Tag Archives: Focus Article

Listeria
From the Editor’s Desk

Detection, Mitigation and Control of Listeria and Salmonella: What We Know and Where We’re Heading

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Listeria

The detection and mitigation of foodborne illness-causing pathogens continue to be a challenge for all aspects of the food industry from farm to fork. Join Food Safety Tech and the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention at the Fawcett Center at The Ohio State University on April 3-5 in Columbus, Ohio, for three days of food safety hazards education.

The Food Safety Tech’s Hazards Conference + CFI Think Tank brings together leading minds in industry and academia for two days of practical education on the detection, mitigation, control and regulation of key food hazards, followed by discussion geared toward identifying gaps for research and innovation. The program includes:

The USDA’s Proposed Approach to Salmonella Control in Poultry Products

Sandra Eskin

Sandra Eskin, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA

Sandra Eskin leads the Office of Food Safety at the USDA, overseeing the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which has regulatory oversight for ensuring that meat, poultry and egg products are safe, wholesome and accurately labeled. Prior to joining USDA, Eskin was the Project Director for Food Safety at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C. She also served as the Deputy Director of the Produce Safety Project (PSP), a Pew-funded initiative at Georgetown University from 2008-2009.

Salmonella: What We’ve Learned and Remaining Gaps in Detection and Mitigation

Barbara Masters

Barbara Masters, Vice President, Regulatory Policy, Food & Agriculture, Tyson Foods

Dr. Masters is the Vice President of Regulatory Policy, Food and Agriculture at Tyson Foods, Inc., where she provides regulatory vision and support for food safety and quality policies and procedures. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Partnership for Food Safety Education and the Steering Committee for the Global Food Safety Initiative. Dr. Masters spent nine years as a Senior Policy Advisor at Olsson Frank Weeda, where she worked closely to advise with the meat and poultry industry to ensure regulatory compliance, and served as Administrator of the USDA FSIS.

The Legal and Financial Risks of Food Safety Hazards

Bill Marler

Bill Marler, Food Safety Attorney, Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm

An accomplished attorney and national expert in food safety, William (Bill) Marler has become the most prominent foodborne illness lawyer in America and a major force in food policy in the U.S. and around the world. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused life altering injury and even death.

Shawn Stevens, attorney with the Food Industry Counsel, LLC

Shawn Stevens

Stevens is a nationally recognized food attorney and founding member of the Food Industry Counsel who has dedicated his firm to “Going All-In for Food and All-Out for Those Who Produce It.” He works closely throughout the U.S. and abroad with food industry clients (including the world’s largest growers, processors, restaurant chains, distributors and grocers) helping them protect their brand by complying with FDA and USDA food safety regulations, reducing food safety risk, managing recalls, and defending high-profile food safety cases.

 

Mitigating the Risks of Salmonella and Listeria in Your Facility & Products

Sanjay Gummalla

Sanjay Gummalla, Vice President, Regulatory & Technical Affairs, American Frozen Food Institute

Gummalla has broad industry experience in food science, food safety, and nutrition. He is in the forefront of coordinating Listeria monocytogenes prevention and control programs and policy efforts on behalf of the frozen food industry. Prior to joining the American Frozen Food Institute, Gummalla served as VP of product development at Zentis NA. He currently serves on key committees representing the industry, including advisor on the U.S. Agricultural Trade Advisory Committee for Processed Foods, a committee member on IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, President of the Capital Area Food Protection Association, and chair of the International Food Science Certification Commission.

Rashmi Rani, Senior Manager of Food Safety and Quality Assurance, Schwan’s Home Delivery

Rashmi Rani

Rani has more than 18 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. In her current role she manages food safety programs, QMS, SQF of Florence facility, USDA and FDA compliance, and training. She works with cross functional teams on continuous improvement projects including reduction of nonconformance product cost and rework cost reduction. Prior to joining Schwan’s, Rani worked with AB-Inbev, BakeCo, McCormick Inc. and Wornick food (Baxter’s North America).

 

Registration is now open

Application of Ozone for Decontamination of Fresh Produce

Al Baroudi

Al Baroudi, Ph.D., Vice President of Quality Assurance & Food Safety, The Cheesecake Factory

In addition to his current role, Dr. Baroudi has conducted workshops, published White Papers and introduced the HACCP program to developing countries on behalf of the U.S. government. He is the recipient of Borden’s “President Award”, the Sani “Food Safety Champion Award”, and the “Outstanding Food Safety Program Innovation Award,” and the Southern California IFT “Distinguished Achievement Award.” In 2022, NR News named, Dr. Baroudi as one of the top 50 most influential restaurant executives in the country, and The NRA presented him their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for “Outstanding Leader in Food Safety.” He was instrumental in passing the Food Facilities Sanitization Bill “AB 1427” in the California State Assembly that cleared the way for the ozone to be approved in California Cal Code (2012).

