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Tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode of Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast. Join Francine L. Shaw, the savvy CEO of Savvy Food Safety, and Matthew Regusci, compliance connoisseur and founder of Fostering Compliance, as they serve up the latest in food safety with a side of laughter.
Explore the ins and outs of food systems, responsible food practices, and food safety regulations. Stay informed about food safety awareness and the not-so-occasional food recall. Delve deep into the complexities of the food supply chain with our dynamic duo, who blend expert insights with a pinch of food safety humor. Whether you're knee-deep in the food safety industry or just passionate about what's on your plate, this podcast promises a fresh take on staying safe while eating well.
Expect candid conversations, personal anecdotes, and occasional guest appearances that spice up the discussion. Shaw and Regusci bring their combined decades of experience to the table, making each episode as informative as it is entertaining. From industry trends to must-know food safety news and regulations, they've got your back (and your lunch).
In essence, Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast is not just about imparting information; it's about fostering a culture of food safety. By shedding light on the intricacies of the food supply chain and the latest food safety news, it aims to promote awareness and encourage responsible food practices among consumers and industry professionals alike.
When it comes to food safety, knowledge is power, and a good laugh is the best seasoning. At the heart of every episode is one golden rule: Don't Eat Poop!
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[00:00:00] Rick: Well, I'll tell you one thing right off the bat. We feed people better. How do we go to food safety conferences with the first word food and gets us awful food? It's a buffet in an exhibit hall, and it's made people sick. It's disgusting. Why do we do this? I'm telling you, and I'm not kidding, that we look at what we're serving the food industry, and we take great pride in serving good food.
Now, that might not have been the answer you had expected me to say, and it is not the only answer, but it's a first thing that just came to mind
[00:00:49] Intro: Everybody's got to eat, and nobody likes getting sick. That's why heroes toil in the shadows, keeping your food safe at all points, from the supply chain to the point [00:01:00] of sale. Join industry veterans Francine Elshaew and Matt Regusci for a deep dive into food safety. It all boils down to one golden rule: don't eat poop Don't eat poop
[00:01:14] Matt: Hello, hello, Francine.
We, Francine and I have talked multiple times that we absolutely love the Food Safety Consortium. We're gonna be there again this year, and we're gonna be re-recording podcasts. You'll be able to find our booth because Francine brings poop emoji balloons and decks the booth with lots of poop. So, yeah, and so we have a few episodes that we're gonna be doing with you over the next couple, few months, and this first one, we really just wanna talk to you about Food Safety Consortium, so the audience can hear it from your perspective.
What makes Food Consortium unique? We talk about it, but what, in your mind and from the people that attend your conference, what do they say that makes Food Safety Consortium unique?
[00:01:59] Rick: Well, [00:02:00] I'll tell you one thing right off the bat. We feed people better. How do we go to food safety conferences with the fir- first word food and gets such awful food?
It's a buffet in an exhibit hall, and it's made people sick. It's disgusting. Why do we do this? I'm telling you, and I'm not kidding, that we look at what we're serving the food industry, and we take great pride in serving good food. Now, that might not been, had been the answer you had expected me to say, and it is not the only answer, but it's a first thing that just came to mind.
And also, we ask for the health inspection report of the kitchen.
[00:02:46] Matt: Oh, good. I would never think that you would have to do that. I would just assume that would be something that they would have and do, but- Sure.
[00:02:54] Rick: What, if you assume, what does that stand for? What do we ask? Mickey, what do, and when we talk about trust but [00:03:00] verify in the food safety industry, we're gonna talk the talk, let's walk the walk.
[00:03:05] Francine: That's something all event planners should do, and I don't know how many actually do it. They should all do that, and I don't know how many actually do. I wanna say something to you, and I never thought about it until you just said that. Your conference is the only conference that I eat at, and I go to several of them, and I've spoken at several, honestly.
[00:03:29] Rick: I instruct my staff when we go to some of the other conferences to eat a heavy breakfast at the hotel, 'cause you're probably not gonna eat lunch, and just power through it, and then we'll go out to dinner afterwards. What's up with that? Is it just economics?
