Start Your Day with Coffee and Cutting Edge Solutions

We invite you to start off your days in Nice with a dive into topics at the cutting edge of food safety – our 2019 Special Sessions. Our collaborators have done a fantastic job of bringing together the most relevant topics and speakers to equip GFSI 2019 delegates to tackle food safety challenges. You’ll come away with concrete solutions and probably a few more connections as well!

Take a turn through the Special Sessions on offer below. To learn more about each session and view the speaker line-up, visit the programme online or on our CGF Events app. You can personalise your agenda on the app by clicking the star next to your favourites to ensure you don’t miss any of your must-attend sessions once you’re caught up in the action-packed programme onsite.

• Food Safety Culture and Training — The Rogue Factor: Human Behaviour
• Traceability and Blockchain: Revolution, Disruption, Evolution?
• Going Digital — How Data Can Improve Food Safety
• How Can We Co-Create the Products and the True Stories Our Consumers Expect, By Using Digital Technologies?
• Blockchain Made Easy – Building Your Supply Chain On the World’s First Self-Serve Enterprise Blockchain In Just 15 Minutes
• Building a Global Traceability Ecosystem for the Common Good: A Call to Collaborate Now
• Moving from Concept to Reality – Blockchain & Supply Chain ManagementMoving from Concept to Reality – Blockchain & Supply Chain Management
• Be Ready for the Future – The Critical Macroeconomic and Key Trends That Will Most Impact Food Safety
• Setting the Table for Success
• Managing Supply Chain Risks – How Has the Food Industry Evolved in Recent Years?

Tuesday, February 26

Food Safety Culture and Training — The Rogue Factor: Human Behaviour
Special Session_Ecolab
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

You can have all the right products and processes in place to protect consumers, food and your organisation, but one employee mistake can bring everything to its knees. How do you address food safety culture and training challenges in an environment with high staff turnover, unpredictable employee attitudes, ongoing cost pressures, little dedicated time for training and varied effectiveness?

Join us in a conversation with Mary Wagner, who shares her expertise in how to engage people around a common goal, transform organisations, build departments from scratch and create a culture across a range of branded global retail and consumer goods companies. See first-hand how the science of learning is turning traditional training on its head. Taking cues from other disciplines, including human-centric design, storytelling, gamification and micro-training — food safety training can benefit from cross-fertilisation with the ultimate goal of optimising learning for all.
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Traceability and Blockchain: Revolution, Disruption, Evolution?
Special Session_Bureau Veritas
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

One year after the official launch of Origin, its blockchain-based traceability solution, Bureau Veritas shares its views, key learnings and feedback on the implementation of the blockchain technology for traceability. What does this technology bring to traceability? What are the main weaknesses and complexities, and how to address them? Which products are more eligible to such a technology? What is the role of a testing, inspection and certification company in such a system? How to involve all the various players of a supply chain in a blockchain system? What business model(s) can be envisioned in the long run?
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Wednesday, February 27

“Going Digital — How Data Can Improve Food Safety”
Special Session_Diversey
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

In this special session hosted by Diversey, Hilton will testify on their experience going digital. Earlier this year, Hilton decided to embark with Diversey on a digital food safety platform. During an interactive talk show, Hilton will clarify what digital really means for them — and more importantly, how they started with their digital journey. What are their insights with respect to the implementation of a food safety monitoring application? Tips and tricks on the process of digitalisation will be shared with the audience during this special session.

To lift a corner of the veil, the first step is to be smart when breaking down tasks. This perfectly connects with the recent joint study carried out by Diversey with Professor Haley Oliver and her team at Purdue University, who demonstrated the effect of data on both managerial control and microbial counts. The link has been established between capturing digital data and the presence of Listeria. Diversey’s retail food safety lead for North America, Dr. Chip Manuel, will highlight this interesting research. Last but not least, Grupo Vips, the multi-brand group with more than 50 years of experience in the catering industry in Spain, will talk about their good practice in reducing acrylamides. The field of managing acrylamides in a business-to-consumer context, such as in coffee shops and restaurants, remains largely unexplored.
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How Can We Co-Create the Products and the True Stories Our Consumers Expect, By Using Digital Technologies?
Special Session_DNV GL
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

Consumer trust is shifting from brands to products. Digital technologies and hyper-connectivity enable direct communication with customers through products. Collaboration throughout the supply chain in completely new ways becomes key to success.

The intention of our session is to explore why and how we can create value together with a customer from the start of the value chain, a product manufacturer and an expert on food innovation, food technology and start-ups. Questions we will explore are:

• Why companies are on a digital journey and what challenges/solutions they are addressing/aiming to solve.
• How digital technologies and sharing can drive radical impact on the end product, starting even before the farm.
• What digital trends, drivers and technology enable them to pursue these opportunities, effectively & efficiently.
• How two players at opposite ends of the value chain connect for the benefit of the consumer.

