WASHINGTON — The 2011 Meat, Poultry & Seafood Convention and Exposition set for April 13-16 at McCormick Place, Chicago, will offer attendees real solutions, insights and “best practices” regarding the top challenges facing the meat and poultry industry. This spring’s Expo will feature more than 25 education sessions taught by leading experts, including many meat industry peers.

This year’s conference tracks include:

  • Sustainability — Attendees will learn how to implement a sustainability plan tailored to their companies, minimize packaging waste streams and communicate sustainability efforts effectively with stakeholders.
  • Food Safety — AMI Expo offers a wide array of education sessions covering food safety issues, including a breakdown of the latest food safety regulatory developments, an examination of the impact of a food safety event on a company and in-depth looks at allergen control and Listeria monocytogenes process control.
  • Health and Wellness — Bombarded by “studies of the week” and ever-changing dietary advice, consumers are often confused about the importance of meat and poultry in their diets. This track will focus on the newly released US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the science behind nutritional risk assessments and how to communicate the value of meat and poultry in a healthy diet.
  • Product Development and Consumer Trends — Sessions in this track will provide attendees with results of new consumer trends research, a look at the impact of the economy on meat and poultry purchases and the products and programs that will retain consumers as long-term customers.
  • Plant Operations — This series of courses is designed to give managers real solutions to critical challenges: lean manufacturing, plant efficiencies and product development. These sessions, which include a short course on capital equipment justification, offer practical takeaways that can be implemented by plants for measurable success.
  • Management and Business — This track includes sessions on communication, aligning and achieving goals across the organization and on meeting the challenges of a family business.

In addition to these six tracks, the AMI Expo will also feature “Meat Tech” presentations prepared by exhibitors on operational issues critical to all aspects of meat, poultry and seafood processing. For the first time these will be held in a classroom on the show floor and will cover a variety of topics, including food safety interventions and ingredients; new pathogen analytical methods; application of sanitary design principles for meat and poultry processing equipment and facilities; packaging technologies; information technology collection and sustainability.

For more information, visit http://www.amiexpo.com/ or http://www.amiexpo2011.com/.