Upcoming Programs

Innovation & New Technology Short Course, October 14-16, 2025

Innovation is more than a noun…it’s an active verb and this 2.5 day, first of its kind program held at the University of Wisconsin’s Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery (MSABD) building will explore what innovation is and how to leverage it for growing your business. The primary objective of the program is to explore and thoroughly understand innovative thinking and changing mindsets top-down, laterally, or bottom-up for business growth leveraging innovation and technology*. To accomplish this objective, a group of nationally and internationally recognized visionary thought-leaders will work collaboratively with academic experts in the state-of-the-art MSABD to work though innovation and technology concepts using a blend of classroom presentations and in-plant interactive production-focused sessions. A select number of featured cutting-edge technologies, spanning ingredient, equipment, and automation will be demonstrated to support your discovery of new ideas.

The participants will also explore the innovative thinking process through a hands-on interactive innovation exercise starting with a creative session, moving through an innovation & technology integration phase, and concluding with a creative report out (i.e. sales pitch). If you’re a decision maker or involved in important business growth matters (e.g. middle to upper management or C-suite), this program is directly targeted to you.

*program agenda available upon request

REGISTER HERE

Basic HACCP Workshop. November 5-6, 2025

The Basic HACCP Short Course will discuss the principles of HACCP, development of HACCP plans and programs, and implementation including new USDA, FSIS regulations for meat and poultry establishments. This program is consistent with the intent and scope of the USDA, FSIS regulation.

This course is designed for individuals with little or no knowledge of HACCP and those who would like a refresher on HACCP to learn about recent regulatory changes and developments. This course will include topic presentations and working groups for a hands-on opportunity to develop HACCP program components. This course satisfies the training requirement specified in the 1996 Pathogen Reduction/ HACCP regulation.

REGISTER HERE

Thermal Processing Workshop, November 18-20, 2025

This annual workshop takes an in-depth, comprehensive, and interactive approach to understanding all aspects of thermal processing for meat and poultry products. Participants will learn from national and internationally recognized speakers with engineering, food safety principles, and meat processing backgrounds allowing a full spectrum understanding about the science and art of thermal processing.  Participants will build their classroom learning on important thermal processing concepts with small group  demonstration and group activities to facilitate working knowledge on developing, improving, and optimizing thermal processes for processed meat products.

REGISTER HERE

2026 SHORT COURSE DATES

• Animal Harvest & Product Utilization School, January 20-22, 2026

• Meat Snacks Short Course, February 24-26, 2026

• Fresh Meat School, May 12-14, 2026

• Food Safety & Meat Microbiology School, August 11-13, 2026

• Basic Meat Processing Workshop, September 15-17, 2026

• Basic HACCP Workshop, October 7-8, 2026

• Thermal Processing Workshop, November 10-12, 2026

For questions about UW-MSABD Extension, please contact Ky Peters at kpeters26@wisc.edu.