[00:03:45] Francine: I think it's because, mentally thinking about it now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, 'cause I never thought about it until now, a lot of it has to do with what is served and the way it's served.[00:04:00]
[00:04:00] Rick: So- Again, that might not have been exactly what you were expecting, but well, it's one distinct factor. And the other interesting things, if we were, as we dive more into programming the details, is the evolution of the Food Safety Consortium. We're coming up to our 15th year. FSMA was introduced 15 years ago, that things have evolved in the industry over the 15 years, and so has our programming.
And it's either a strength or a weakness, and I'm not sure. But when we finish up a program, we look back and say, "Well, what worked and what didn't work?" And we don't have a really strong template or machine that we just crank out year after year after year with the same format, same location. We question everything.
And that creates more work, but it [00:05:00] keeps it fresh, it keeps it on point to hopefully what's going on in the industry. And I think some of the changes that we have this year, and then also coming off of our Food Safety Hazards Conference, has helped evolve the consortium.
[00:05:20] Matt: Yeah. So that's an interesting rabbit hole to go down.
So you're, you have like surveys and stuff like that, right? Asking attendees and people who have booths what... How has that evolved? Because Food Safety Consortium's been around for quite some time. How have you seen those surveys evolve and what people are looking for from year one of Food Safety Consortium to last year?
[00:05:41] Francine: It's also something you've asked us to ask- Yeah ... while we're doing the interview.
[00:05:46] Rick: Right. Right. And I think that stems back to Parsippany when, Matt, you were asking people when we were in New Jersey, they liked about the program and what they didn't like, and that was interesting to hear. Because I [00:06:00] remember you saying what they didn't like.
That was an interesting conversation.
[00:06:04] Matt: I could tell you what they didn't like. It was the location, and it was like a meat locker in there. You could literally be hanging meat from the roof.
[00:06:12] Rick: Well, again, we listened. We moved, and the things have evolved. But I think your question really was is, how do we get feedback?
And a lot of this is also personal one-on-one feedback that I have with attendees, with speakers, with sponsors and exhibitors. I really try and talk to people one-on-one and get a lot of feedback from folks throughout the year. You know, what they like, what they didn't like, what we can improve upon.
Again, things have evolved, and I think- One of the reasons we introduced the Food Safety Hazards program this year was, is that the realization that you can't be all things to everyone. Food safety has a [00:07:00] multitude of different topics and people with responsibilities. You can spend a day on traceability, or you can talk about a ongoing listeria problem with a drain and how that's, uh, you know, turning into biofilms within the plant.
And people have two and a half days. Yeah, so what type of content do they want to consume? What type of topics will help them? And you can't be all things to everyone and try and have this homogenized, "Oh, we got this, we got this, we got that, we got that," and it's all okay, versus, "Let's pick a theme, let's pick a topic, and let's focus on it, dive deep into it and do it well."
So Hazards, which is in the spring in St. Louis, was diving deep into the tactical aspects of food safety. We didn't really get into policy at all. We didn't really get into AI [00:08:00] or traceability at all. It was reoccurring problems with listeria in drains, or it's cross-contamination, or some of the challenges that pet food companies have in making sure that the food is human quality safe So we spent two full days just on that and had a great program.
The consortium's different, and we're evolving that.
[00:08:29] Matt: And so the consortium's been around for, what, 15 years this year? And so what's the... How has that evolved over the last 15 years? 'Cause now that you're in DC, is it more looking at what's going on now in regulation and what's going on in the future in regulation?
How has the DC location altered the conversation?
[00:08:49] Rick: Yes, policy plays a big role in what we cover. I've been in contact with Dr. Don Prater's office this week. [00:09:00] We're evolving how his participation will play out in the consortium. He's spoken at the consortium before, he came out to speak at Hazards before he got bumped to being head of the Human Foods Program for FDA, with Kyle moving up to the director of FDA.
