This year’s Food Safety Summit brought together some of the brightest minds across food production, public health, and compliance. I had the opportunity to attend a few insightful sessions, and I left with pages of notes—and a head full of thoughts.
While the tools and technologies in our field continue to evolve, one theme came through loud and clear: people remain at the heart of food safety.
From leveraging AI to navigating global health crises, every conversation came back to this central truth: we can’t achieve progress without communication, clarity, and a strong culture of safety.
A Few Standout Sessions (and What Stuck With Me)
🔹 Simple Food Safety Culture Tools with a Big Impact
This session reminded me that sometimes the most effective tools are the simplest. While software and automation are powerful, it’s small daily habits—clear signage, supportive leadership, routine training—that shape a truly safe workplace. You don’t need complex systems to start reinforcing good behavior. Thanks to The Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness, here’s a free resource - The Food Safety Culture Toolkit
🔹 Surmountable Challenges: Leadership When Nothing Is Easy
A powerful reminder that leadership isn’t just about solving problems—it’s about how we support our teams through them. One key takeaway? As society leans increasingly into individualism, writing and enforcing policy for the greater good is getting harder. Culture-building and communication matter more than ever.
🔹 Leveraging AI for a Safer Today and Tomorrow
This was one of the most thought-provoking talks. While there’s widespread fear that AI could replace jobs, the food production industry is seeing it differently: AI is being used to fill employment gaps, not push people out. With staffing shortages impacting safety standards, AI is becoming a tool to uphold them.
🔹 Industry Approaches to Meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals
This session emphasized how food safety and sustainability go hand in hand. Tracking training and compliance is one way companies are aligning their operational goals with larger environmental and social objectives.
🔹 HPAI Outbreak: Navigating the Implications
The discussion around Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and its impact on the commercial bird population was sobering. It highlighted the need for rapid response protocols, updated employee training, and consistent communication with stakeholders. Eggs are safe.
🔹 The 13th Annual Town Hall: A Candid Dialogue on the Future of Food Safety
It’s rare to get this level of candor from industry leaders. The future of food safety isn’t just about innovation—it’s about trust, transparency, and education. Organizations need systems in place to not only meet compliance today but also scale as expectations change. Over 15,000 USDA employees have left, budgets are slashed, but agencies are pushing forward with tech solutions and inter-agency collaboration. Your voice matters more than ever. These officials want to hear what's working and what isn't.
Reflections
One of the most powerful throughlines of the Summit was the challenge of policy-making in an era of extreme individualism. People are more focused on “what’s in it for me?” than ever before, which makes building cultures of shared responsibility harder and more critical.
I was struck by how many of these challenges mirror what we hear at Training Tracker®:
✔️ Teams feeling stretched thin
✔️ Compliance slipping through the cracks
✔️ The need for smarter systems that support humans, not replace them
Safety starts with preparation, and preparation starts with consistency. Whether it’s onboarding seasonal workers, training on emerging threats, or simply renewing certifications on time, the systems we use to track and support our teams matter.
Moving Forward
We’re proud to build tools that make food safety more manageable, less reactive, and—ultimately—more human.
I left the Summit energized, challenged, and grateful for the conversations I had. Here’s to safer, stronger workplaces—and to doing our part to make them easier to lead. — Jen Remsik, CEO, Training Tracker®