Ahmed Yousef, Ph.D., Department of Food Science & Technology, Ohio State University

Ahmed Yousef

Dr. Yousef earned his Ph.D. in Food Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Ohio State as an Assistant Professor in 1991. Since the late 1990s, Dr. Yousef and his research team have worked to develop methods to pasteurize shell eggs and to decontaminate fresh produce while maintaining products’ fresh qualities. His ozone research led to developing methods to decontaminate spinach, apples, and other fresh produce. As a result of this research, Dr. Yousef established the largest ozone research laboratory in the U.S. at Ohio State.

Biofilm Prevention and Control Practices

Charles Giambrone

Charles Giambrone, Food Safety Manager, Rochester Midland

Giambrone received his M.S. degree in Microbiology from Rutgers University in 1978, where his research focus was applied and environmental microbiology. In his current and previous roles as VP & Sr. Technical Support Manager for Rochester Midland Corp, he provides applied research and technical support in the whole area of food safety and sanitation including processing and preparation, membrane cleaning, and water treatment systems plus supervision of R & D projects. Giambrone has a broad and in-depth expertise in the areas of hygiene, disinfection, and biocides. This includes working with systems to remove or prevent biofilm formation in food processing and water system lines as well as other applications.

View the full agenda and register here.

Steve Min
Women in Food Safety

Carve Your Own Path

By Laura Gutierrez Becerra
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Steve Min

The Women in Food Safety Group had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Min, Executive Vice President of R&D and Quality Assurance at International Dairy Queen (IDQ) about his career path as well as opportunities and advice for young female professionals who are interested in pursuing and/or expanding their careers in food safety.

Min, a secondgeneration Korean American, holds a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Ohio State University. His career has spanned food safety, R&D and quality management across multiple areas of the food supply chain. At IDQ, Min is responsible for ensuring global regulatory compliance, product development, and food safety and quality in more than 20 countries.

His personal journey in the food industry began at the age of 14 working in food concessions, food service and food catering. However, food science has run through his veins since birth as he is the son of a well-recognized food science professor. Min launched his professional career at Borden Foods and Mattson. He progressed to a management position at Battelle, where he focused on probabilistic and quantitative risk management, then a leadership position at Wendy’s before joining IDQ. 

Do you have any advice to those who are pursuing a career in R&D or FSQA?

Min: Try both. These two areas are tied to one another. Quality and safety are built in the development and specification process and further developed through the commercialization process. Understanding—and learning about—mitigation of food safety risk at the manufacturing and food service/end user level is imperative. I believe exploring both areas at early career stages is very valuable to help become well rounded and define a career path.

What motivated you to focus your career on food safety? 

Min: The combination of detailed thinking (risk analysis) and vision (risk mitigation) as well as the opportunity to solve problems piqued my interest. I enjoyed the analytical work during my college years. During grad. school, I focused my work on nonthermal technologies, such as Pulsed Electric Field processing, to inactivate organisms causing foodborne illnesses.

My engineering background helped me better understand the manufacturing process, while applying risk-based and science-based approaches to product design, quality and food safety.

Take part in three days of food safety education and networking at the Food Safety Tech Hazards Conference + CFI Think Tank, April 3-5 in Columbus, Ohio.

From the business perspective, understanding the importance of food safety to ensure companies are not negatively impacted is imperative. It also is important to recognize that safety is a continuous process that requires coordination with other teams to achieve customer satisfaction.

What do you like most about your job?

Min: Professionally, it allows me to interact and build relationships with people and share a risk-based culture. I take professional pride in knowing that our customers are getting safe food. Personally, I enjoy learning, which always is achieved by tackling issues and solving problems. The technical aspect of my career is fun, but that is only one aspect of the business. Success only is achievable through collaboration.

What are some of the obstacles or challenges you face as a food safety professional? 

Min: Throughout my career, I have faced challenges and I enjoy being challenged. It’s an opportunity to learn from other departments or pillars of the food industry, understand the challenges they are experiencing and define the work needed to solve a problem. This helps me stick to my beliefs and responsibilities during challenging times. Building relationships and your own credibility is extremely helpful, and this requires one to learn how to respectively disagree with and learn from people while effectively communicating the importance of food safety.

What have you learned by working with women during your career journey? 

Min: I have worked with outstanding female employees and leaders. Inclusion is something natural and important to me as I saw what my father, a Korean immigrant, experienced during his life.
Fundamentally, everyone brings strengths to work and I continue to learn about others’ strengths and how to best empower teammates to reach their potential. I’m putting more focus on understanding the background and the experience of a colleague or a new potential employee. I am learning to focus on understanding where and how the employee wants to grow and I try to help them break barriers or guide them on next steps to fulfill their career aspirations. To do this, I focus on the feedback I receive as a manager and try to be a better partner, as part of my own continuous development. I’m on an ongoing learning journey to leverage situational leadership and empathy in a way that allows all teammates to grow, find satisfaction and help IDQ achieve its mission and vision.

