Food safety summit to spotlight AI
The upcoming 2026 Food Safety Summit will highlight AI for traceability and regulatory compliance — a move organizers say will help scale complex plant‑based supply chains and improve safety oversight (foodsafetynews.com).
The summit is scheduled for May 11–14, 2026, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. (food-safety.com) The AI track opens with a session titled “Leveraging AI for Food Safety: From Strategy to Impact,” led by Cindy Jiang (Senior Director, Global Food Safety Risk Management, McDonald’s, retired) and Sean Leighton (Global VP, Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory, Cargill). (food-safety.com) Thursday’s 15th Annual Town Hall is set to feature USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears and FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Kyle Diamantas, joined by Steve Mandernach and CDC’s Megin Nichols and moderated by Gillian Kelleher. ( ) A full-day certificate course, “AI in Food Safety: Ethical and Efficient Food Safety Document Writing,” runs 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and is led by Abigail Snyder, Ph.D., Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D., and Calvin Slaughter, with early-bird registration listed at $950. ( ) Organizers advertise an education program built around more than 100 subject-matter experts and say certificate-course fees for the event can range from about $650 to $1,675 for early-bird bundles that sometimes include conference access. ( ) The exhibit floor will showcase roughly 150–200 solution providers displaying rapid pathogen detection, chemical-analysis instrumentation and digital traceability tools aimed at scaling complex plant‑based and other supply chains. ( )
