1st Annual Food Safety Tech Excellence Award - To recognize food and beverage companies that have implemented innovative technical solutions




  • Mission: To recognize food and beverage companies that have implemented innovative technical solutions—such as AI-driven monitoring, traceability, or automated sanitation—to measurably improve food safety standards.
  • Eligibility: Open to food and beverage producers, manufacturers, retailers, and foodservice companies.
  • Submission Deadline: September 23, 2026
  • Winner Notification: October 2, 2026
  • Award Ceremony: Thursday, October 22, 2026 at the Food Safety Consortium Conference, Arlington VA. Winner must be present

Judging & Evaluation Criteria: Judges are the Food Safety Tech Advisory Board. 


Nominees are scored on a 1–10 scale based on the following:

  1. Innovation (25%): Is the technology new to the industry or a highly creative application of existing tools?
  2. Scalability (10%): Can this solution be adopted by other organizations or across different levels of the supply chain?
  3. Measurable Improvement (40%): Does the data show a clear reduction in risks (biological, chemical, or physical)?
  4. Sustainability (25%): Will the impact continue beyond the initial implementation period?
I. Nominee Details, Key Contact
First Name
Last Name
Job Title
Email
Are you employed by the company you are nominating?
[ cannot exceed 2,000 characters ]

if no, then please tell us your relationship with the company in the "Other" field
Other:
I. Nominee Details, Company
Company Name
Industry Segment(s) list all that apply, i.e. meat, poultry, fresh cut produce, baking, etc.
Company annual revenue
Choose one

$5 billion to $90+ billion

$50 million to $5 billion

$5 million to $50 million

Under $2 million to $5 million
Company Address (either HQ or a specific facility)
FSQA Team
List the team members that were involved with the project. Include their names, job titles and roles
II. Tech Innovation
Proposal Title
Title of Technology/Project: A concise name for the submission
Short Description
(500 words): Explain the technology, how it was applied, and the specific problem it solved.
Motivation for the Technology Investment
Tell us what motivated your company to invest in this project
III. Impact & Metrics
Quantitative Results
Include data such as reduced incident rates, reduced down time, improved inspection scores, improved audit scores or faster recall response times. You will be able to upload documents to support your answer
Qualitative Impact
Describe improvements in "Food Safety Culture" or employee engagement.
IV. Strategic Pillars
Describe how the tech aligns with the 7 Pillars of Food Safety Excellence: Leadership commitment, communication, training, and KPI tracking.
1. Senior leadership commitment and engagement:
Sets the core value and tone from the top of the brand.
2. Food safety communications
Keeps messaging clear, multi-directional, and active across all teams.
3. Positive recognition
Rewards safe behaviors to cement them into company culture
4. Defined standards and procedures
Creates operational consistency across multiple sites.
5. Training
Teaches core safety rules and the real-world impact of unsafe food handling.
6. KPIs/scorecard
Tracks key metrics to maintain visibility over risks and performance
7. Oversight program
Audits and analyzes systems continuously to fix root causes and prevent issues
V. Supporting Evidence
Attachments supporting the Impact and Metrics

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