The Food Industry needs a blockbuster show

Starting next year, the Food Processing Suppliers Assn. (FPSA) will co-locate its Process Expo with the Institute of Food Technologists’ IFT Food Expo. That’s not the most natural of pairings, and the arrangement was born a little out of desperation from both associations. But the more I considered it, the more I thought it actually represents just two-thirds of what should be the ideal food industry show.

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Why not roll in the Food Marketing Institute’s former Supermarket Show? The attendees were grocers and the exhibitors were you – Nestle, Tyson, Pepsico, Kraft, etc. I realize there would be two diverse attendee lists, one from the food processing industry and one from the grocery industry. And the food company teams will have to do double-duty, walking the technology shows one hour and performing booth duty the next. But it would be glorious to have the whole food industry – ingredients, process and products – under the same roof. Imagine the cross-functional learning. And it couldn’t hurt to have food &beverage executives rub elbows with retailers.