This October, I spent some time at the NACS Food Safety Forum, a day-long gathering that was co-located with the 2023 NACS Show. I watched for the first hour or so, and then headed off to make the most of everything else happening at the Show. I dropped by the Food Safety Forum again towards the end of the event. I was beat. I expected the same from the foodservice professionals in attendance.

That wasn’t the case. No one seemed tired or zoned out. It felt like everyone there would have been happy to keep going late into the evening.

This is impressive. Have you ever sat in the same conference room all day? For me, no amount of coffee can fight off a few yawns. But the food safety and foodservice professionals in attendance were, if anything, even more engaged than they had been at 8:30 a.m.

Doing a great job at food safety literally can save lives.

That’s a tribute to how great the people in this industry are, and how dedicated they are to bettering their organizations on behalf of the customer. It’s also a sign, I think, of how vast food safety and protecting public health is as a topic. After a full day, participants could have kept going for many hours more. There’s so much to cover. And it’s urgent. Doing a great job at food safety literally can save lives.

We cover food safety from a couple of angles in this issue. Be sure to read The Big Question on page 8. Evan Powell, food protection manager-retail at Kwik Trip, gives his thoughts on what food safety means, including that the mission of foodservice leaders is to “sell more food safely.” We also have a feature story on food safety, “Food Safety Is a Shared Responsibility.”

Another highlight: We explore tech trends in this issue with “Fueling the Future.” The evolution of c-store technology is a huge topic. We’ll be returning to it in future issues.

Hope your 2024 is off to a great start. I’m looking forward to a new year full of great content in the pages of NACS Magazine and at convenience.org. Got any story ideas? Feedback? Drop me a note at [email protected].