And, and so we've been working with Don's staff and on what he'll be doing, and then the same with Dr. Mindy Besherse from USDA. And, you know, there's a lot of things happening within FDA that the industry wants to hear, and it's not just policy as much as changes. So, you know, a big thing is gonna be how they're addressing recalls.
And Darin called me up from, Darin Detwiler called me up from Washington the, and he's, "I just met with Don Prater. He called it their shot to the moon about wanting [00:10:00] to revamp how FDA works on food safety recalls." And he was all excited about that. And so I think there's a lot of things that are happening, and that's where we make it easy for government officials to be able to come to our conference where they don't have to look at how much time they're taking out of the office because it's a metro ride from where they are.
[00:10:25] Matt: This kinda begs the question then, how do you pick your speakers? 'Cause you have a lot of speakers at Food Safety Consortium.
[00:10:30] Rick: Well, it's a combination of things, and really the process really is is that, okay, I know I wanna reach out to FDA and USDA and sometimes other components of government, so that's- Me inviting them to present.
And then usually they'll say, "Okay, well, what do you want me to talk about?" And I'm, "Far be it from me to tell you what to talk about. What's on the agency's mind? You know, you have an industry outreach agenda. [00:11:00] Well, let's start with that." And then, and then actually going back and, and forth with Don Prater's staff, I actually sent them a follow-up email saying, "You know, let's also talk about your initiative with what's gone on with recalls."
So part of this, to answer your question is the outreach, is literally looking to invite agency officials to have engagement with the industry. The other part of this is we do a call for abstracts, and that literally goes out to the full database of Food Safety Tech, and it's a, in a form that people submit the abstract, and I have specific questions about the abstract, what's the audience takeaway?
So it helps us go through those, and I do the first look at them. You know, I can kind of tell which one is very commercial, [00:12:00] which one isn't. So I literally have a, a grading system that gives me a numerical number based on the educational value, whether it's too commercial or not, the value and the relevancy that it has to the conference and to the industry.
And so that gives me a numerical score, and then from there, I can then look at the highest scores. And then I take it out of the portal that this is in, and I just put it on a spreadsheet because then it helps me look at, I had like three really great topics on traceability. How different are they or how alike are they?
And this gets, the next step is, okay, I've got enough content that if I just put it in there, it would probably still be a good conference. But let's take it to the next level and curate this. So the next step is looking at, okay, I got something from Jeff Chilton, who's a great subject matter expert, now out on his own, [00:13:00] used to be with Alchemy.
Great presentation There might be another presentation that's similar to his, and what I'll do is, is look to see if I can combine them into one presentation and turn those two, having them co-present on a similar topic and get some of their, each of the presentations together to blend it into something.
And that's just, that takes a lot of work, takes a lot of time, but that's literally the process that we're in right now.
[00:13:31] Francine: So I know how difficult it is to balance schedules, personalities, and everything that goes into doing that whole schedule. Once you put that together and you have a rough draft of your schedule, how much does diversity of those speakers play?
[00:13:48] Rick: Yeah, it's... Well, the term diversity, first of all, I look at it from a couple different ways. One of which is are we presenting, no offense, from all [00:14:00] consultants Or is it literally what are the ethnic optics and gender? I can say this. I'm not looking for 60-year-old white guys to just teach everyone. That's not what we're looking for.
We're looking for a well-represented, diverse group of subject matter experts that people can relate to. And in the curation process, the other thing that I look for is great presentation coming from a really good subject matter expert who's a consultant formerly in the industry. But then I'll also work with people in the industry who might not really have the time to do a full blown out presentation, but love to speak.
I know them, they're good speakers, and I'll invite them to co-present on certain subjects so that we add a sense of industry element. [00:15:00] You know, so someone who's in industry right now, the VP of food safety or whatever, co-presenting. And maybe it's like, you know, a football analogy would be, it's like the color commentator on a football game versus the play-to-play announcer who would be the person who actually submitted that abstract.
And so we try and blend those together. You look at it from all aspects of it, making sure that we also have different segments of the food industry represented. So it's really, when you say how diverse is it, you'd really have to look at it from all those different angles to try and balance out the list of speakers, which then balances out the agenda, which then does a better job, I think, in having people who want to come to this relate to the topics and to the speakers.
