Mission

Though federal, state, and local governments are primarily responsible for setting food safety standards, many other organizations share a stake in carrying out enforcement of the standards. The Conference for Food Protection brings together representatives from the food industry, government, academia, and consumer organizations to identify and address emerging problems of food safety and to formulate recommendations. The Conference seeks to balance the interests of regulatory and industry while providing an open forum for the consideration of ideas from any source. The Conference meets biennially to provide this forum. Though the Conference has no formal regulatory authority, it is a powerful organization that profoundly influences model laws and regulations among all government agencies and minimizes disparate interpretations and implementation.

Objectives

The Conference for Food Protection promotes food safety and consumer protection by the following:

• Identifying and addressing problems in the production, processing, packaging, distribution, sale, and service of foods;
• Focusing on and facilitating the food protection programs governing the foodservice, retail food store, and food vending segments of the food industry;
• Adopting sound, uniform procedures which will be accepted by food regulatory agencies and industry;
• Promoting mutual respect and trust by establishing a working liaison among governmental agencies, industry, academic institutions, professional associations, and consumer groups concerned with food safety;
• Promoting uniformity among States, territories, and the District of Columbia. Territories include American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, The Trust Territory, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and
• Utilizing the following as the primary channels for dissemination of Information:
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture/Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in matters under its purview, such as food production, meat and poultry processing, and consumer information; and
  • The U.S. Public Health Service/Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in matters under its purview, such as food processing, and assistance to food regulatory agencies based on the model food codes and related documents.