Project Summary Foodborne illness is a serious public health issue. One in six Americans will experience a foodborne illness a year (CDC, 2013). It’s critical that people understand the importance of safe food handling and hand hygiene practices to reduce their risk of foodborne illness. The Planning & Programmatic Convenings for the 2023 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference (CFSEC) are critical to ensuring the development of a robust conference program that will equip health and food safety professionals with actionable, safe food handling guidance for their community. There will be at least four convenings bringing together food safety experts to provide input on trends in food safety education, speakers, and participate in an abstract review process for the 2023 CFSEC program. This grant will support the convenings of these committees, the development of the abstract submission technology, conference website design, and marketing efforts to raise awareness of abstract submission and the final 2023 CFSEC program. The 2023 CFSEC will take place March 1-3 at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View in Virginia. It’s expected that at least 350 health and food safety professionals nationwide will attend. The 2023 CFSEC aims to reduce the rate of foodborne illness in the United States by empowering health and food safety professionals to be effective at engaging consumers on the topic of safe food handling practices that reduce the risk of illness. This effort aligns with the Food and Drug Administration CFSAN’s function to provide consumer education and charge to protect public health. The Planning & Programmatic Convenings for the 2023 CFSEC aims to: • Engage in collaborative dialogue with health and food safety professionals from all sectors. • Inform and develop take-home strategies in influencing food safety knowledge and behaviors of consumers to be reflected in the 2023 CFSEC programming for attendees to take to their communities. • Establish a program that reflects and aligns with national food safety goals proposed in HealthyPeople 2030 as well as in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety. • Launch a conference program that is a multi-disciplinary in approach, reflects current consumer food handling trends, and addresses the emerging needs of health and food safety educators.