The Fresh Produce Safety Centre Australia & New Zealand (FPSC) has today announced that the 2021 Fresh Produce Safety Conference will proceed as an online-only event.

With current lockdowns and border restrictions in place, the FPSC Board has made the decision to hold the FPSC Conference on 18 August 2021 without a face-to-face component. With four weeks until the conference, the FPSC Board prioritised the importance of providing our audience, speakers and sponsors with certainty to participate. As such, the FPSC made the decision to transition seamlessly to an online event, as per our COVID-19 contingency plan.

Mr. Michael Worthington, the chairman of the FPSC, said: “We wanted provide audiences enough time to prepare for the conference and therefore made the decision to transition to online four weeks out from event day.”

Mr. Worthington said: “The FPSC Conference team had planned for this eventuality and had a COVID-19 contingency plan in place.”

“Although we would have liked to proceed with the face-to-face component, the online conference is an excellent showcase of our industry’s commitment to fresh produce safety during these trying times.”

“We are striving to create an opportunity for all our colleagues across Australia and New Zealand to participate and transitioning to online was the best solution to deliver a safe and engaging conference,” Mr Worthington said.

The 2021 Fresh Produce Safety Conference hosts expert guest speakers, engaging workshops and a robust conference program designed to provide the best value and experience to our audiences and supporters.

Thanks go out to all our sponsors including our Conference Partners: Hort Innovation, the NSW Food Authority and Perfection Fresh Australia.

Conference Highlights:

  • Keynote Speaker: Max Teplitski, PhD, Chief Science Officer at the Produce Marketing Association (PMA).
  • Produce Safety, what’s at stake? will feature Andrea Currie from Coles, Andrew Redman from Perfection Fresh Australia and Dr Craig Shadbolt from the NSW Food Authority, speaking on the key issues from a customer/retailer, grower/marketer and regulator’s perspective. Sponsored by Mérieux NutriSciences.
  • Future food safety: new research on environmental impacts on fresh produce food safety will feature Dr Thea King from the NSW Food Authority, Dr Hayriye Bozkurt from the University of Adelaide and Dr Jenny Ekman from AHR, each presenting research on different aspects on environmental impacts on produce safety.
  • A panel discussion facilitated by Deon Mahoney from PMA A-NZ on Food Safety for Growers – what’s ahead? Sponsored by AUS-QUAL.
  • Student knowledge session: Next gen food safety researchers. Sponsored by Fresh Select.

Further event updates will be announced shortly. Keep up to date and view our full conference program here.

Online event tickets are still available for purchase with early bird prices extended until 5 August. Current ticket-holders who have purchased in-person tickets will receive cost-difference refunds over the coming weeks and automatically switch over to online registrations.

View our full conference program: More

Industry is encouraged to reach out with any questions or concerns and submissions can be made at info@fpsc-anz.com.