[00:15:51] Francine: Right. And I, the reason I asked the question, not as a consultant, as a human, has attended many of these conferences over the [00:16:00] years and has had several conversations with people who talk about all the 60-year-old white guys that speak. People have come to me and they're like, "And I love these guys.
They're, a lot of them are my friends." It does. For a long time what happened is you had the same speakers year after year after year that were talking, and it's getting better. It's getting much better, about the same things. And that, that was the reason for the question. How do you make that decision? A lot of the conferences, that is getting much, much better.
It had nothing to do with the consultant perspective. But
[00:16:32] Matt: here's a question though, because, you know, I had the submission form up here, and I remember at Food Safety Summit, somebody came up to you and was like, "Ah, I've submitted a couple potential talks," and that closed May 22nd, so that's done. So now you have all these.
How many people actually submit Talks, and then what percentage actually ends up... This, by the way, we are totally getting into insider baseball, but this is, like, fascinating to me, 'cause you [00:17:00] literally manage this whole entire process. I m- as you have a team, but you're managing this process, which is really intriguing to me.
And so how many submissions do you get, and what percentage do you use?
[00:17:11] Rick: We end up getting between 50 and 60 submissions. We end up using about half of them.
[00:17:20] Matt: So there's a good chance if someone submits something, that's a coin flip.
[00:17:24] Rick: I mean, that's a really good point because it doesn't mean it was a crappy abstract.
It means I couldn't either fit it or it was duplicate. So, you know, you start playing Solomon with which one do I take? And- You just cut them in half, put them together. How we blend them together.
[00:17:42] Francine: And it's also important to know that not everybody that speaks submitted an abstract. There are certain topics, for all conferences.
There are certain topics that have been chosen where you have experts that you are looking for to talk about those topics specifically. [00:18:00] That's important to understand as well.
[00:18:02] Rick: I've gone back to some of the abstracts that we didn't select and set up meetings with them and said, "Well, you've put all this time and effort into it.
Maybe what we can do is just turn this into a webinar. Maybe I can turn this into a submitted article for Food Safety Tech. Or maybe this one might be better for the hazards coming up in spring of next year." We actually have one, actually two programs that were turned down last year that I'm gonna accept this year, and what's interesting about it is one of which is a study on food safety audits.
And since the submission, they've also had more and more responses to it, so the data is even more Diving deep into food safety audits. So I stayed in touch with them. They didn't make the cut last year, but we stayed in touch and they s- resubmitted, so it was great [00:19:00] to see that
[00:19:00] Matt: That is fascinating. And so what type of data, I'm just curious, what type of data are they collecting about food safety audits?
I'm just plugging this for the event because this is... I actually am intrigued coming from 20, 20-plus years of managing food safety audits. I'm just interested in what type of data.
[00:19:18] Rick: Well, it's... All right, so this is a brief introduction, and it's based on a global mix study collected in 2025 combining quantitative responses from 162 food safety auditors and quality and food safety professionals with qualitative interviews from a selected number of participants.
The findings reveal an industry at a turning point. Audits are valued but constrained by workload pressures, transparency gaps, and inconsistent governance. At the same time, opportunities are emerging through stronger auditor capability frameworks, more harmonized schemes, and risk-based approaches, and greater and [00:20:00] wiser use of digital tools to enhance efficiency and insight.
Lastly, the session will pr- present the key findings and outline a forward-looking vision for more transparent, efficient, and value-driven food safety audit ecosystems.
[00:20:16] Matt: Fascinating. I like that it's qualitative and quantitative.
[00:20:20] Rick: So again, they didn't make the cut last year, but I saw the value in it, and we kept the conversation going So again, it's, it's a lot of curating it is true.
It's like, okay, I'm working with this information, but now how do we mold it into a program that also has an ebb and flow to it?
[00:20:43] Francine: And it just hit a podcast. So kudos to them. I don't know who it was, but maybe you'll hear it.
