Seminars
2022
Featured Speakers:
9:00am
Topic:
"Navigating Marketing Claims Compliance in a Post-Pandemic World”
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Featured Speaker from
BURDOCK GROUP
Johnel Imperio Lagabon
Engagement Manager at Burdock Group, an Ingredient safety and regulatory consulting firm located in sunny Orlando, FL specializing in helping ingredient innovators achieve FDA compliance across multiple industries including food, animal feed, and dietary supplements. Outside of his responsibilities at Burdock Group, he lives a very physically active life full of exercise and martial arts, regularly gets dragged into adventures with family and friends, and is a lover of music.
Overview:
Marketing claims can have a profound effect on success of your product. However, a successful marketing campaign goes beyond just clever wording. In order to be have a successful marketing claims strategy, it is crucial that you consider FDA regulation so that you ensure that you optimize your return while minimizing potential negative damage to your brand. The purpose of this talk is to give you an understanding of FDA’s claims regulation to give you the tools necessary to better optimize your claims strategy in a post pandemic world.
9:00am
Topic:
"The impact of Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) Processing in Food and Ingredient manufacturing and supply chains. PEF technology has been largely adopted in potato processing as a substantial tool to reduce costs and improve quality. The presentation will cover PEF technology basics, its historical development and its application to several food types including potatoes, sweet potatoes, citrus juice and olive oil."
Featured Speakers from
FOOD PHYSICS
James Gratzek & Evan Wilson
Food Physics
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James Gratzek: A 30-year food science veteran, Jim has worked across several food technology disciplines in both large and small companies, and with many food types. At the core of Jim’s experience is process engineering and equipment development, though he has lead product development, ingredient development and food safety and quality teams. At Tetra Pak, Jim and his team built the company’s North American Product Development Center in Denton, Texas, wherein many of the aseptic products currently on US store shelves made their start including non-dairy milks, soup & broth, wine, and protein smoothies. At General Mills, Jim managed R&D for the Meals Division working on Progresso, Green Giant and Old El Paso products. He served as SunOpta’s Chief Technology Officer initially leading R&D and eventually also Food Safety and Quality. For the last 2 years he has served as an independent consultant supporting Food Physics and several other food and packaging companies. Jim hails from Athens, Georgia and is a graduate of both Georgia Tech and UGA. He has spent the last 20 years in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife Megan where they raised 2 children, Kara and Chloe. Later this year, Jim and Megan will be moving back to Georgia, as Jim will be assuming the position of Director at UGA’s FoodPIC in Griffin, GA.
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Evan Wilson: with a background in Farming and Ranching, Evan brings over a decade of Agricultural Financial and Operational Management experience to the Food Physics Team. With a degree in Agriculture Business Management from Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Evan served as the CFO for Land Run Farmers’ Cooperative. There he managed day to day operations of multiple retail, commodity, chemical, fertilizer, and animal nutrition products, with emphasis on commodity marketing, hedging, patronage equity distribution, mergers and acquisitions. He also worked with the Oklahoma Cooperative Council to promote democratic farmer owned businesses in the Southwest United States. Evan and his wife Luci relocated to Boise as Luci pursues her post graduate work at Boise State University. Evan and Luci welcomed their daughter Evangeline in 2019 and have found a home in Boise and with Food Physics, working to improve existing food supply chains through the use of applied technologies and sustainable practices. Evan currently serves as the Director of Finance and Operations in North America for Food Physics.
10:00am
Topic:
"Pandemic Times Supply Disruptions – Nitrogen Generation"
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Featured Speaker from
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY
Guillermo Lugo
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Food Safety and Quality System professional with 23+ years of combined experience in poultry, dairy and beverage processing plants. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Microbiology before getting his Masters in Food Science and Technology at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. For the last 10 years he has worked as Food Safety and Sanitation Manager with The Coca- Cola Company at the Simply Juice plant in Auburndale Florida. He enjoys the unique opportunities and challenges that his position presents every day. Specially in the last 2 years as the plant had to adapt to “the new normal” and multiple competing priorities.
10:00am
Topic:
"Safety and Regulatory, the Missing Link in the Supply Chain Continuity Plan Chain”
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Featured Speaker from
SAFEBRIDGE® REGULATORY & LIFE SCIENCES GROUP, AND SEIFT BOARD MEMBER
Craig Llewellyn
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Supply chain continuity is currently a hot topic. Companies typically have supply chain continuity plans in place that focus generally on having a primary and secondary source for materials and ingredients. Missing in most plans is a satisfactory safety and regulatory compliance component that integrates with ingredients and components qualification and ongoing monitoring programs.
11:00am
Topic:
"Recent Surges in Ocean
Transportation Rates and Their
Effects on Selected Ag Markets”
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Featured Pre-Recorded Speaker from
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
Michael Adjemian
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Associate Professor, Dept. of Agricultural & Applied Economics at the University of Georgia. Previously, he worked as a Senior Research Economist at the USDA Economic Research Service, and as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Mike’s research is focused on the economics of commodity markets and international trade, and studying the impact of the government’s agricultural policies. He has published his work in top field journals, including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (where he currently serves as an associate editor) and Food Policy, and received awards from the USDA and the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association. He is a consultant for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the State of Georgia’s Office of Planning and Budget, and serves on the board of directors for the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE). Mike completed his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis in 2009. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Florida. Before returning to graduate school, Mike worked as a Performance Auditor for the State of California and as a Budget Analyst for Lockheed Martin.
11:00am
Topic:
"Walking the Talk/Lessons Learned: What does it take to drive farmer adoption of new technologies in cocoa production?”
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Featured Speakers via Zoom from
HERSHEY
Timothy McCoy, Director, Cocoa Partnerships
&
Angela Tejada Chavez, Senior Manager, Sustainable Sourcing
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Tim McCoy, based in Zug, Switzerland, leads the company’s strategic relationships with cocoa-producing countries, chocolate/cocoa industry associations, suppliers, and policy makers to support Hershey’s cocoa sustainability strategy. Before joining Hershey in August 2021, Tim had served since 2012 in several senior positions at the Washington, D.C.-based World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), an international nonprofit association of chocolate and cocoa companies that advocates for sustainability in the global cocoa supply chain. From 2019-2021, he served as WCF’s Vice President for Country Relations and Côte d’Ivoire Country Director, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, overseeing operations in both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s top producers of cocoa. Earlier in his career, Tim worked to U.S.-Africa promote business and investment ties at the Corporate Council on Africa and, at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the development of multiparty democratic political processes in Africa, with a focus on francophone Africa. He is originally from Cleveland, in southeast Tennessee, where he grew up on a smallholder dairy farm. He was educated in public schools at later at the University of Tennessee and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Angela Tejada Chavez, has the responsibility to bring the Hershey Cocoa For Good strategy to life. She partners with suppliers and experts to drive interventions that improve farmer incomes and livelihoods, empower communities, and promote forest preservation. She believes in the power of business to drive positive change and has a flair for bringing strategies to life and has been working in cocoa value chains for almost 15 years. Her grandfather taught her firsthand what we now call regenerative agriculture with a business mindset. This led her to the Netherlands where she complemented her industrial engineering studies and eclectic work experience gained in Peru with a Masters in Environmental Resources Management focusing on Sustainable Land Management.