraud as an emerged risk?
  • How to tackle the risk?
  • Barilla approach
  • Practical examples

Antonio Nespoli, Region Italy Q&FS Director, Barilla G e R Fratelli

15:35 - 16:25

COFFEE BREAK

16:30 - 17:00

Augmenting Food Safety through Artificial Intelligence: Enhancing Detection and Prevention Strategies

  • Explore how Artificial Intelligence is transforming food safety by enhancing detection, prevention, and compliance strategies.
  • Showcase the DigiComply for automated food safety management and AI-driven analysis of regulatory data through the EFRA project.
  • Present a paper on supplier risk assessment, highlighting insights into managing and mitigating supply chain risks.

Yvonne Pfeifer, Business Developer Manager, SGS Digicomply
Anna Romanova, Product Manager, SGS Digicomply

17:00 - 17:30

Unlocking the Power of Frontline Teams in Manufacturing

  • Manufacturing plants that are using manual data collection or systems that are largely unused by the majority of the workforce end up operating in the dark
  • Frontline collaboration platforms provide visibility and give your operators the correct tools to become connected workers
  • The Connected Worker turns the lights on. It’s amazing what can be achieved when you empower the frontline teams
  • Redzone is the #1 connected workforce solution in manufacturing showing an average of 29% productivity improvement across all of the sites that have deployed Redzone

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Sustainable Packaging
  • Risk Management
  • Quality Assurance Systems
  • Aseptic Lines
  • Cloud ERP
  • Product Inspection & Detection
  • Food-grade Robots (Pick & Pack)
  • Origin Verification
  • Food Ingredients & Flavouring
  • Air Purification
  • Digital Technology
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Sanitation Preventive Controls
  • Hygienic Zoning
  • Compliance & Regulations
  • Sustainability 4.0
  • Cold Chain Management
  • CGMP
  • Food Safety Standards
  • Food Supply Chain Traceability/Visibility
  • Plant Safety & Inspection
  • Big Data & Manufacturing Information
  • Manufacturing Automation
  • Waste Sanitation
  • Waste Water Treatment
  • Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
  • Elemental Analysis
  • Microbiology
  • Food Sanitation/Hygiene
  • Laboratory Analytical Testing
  • Food Innovation
  • New Product Development
  • Certification in food safety, health, environmental and quality management standards

17:30 - 18:00

Food Safety Professionals as a regulated profession

  • Proposal for “Food Safety Professional” as a regulated profession
  • Regulated professions – why and current status
  • Requirements for education
  • Code of ethics
  • Responsibility for food producers

Peter Overbosch, VP of QA (retired), Metro AG

18:00 - 18:30

A holistic approach for food safety – Views of the EU Food & Drink Sector

  • Food safety is a joint responsibility for all the partners of the food supply chain, from farm to fork, and is dependent on strong partnerships along the agri-food chain
  • As we face simultaneous threats to the European agri-food system on food safety and security, we need to rethink the broader consequences of stricter food safety standards
  • To build resilient food systems, more dialogue with all relevant stakeholders is required to find new approaches to risk management to optimise impacts across food safety, security and sustainability
  • Better risk and benefit communication is crucial to provide consumers with confidence in our food chain and give food & drink businesses the confidence to operate and invest

Alejandro Rodarte, Director of Food Safety, FoodDrinkEurope

18:00 - 19:00

DRINKS RECEPTION

DAY 2

08:55 – 09:00

CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS

09:00 – 09:30

Data‑Driven Quality & Food Safety: Change, Culture and AI in Barilla’s Q&FS

  • The Journey: How Barilla structured the Q&FS digital roadmap
  • Data Culture as an asset: accelerate decisions and improve issue detection through data excellence
  • AI in Practice: GenAI pilots and use cases that turn insight into action
  • What’s Next: Continuing the evolution toward smarter, more connected, and predictive Q&FS systems to enhance resilience, compliance, and consumer trust

Gabriele Lorenzani, Q&FS Digital Systems Manager, Barilla

09:30 - 10:00

Beyond Compliance: Smart Technologies for a Future-Proof Food Industry

  • Need for change
  • Future directions and smart technologies as game changers
  • Innovations at the interface of knowledge and technology
  • Systems approach for scalable impact
  • Looking ahead

Gulden Yilmaz, Director AgriFood&Environment, OnePlanet Research Center

10:00 - 10:30

Survival and Recovery of Pathogens in low-moisture environments: Re-thinking cleaning and disinfection procedures

Pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella are hazards in low water activity foods such as chocolate, nut products, dairy powders, powdered infant formula and even dry pet food. While these organisms are unable to grow in these foods due to the lack of available water, they can survive and remain infectious

  • Pathogen survival in the absence of water and how bacteria respond to these stressors
  • New research showing the rate and extent of recovery after stressed microorganisms are exposed to water and nutrients
  • The implications for food factory operations and the need to re-think approaches to cleaning and disinfection to re-establishing hygienic conditions in the food manufacturing environment

