CHICAGO — Near the close of a record-setting Pack Expo, which took place Nov. 6-8 in Chicago, PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, announced the opening of registration for the inaugural ProFood Tech, to be held April 4-6, 2017, in Chicago.

The show was developed by Pack Expo in conjunction with Anuga and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) in an effort to better serve the North American food and beverage processing market, said Chuck Yuska, PMMI, producer of Pack Expo.

“We think there’s a need in North America to have a show dedicated to food and beverage processing,” said Jim Pittas, senior vice-president, PMMI. “There are some alternatives, including Pack Expo, but we don’t think any of them have been hitting the mark as well as they can be.”

Set to be North America’s most comprehensive food and beverage show, ProFood Tech is expected to draw 6,000 attendees to 150,000 square feet with 400 exhibitors that represent processing technologies across the food and beverage industries.

“There’s a lot of momentum around this,” Mr. Pittas said.

ProFood Tech will focus on all food and beverage sectors, including baking and snack, beverage, frozen and prepared foods, dairy, meat, poultry and seafood.

Additionally, IDFA is currently developing a dynamic conference schedule that will include the new Innovation Stage and educational experiences that cover fresh ideas and strategies in regulatory and food safety, as well as the latest consumer trends and best practices in leadership and business development. To design the program, IDFA reached out to various trade associations, publications, members and business partners to identify the most important key issues facing food and beverage processing today.

“We tried to get as much input as possible to put together this conference program,” said Neil Moran, senior vice-president, IDFA.

ProFood Tech’s recently launched a new web site, www.profoodtech.com, where visitors may register to attend, get more information on exhibiting and stay up-to-date on the latest show developments.