Foreign material contamination remains one of the most persistent challenges in food and beverage manufacturing. Yet many plants are unaware of how they stack up—on everything from frequency to prevention to response programs.

 Join us as we review the results from surveying over 170 FSQA and operations leaders on foreign material challenges. We will walk through the full results of the 2026 Foreign Material Contamination Benchmark Survey, including:

• How often FM events are really happening, and how that compares to what plants report up the chain 
• Where contamination is coming from, such as equipment wear, packaging, ingredients, and the sources leaders flag most 
• The real maturity of detection programs and where the gap is between "in place" and "working well"
• What is driving investment decisions, and the factors FSQA and ops leaders weigh when making the case for new prevention technology
• How to benchmark your own contamination rates and detection maturity against industry peers

Whether you are building a budget case or just want to know where your program stands against the rest of the industry, this session will give you the data to back it up.

Speakers:

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Moderator: Adrienne Blume, Editorial Director, Food Safety Magazine