Validation is universally acknowledged as an essential part of an effective HACCP plan, however, uncertainty exists regarding implementation and value to food safety. Our proposed roundtable will address the IAFP program priority areas Safety and Microbial Quality of Foods (Dairy, Meat and Poultry, Seafood, Produce, Water) and General-applied Food Safety Microbiology (advances in sanitation, laboratory methods, quality assurance, food safety systems). This roundtable is proposed as a result of our pre-meeting workshop that was conducted at IAFP 2012 and discussions will focus on the latest changes in guidelines and regulations on validation and verification programs. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), inadequate validation of process control has resulted in HACCP programs that may be ineffective at controlling the hazards they are designed to address. It is clear that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and the FSIS will require all food processors to provide evidence of HACCP plan validation. Proper validation of HACCP controls may be difficult for all food processing operations to implement, however, there is concern that small to medium processors will find the task to be particularly burdensome. Therefore, this roundtable will provide an atmosphere for practical discussion of validation, covering experimental design, implementation and application, including appropriate microbiological testing, analysis and reporting. Convened by the Consortium of Food Process Validation Experts (CFPVE), a group of experienced scientists who support the promotion and application of scientifically sound approaches and protocols for food process validation, this roundtable will provide a platform to facilitate a dialog among researchers, processors, regulatory personnel and technology providers on proper validation implementation. As part of the roundtable, specific discussions will be directed towards small-to medium-sized meat and poultry processors to provide viable food safety options.