[00:20:49] Matt: So even if it doesn't hit this year based upon the theme and all the other submissions that are coming in and kind of the theme of the conference, you continue the conversation and maybe [00:21:00] even say like, "You know, I was looking for this type of stuff and it, it wasn't there.
And so next year when you submit it, tag these things in it, and then we may be looking at this next year."
[00:21:10] Rick: And actually, the reverse has happened where I had a person as a contributing author for Food Safety Tech, actually several of them are, who are gonna be in this year's program, that I said, "That's a really good topic.
That's a really good topic. Can you turn that into a presentation?" And we have two of those that are gonna make the program this year that are just a evolution of submitted articles that they submitted to Food Safety Tech and we published.
[00:21:42] Francine: So speaking of contributing authors, Azure Edwards, phenomenal.
We're gonna interview her. I love the stuff- she's the one that wrote the article on training. I need to schedule a call with her, and I've just been so busy I haven't done it yet. But yeah, she's, [00:22:00] she's phenomenal writer.
[00:22:01] Rick: She is. And she's got a five-part series now. We've just yesterday published the second of in the five.
[00:22:08] Matt: We do something unique with, I mean, we use articles a lot in our- that's what we go into Food Safety Tech, we go into Food Safety News, we figure out what's there, what's going on, and then we talk about it. Rarely do we get close to reading the whole entire article. We almost read that article line by line.
It was this, we, we summed up this paragraph, and then Francine and I riffed on it, and then we went to the next paragraph and we riffed on it, and she's a phenomenal writer. Do you find occasionally, though, that... I'm not saying anything about her, 'cause we're gonna find out when we, when we interview her.
But do you find some people are amazing writers? They can put everything down into thought very well on paper, but when they get up in front of people, they don't talk well?
[00:22:50] Rick: I haven't run into that yet. We've been blessed with people who write well and can articulate their positions [00:23:00] well also.
[00:23:01] Matt: Yeah, 'cause when you're writing that well, you have to really know that, 'cause she packs in a ton of stuff into a couple pages, so you've had to really thought that through really well.
So I bet the Q&A is gonna be awesome too, 'cause she could just probably fire it off.
[00:23:17] Francine: You have to love to write. You have to really enjoy writing.
[00:23:22] Rick: Well, actually, Matt, I'm gonna ask you a question. You had mentioned that it's hard to get through certain articles. Do you prefer reading or listening, or it depends?
[00:23:32] Matt: So I took that test on what type of learner I am, audible, visual, and I scored almost equally on all of them. So Yeah, in college I took all the classes that w- did tests, because if I showed up to the class and read the book, I could do, I could do the test perfectly fine. So for me, I do everything. I listen to podcasts, I listen to trainings, listen to [00:24:00] all that.
I can read it. A lot of times writing it helps me then take what I've done and put it in, into paper, but also speaking. Francine and I are both verbal processors, which is what we do on our podcast. Literally we are verbally processing, uh, on air. Yeah, that's a great question. Francine, what type, what are you?
[00:24:19] Francine: I learn very quickly. I never had to study in school.
[00:24:22] Matt: No.
[00:24:23] Francine: Uh, which was, I didn't even have to go to school to pass. Oh, I... And get decent grades. Like, yeah, so I do the same. I will, when I'm doing things at home, I will sometimes listen to podcasts or listen to books. So it's a combination. I will find that depending on what it is, if it's something that I'm not interested in but I have to learn it, I will read it and write it both if I'm not interested in it.
That will help me learn. I also am a very visual person, so seeing it also helps. [00:25:00] So I've also taken those tests, and it depends on the material. It really depends on the material. I love to write.
[00:25:09] Rick: What I think, I like all of the above, but what I find I'm not good at is multitasking, where some people like to listen to podcasts while they're working.
I can't concentrate. I either have to concentrate on my work, or I really wanna concentrate on the podcast, and I don't process both of them at the same time. Maybe that's my old brain, I don't know, but no matter what it is, I just singularly focus on it to get the most out of it.
[00:25:41] Francine: So we both have ADHD.