Dr. John Hanlin, Vice President of Global Food Safety, Ecolab Food & Beverage

10:35 - 11:25

COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 12:00

Environmental Monitoring Plan: how to maximize its significance in the context of an effective Environmental Management Program

  • Environmental Monitoring Plan (EMP) is widely recognized as an essential requisite in the context of the Food Safety Management System applied by the Food & Beverage manufacturing factories
  • The set up of a meaningful EMP is not very clear and consequently EMP could lose the main objective achievable by its implementation: provide early warnings of potential microbial contamination of the finished products
  • The monitoring of pathogens should always be accompanied by hygiene indicators monitoring
  • A proper EMP requires the comprehension of fundamental elements and concepts such as: product proximity, routine and investigative sampling points, sampling points prioritization and frequency, microbiological standard definition, data collection and trend analysis
  • EMP must include a clear definition of corrective and preventive actions to be applied in case of any microbiological deviation detected
  • The main objectives of a meaningful EMP are the discovery and the removal of any harbourage niche in the production areas as well as the continuous improvement of the control measures applied (e.g. zoning, good hygiene practices etc.) in order to guarantee the food safety of the finished products

12:00 – 12:30

The right Fit for your Food

  • Compressed air is the fourth utility and is often uninspiring, inefficient and misunderstood. Finding the right solution for your application requires time, effort and experience.
  • Over the past 40 years, our family company has gained the knowledge and insight to develop today’s technology in compressed air treatment, to prepare food manufacturers for tomorrow’s challenges.
  • Past: Economy vs. Efficiency: Maintenance vs. Investment
  • Present: Using new technologies to visualise the current status
  • Future: Anticipate auditor’s questions with informed answers

Sara Deckers, Focus Industry Manager, BEKO TECHNOLOGIES B.V.

12:30 – 13:00

2026 EU Listeria Regulatory changes: From Regulation to Implementation

  • Ready-to-eat (RTE) chilled foods are increasingly popular for their convenience, but they also pose significant food safety challenges, especially around Listeria contamination
  • From July 2026, European regulations on Listeria in RTE foods will become stricter, requiring producers to demonstrate safety throughout the full product shelf life
  • Manufacturers face higher compliance demands, risk of product recalls, reputational damage, and operational challenges—especially since Listeria can grow even under refrigeration
  • With natural based ingredient solutions, regulatory & market knowledge, tech support and predictive tools like the Corbion® Listeria Control Model (CLCM), Corbion helps producers adapt formulations, ensure compliance, extend shelf life, and maintain consumer trust

Janine Gierman, Sales Director EMEA, Corbion

PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS

  • Sustainable Packaging
  • Risk Management
  • Quality Assurance Systems
  • Aseptic Lines
  • Cloud ERP
  • Product Inspection & Detection
  • Food-grade Robots (Pick & Pack)
  • Origin Verification
  • Food Ingredients & Flavouring
  • Air Purification
  • Digital Technology
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Sanitation Preventive Controls
  • Hygienic Zoning
  • Compliance & Regulations
  • Sustainability 4.0
  • Cold Chain Management
  • CGMP
  • Food Safety Standards
  • Food Supply Chain Traceability/Visibility
  • Plant Safety & Inspection
  • Big Data & Manufacturing Information
  • Manufacturing Automation
  • Waste Sanitation
  • Waste Water Treatment
  • Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
  • Elemental Analysis
  • Microbiology
  • Food Sanitation/Hygiene
  • Laboratory Analytical Testing
  • Food Innovation
  • New Product Development
  • Certification in food safety, health, environmental and quality management standards

13:05 - 13:55

LUNCH

14:00 – 14:30

Environmental Monitoring revisited

Microbiological environmental monitoring is an essential activity in controlling the safety & quality of food. Many of the issues in the food industry appear to be caused by inadequate hygienic status of the production environment. This presentation will tell you how to get the most out of your environmental monitoring program and to make sure that your food will always be safe:

  • Regulatory requirements
  • Scope of an effective program
  • Risk based, targeted approach
  • Continuous improvement

Eric Timmermans, Owner, TimE Food Solutions

14:30 – 15:00

Benefits of digitalization in Recall management

  • Detection and risk assessment
  • Initiation and notification
  • Traceability and tracking
  • Execution and retrieval
  • Communication
  • Root cause analysis and corrective actions

Ana Glumpak, Head of Quality Assurance, Pan-Pek

15:00 – 15:30

Panel Discussion: Enhancing cross-functional collaboration across R&D, supply chain, and manufacturing

  • From innovation to implementation – bridging product development and manufacturing for market success
  • Enhancing cross-functional collaboration across R&D, supply chain, and manufacturing
  • Accelerating speed-to-market without compromising quality and safety standards
  • Using AI and data analytics to forecast trends and guide product development
  • Case studies on scaling from prototype to production

15:35 - 15:40

CHAIRPERSON’S CLOSE