Do you have questions about retaining the nutritional viability of certain ingredients during processing? Are you struggling to obtain a steady, sufficient supply of a key component of your latest formulation? Have you hit a roadblock in finding the latest novel protein or other new ingredient to expand your line?

You can pose these issues -- or any other ingredient-related question -- to our panel of experts during Petfood Workshop: World of Ingredients, April 17 at the Renaissance Schaumburg near Chicago. The "Ask the Experts" panel will start the last day of the conference, offering a chance for attendees to have their questions addressed and learn from other discussions during the Q-and-A session.

Panel members include:

• Frank Ballard, president of HBH Pet Products
• Brent Burks, director of sales for Trouw Nutrition USA
• Greg Drollinger, VP of sales and business development for 3D Corporate Solutions
• David Dzanis, DMV, PhD, DACVN, CEO of Regulatory Discretion Inc.
• Greg Kean, VP of R&D, WellPet

The panel will follow after an opening day of Petfood Workshop on April 16 featuring keynote speaker Michael Johnson, VP of marketing for Chuck Latham Associates, discussing how different consumer segments respond to petfood labels and marketing. Johnson will share insights from his exclusive research on how key pet consumers shop the petfood category.

Petfood Workshop will also feature breakout sessions, with each offered four times, twice on April 16 and twice on April 17, so all attendees can participate in each breakout. These are hands-on, interactive sessions diving into ingredient-related topics such as:

• Creating nutritional standards for ingredients with high variability -- by Greg Aldrich, PhD, president of Pet Food & Ingredient Technology
• What consumer perceptions mean for your petfood formulations and ingredient choices -- by Mark Finke, PhD, president of Mark Finke LLC (and formerly with PetSmart)
• Sourcing affordable, available ingredients-- by Justin Stadden, senior business unit manager for the Scoular Co.
• Assuring safety in petfood ingredients -- by Stephen Sundlof, DVM, PhD, senior advisor for animal and human food safety with EAS Consulting Group (and formerly with the Food and Drug Administration)