That's probably the difference.
[00:25:47] Matt: Yes. So on Audible, every year it tells you, like, how many books you read this year. Every single year I go through about 20 books.
[00:25:55] Francine: I've already read 10.
[00:25:56] Matt: Yeah.
[00:25:57] Francine: On, I have 10- 20 plus
[00:25:57] Matt: books. Yeah. And it's, and I do it [00:26:00] while I'm working. So I'm listening to a book while working or listening to a podcast while working, and yeah, it's like the only way I can actually focus is when there's something else in the background that I'm listening to.
It's fascinating, too, because, like, a lot of my employees, that is not the case, but their work is, they're very different people and they're very scientific people, like chemists or engineers or whatever. They can't do that. They, they can't.
[00:26:28] Francine: And that doesn't count the podcasts that we've listened to- Yes ... or any other material that we've listened to as well.
So it's just a difference in the way our brains function
[00:26:40] Matt: But that's what's cool about your platform because you have written word, you have a couple conferences a year. Some of those conferences are engaging audience-type conferences, and so it's hitting all the different learning styles. Particularly your one in St.
Louis, which I'm, I'm assuming [00:27:00] is very interactive
[00:27:01] Rick: So it, it's just important, again, coming back to the word, uh, diversity, it's- people have- there are different and diverse ways of learning, and recognizing that is important to help engage the audience.
[00:27:19] Francine: So all this has been work. What do you do for fun?
[00:27:22] Rick: Do you have
[00:27:23] Francine: fun, Rick?
[00:27:24] Rick: I mean, I really do like what I do. Yeah. I sincerely like what I do. Me too. I love the, this part of the conference development is really a lot of fun because it's creative, it's working with people, and it's developing and getting something tangible. You know, when we're not talking about food safety, several things are important in my life: family, eating.
My wife's a phenomenal cook. I can cook, but she just blows me away, so she's the cook. I just, I'm blessed with [00:28:00] some great food every day. We do some fishing every once in a while, and more recently I started, I picked up my bass guitar that I started playing and taught myself how to play when I was in high school.
And that's been a lot of fun, to the point where we've been playing out with a, a couple of guys, had a couple of gigs, and that's been fun. That's been an interesting learning experience. It's getting recorded with someone's iPhone or phone and then seeing yourself on video playing, and then, you know, and everyone...
And I'm, like, doing, you know, the critique of me, like, as if I was giving a, you know, a presentation or something. I'm like, "All right, well, you know, ba, ba, ba, ba." And so I analyze everything that way, but that's been a really interesting experience going well beyond just picking up an instrument and playing.
Um, the aspect of playing in front of people, in a way, is very much, this sounds weird, [00:29:00] very much putting on an event. So we think of the audience, we think of the volume. How loud can we be? We're in a blues-rock band, so it's pretty loud. But if you're playing in a small venue, you gotta turn it down type of thing.
So you're playing to the audience and at the same time having fun. So it, it's, it's been a really interesting experience, one that I've been personally growing on. I think it just helps me all around, and it's also been a, a great distraction
[00:29:32] Francine: What kind of fishing?
[00:29:33] Rick: Surf casting here in the ocean. We're on the East Coast, and then I've also really enjoy fly fishing.
Uh, my sons are on the Pacific Northwest, and we've done some fishing in Oregon, Montana. So that's a lot of fun, too. It's very different than surf casting, catching bluefish or striped bass. But, uh, that's the weekends or early, early morning.
[00:29:58] Francine: Right. [00:30:00] Uh, I love to go deep sea fishing
[00:30:02] Rick: Yeah, me too. I do too.
[00:30:03] Francine: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Rick: I've done that in Cabo, and we did really well there. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. It was also great to have a, uh, guide who knew what he's doing.
[00:30:12] Matt: Yeah. Growing up on the ocean, that was what we did
[00:30:15] Francine: was fish- Easier that way ...
[00:30:16] Matt: yeah. We would fish off the shore, fish off of the pier, et cetera, et cetera. But now that I'm in Colorado, fishing changed a lot.