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Blockchain Made Easy – Building Your Supply Chain On the World’s First Self-Serve Enterprise Blockchain In Just 15 Minutes
Special Session_Greenfence
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

Join this session for a simple and live demonstration on how to build a trusted supply chain through an agile blockchain solution in a matter of minutes, establishing integrity and securing consumer trust. Food supply chain complexities can be quickly and easily defined, deployed and secured on the blockchain, through the world’s first self-serve approach for supply chain, food safety and certification leaders, teams and consortiums.

Using a real world scenario and a hands-on demonstration Greenfence will show how the ease of set up and operation makes this an essential tool for organisations of all sizes and food supply chains of all types. This approach moves ownership away from the technology specialist and puts it firmly in the hands of all food safety participants. By democratising the value of blockchain as an effective tool Greenfence is helping companies build supply chain integrity and securing consumer trust.
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Building a Global Traceability Ecosystem for the Common Good: A Call to Collaborate Now
Special Session_GS1
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

There have never been so many solutions for traceability and transparency on the market. In their quest for consumer trust and food safety, companies are exploring the promises of blockchain, Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence to embrace the full potential of the digital age. Yet will the future meet our expectations?

While we see an increase in alerts on food, regulatory requirements and the consumer demand for product information, driving traceability and transparency to scale remains a huge challenge. Access to data is often limited by the lack of interoperability between systems in addition to business issues. Just capturing data at source is a challenge with many tiers of suppliers and many small stakeholders upstream. How do we build more inclusive communities in the future? How do we make the most of innovations and legacy systems? How do we combine building competitive advantages and the need to collaborate?

In this interactive session, companies from the GFSI community will share their points of view on the future of traceability and transparency. Come for this journey from buzzwords to inspiration and concrete takeaways, and for the latest news on GS1 common language for traceability solutions.
See the Programme

Thursday, February 28

Moving from Concept to Reality – Blockchain & Supply Chain Management

Special Session_NSF
Thursday, February 28, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

In the last year we’ve heard a lot about blockchain technology. While there have been some pilots and some high-profile endorsements, most of what we have heard is very conceptual. Join NSF as we move from concept to reality and demonstrate the art of the possible. We’ll also explore how the food industry can overcome some of the challenges that come along with this new technology, such that brand owners and consumers have confidence in information that is becoming available to us.
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Be Ready for the Future – The Critical Macroeconomic and Key Trends That Will Most Impact Food Safety
Special Session_Rentokil Initial
Thursday, February 28, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

Join Rentokil and one of the world’s leading economists – Dr. Linda Yueh – in a unique presentation and discussion exploring both the critical macroeconomic trends, and the increasing threats posed by pest growth that will have the biggest impact on food safety over the next five years. As well as advising the World Bank, the European Commission and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Professor Yueh is a former Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News and an award-winning author, and she will provide her insights on the key macroeconomic trends affecting the global food supply chain, including the digitalisation of trade, increasing consumer demands and the emergence of a new global middle class.

Savvas Othon, Group Science and Innovation Director at Rentokil Initial, is a biologist and a leading global expert on pests and will also be joining the discussion to explore the increasing threat posed to food safety from the continued growth of pest populations and show us how the latest technology and data can best combat this threat.

The session will be chaired by Gary Booker, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Rentokil Initial who will help unravel the unique insights from two of the world’s leading experts on the biggest imminent future challenges they foresee for food safety – and how to best prepare for them.
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Setting the Table for Success
Special Session_SAI Global
Thursday, February 28, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

SAI Global and guests will shine a light on the high-risk areas of supply networks following the journey of key ingredients so that together, through collaboration and bold leadership, we can truly share best practice to the world. During this session, leading experts and industry peers will share their personal experience in tackling challenges, the practices they have put in place and their impact on the future of food safety. The discussion will focus on responsible sourcing choices and demonstrate how and where organisations can build a sustainability journey. By raising our collective awareness in an engaging and interactive presentation, SAI Global hopes to accelerate the momentum with which, as an industry, we approach the future of food safety.
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Managing Supply Chain Risks – How Has the Food Industry Evolved in Recent Years?
Special Session_SGS
Thursday, February 28, 2019 8:15 AM – 9:15 AM

Using primary data from the SGS industry survey, this session will address the following key questions: Has the industry evolved the way it manages and mitigates risk? How far do regulations such as FSMA help in mitigating risk, and to what extent do they drive food safety culture? What are the latest methods for identifying emerging risks and minimising their impact? The session will be moderated by SGS with an expert panel of speakers representing industry, retail and/or regulatory bodies.
See the Programme

Join us in Nice on the French Riviera for the industry’s annual rendezvous to advance food safety worldwide!
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