Sial 2002 is going to be bigger and better than ever, and provide a crucial update on global food industry trends says Anne Bruce Hundreds of food industry representatives from 186 countries will make their biennial pilgrimage to the northern peripheries of Paris later this month. The attraction? Well, from October 20-24 the trade calendar is marked Sial, France. This time around the show is being staged by some 5,200 exhibitors from 94 countries, including the likes of PepsiCo, Sara Lee Bakery Group and Florette. Not surprisingly, France is the best represented country, fielding 35% of the exhibitors. Italy tops the list of international exhibitors, followed by Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK at number six. And, with 135,000 visitors expected from distribution, commerce, trade, catering, foodservice and food companies about half of them from outside France the figures speak for themselves. Sial 2002 is going to be bigger than ever. The venue of the four-day food trade extravaganza, the 200,000 sq ft Parc des Expositions in Villepinte, will be divided into 17 areas focusing on key elements of the global food market. Product sectors in the centre's seven halls include dairy, meat, confectionery, frozen foods, organics and alcoholic beverages. Halls 1, 2 and 3 are given over to national pavilions and there is a section for trade federations. There will also be a trends and innovations area at the entrance to Hall 6. And, to make doubly sure visitors don't miss a trick, theme trails have been set up to guide them through the halls and help them get a bigger global picture of products and trends at Sial. The theme trails are based around 13 hot topics in the food industry in 2002, including organics, tea, kosher, Halal,and specialist African products. Visitors will be able to pick up trail leaflets pointing out all the exhibitors and positioning products in themed categories. Around a third of those visitors will be retailers, with most of the world's top 20 represented. Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Safeway, Tesco and Aldi were among the global supermarkets which visited Sial last time, in 2000. About half of the visitors are in food manufacture, and about a tenth are in catering. {{FOCUS ON }}