There's no ocean.
[00:30:25] Rick: Yeah, but there's very good streams there. Is, it's still a lot of fun. Maybe not the big weight of a 20 pound, you know, striper, but a nice 12-inch trout is still a lot of fun.
[00:30:37] Matt: Yeah. I- fly fishing is not for me. Fishing for me is supposed to be relaxing, and it's really hard when you keep cussing because your fly ends up in a tree, or anywhere else where it's not supposed to be.
I'll take the bobber and the hook and throw it in there, and my son will fly fish.
[00:30:56] Rick: Well, you sound like me when, when I've tried to play golf, and I'm like, [00:31:00] "I'm gonna get really angry and frustrated. This is not what it's supposed to be."
[00:31:03] Matt: Oh, yeah. So that's different because I'm a terrible golfer and I don't care.
If I have four hours to walk a golf course, I'm perfectly relaxed. And so I had friends here locally in Colorado, but it's different than the Central Coast. Central Coast you could golf all year long. And there were a lot of friends that were scratch golfers, and they would bring me golfing with them because I don't bet because it's, it doesn't make sense.
My handicap is 200, right? Like... So I just play best ball, and it's always their ball, and so I'm just chucking my ball out as, as the course. And so th- they bring me to have fun because I'm like, "Dude, why are you stressed out, man? We're just walking around. It's a beautiful day. It's chill."
[00:31:42] Rick: Well, there
[00:31:42] Matt: you go.
And just make jokes and spook the
guards
[00:31:44] Rick: and- So you'll get the right attitude.
[00:31:46] Matt: Okay. Well, we have more conversations, 'cause we're gonna be having... We have a few conversations before Food Safety Consortium. So we'll end on this note, unless you have anything else to say, and-
[00:31:58] Rick: It's been
[00:31:58] Matt: fun ... and then come back [00:32:00] and talk even more depth about what's coming up at Food Safety Conference.
[00:32:04] Rick: Sounds great.
[00:32:05] Francine: Wait, no. Couple things we wanna say here.
[00:32:08] Rick: Oh, yeah,
[00:32:08] Francine: that's right. Before we leave, hello. Discounts, people. Discounts. Sign up for Food Safety Consortium, and you can get a POOP discount.
[00:32:16] Matt: Yes. So you sign up for Food Safety Consortium, and then in the discount you type in POOP, P-O-O-P, for those of you who don't know how to spell it, it's POOP, and you get a discount on Food Safety Consortium.
[00:32:28] Rick: Yeah. I think it's 25% off of the registration fee. So no matter what part of it, we run super early bird, which is really great deal, and then regular early bird, and then the late, which is about three weeks before the conference
[00:32:45] Francine: And I have some sponsorship opportunities and stuff. This is gonna be your shameless plug
[00:32:49] Matt: Oh, yeah, shameless plug for Rick
[00:32:51] Rick: Yay.
Yes, there's plenty of opportunities, and we're introducing some new opportunities this year, and [00:33:00] there's branding opportunity. There's a lot of vendors who always look to have a, a speaking opportunity, and it becomes a, a 45-minute commercial. And we wanna protect the integrity of the program, so we don't run 45-minute commercials.
But we do periodically have throughout the program what are called tech talks. The tech talks are just 15 minutes. Technically, they're 10-minute presentations that can be technical, that can be somewhat commercial with a five-minute Q&A. And I think that's about the threshold that people can handle a introduction to technology that might actually help them, but they really don't wanna sit through 45 minutes.
And those are paid opportunities for technology providers. And some of them been, have done tech talks in the past, like Steve from Eagle Protect. He did this great tech talk for 10 minutes talking [00:34:00] about gloves, you know, latex gloves, and just did a phenomenal job at it. And, like, people were like, "Wow, this is really interesting."
So it's not just like, "Oh, hum, another commercial." They're, they're... We try and curate them as well, but those are sponsorship opportunities.
[00:34:18] Matt: Very good. Well, then again, use the Food Safety Consortium discount, POOP, for 25% off, and in the meantime, don't eat poop