What is the best advice you received as a young professional? 

Min: There are three keys I learned from previous managers and mentors that guided me through a lot of challenges. I remain grateful to those who have helped me learn. They are:

  1. Build relationships in a time of calm and leverage them in a time of crisis.
  2. Seek and gather facts from different perspectives and assess them prior to making a final decision. There are often many sides of the story and details can be important but sometimes overlooked.
  3. “Stay on the side of the angels.” It’s all about doing what’s right. Doing what we think is right will protect people and the business.

I believe considering these three things is fundamental, especially when you work in a fast-paced environment.

If you could turn the clock back to the start of your career, what would you say to your younger self? 

Steve Min: Put more focus on networking and relationship building. Continue to help others, which ultimately helps all of us. Put your fears aside and take some risks. Learn more about business. Exercise more and spend more time with family.

What advice would you offer to young women, students and early-career professionals seeking to become leaders in food safety?  

Min: Starting a career path is an important decision. Research the entire scope of options that are available and talk to people that are in these roles, both new and tenured employees. I’ve never come across someone in our industry that hasn’t been willing to share their experiences with another, so just reach out. From there, consider what motivates you.

When you are starting out, you may need to switch jobs. This can be challenging but it may help you learn, find passion and carve your path. If you can explore both R&D and food safety/QA earlier in your career, it may help you become a well-rounded food professional and enable you to think about food safety more holistically.

Soft skills are especially important for career advancement, so learn to develop them as early as possible, specifically collaboration, business acumen, communication, and cross-functional leadership. Try always to put yourself in other people’s shoes to develop these soft skills. Ask for help, be bold, and don’t shy away from a challenge.

What do you hope to see in the next three to five years in terms of development and mentoring of women in the industry? 

Min: Right now, women are a tremendous part of the industry, and we have some wonderful women leaders. When I conduct interviews, I see a pipeline of capable and intelligent women who have strong career aspirations. I strive for continued growth of younger generations within the company and industry and help develop them to fit key roles in the future.

What advice do you have for those working towards a position in the executive team? 

Min: Develop your soft skills and find opportunities to display the quality of your work, your capabilities, and your leadership skills. Set your own vision and goals and look for strategic projects that can help you achieve those goals. Be bold, put yourself out there, and demonstrate your abilities. This requires stretching your comfort zone, raising your hand and seeking stretch opportunities. It is often important to take initiative to get promoted. The key piece of this is strategic thinking and having a vision. When you have a goal, you can assess the situation, and then work backwards and cross-functionally to complete projects and achieve priorities.

As a senior leader for a global team, do you have any suggestions on increasing diversity in the food industry?   

Min: Work with HR to continue to widen recruiting circles. Be deliberate in learning and having conversations about diversity and inclusion. If travel is part of your job, it is a great opportunity to learn from people who have varying cultures and backgrounds. It’s important to build more diverse relationships and help others make connections. Inclusion is so important and learning and practicing day-to-day inclusivity will drive positive change. Invest in relationships, teach others and keep learning. Consider leaning into or leading opportunities that come your way in this space.

Food Safety Consortium 2023
From the Editor’s Desk

Save the Date: Food Safety Consortium 2023 October 16-18

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Food Safety Consortium 2023

The Food Safety Consortium, now in its 11th year, will take place October 16-18, 2023, at the Hilton in Parsippany, New Jersey. Presented by Food Safety Tech, the Consortium is a business-to-business conference that brings together food safety and quality assurance professionals for education, networking and discussion geared toward solving the key challenges facing the food safety industry today.

In addition to the two full days of high-level panel discussions, this year’s program will include a second Food Safety Hazards track. These “Boots on the Ground” sessions build on the success of Food Safety Tech’s virtual Food Safety Hazards program by providing two days of education on the detection, mitigation, control and regulation of key pathogen, pest, chemical and physical food hazards.

Call for Abstracts Now Open

Also new this year is a strategic co-location with the Cannabis Quality Conference (CQC). Presented by Cannabis Industry Journal, CQC is a business-to-business conference and expo where cannabis industry leaders and stakeholders meet to build the future of the cannabis marketplace. Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in pre-conference workshops designed to address safety and compliance in cannabis edibles on October 16.

“We are bringing two great conferences together under one roof,” says Rick Biros, president of Innovative Publishing and director of the Food Safety Consortium. “The Food Safety Consortium will continue its strategic meeting of the minds format, but we are complementing that with the practical, boots-on-the-ground Food Safety Hazards track. Co-location with the CQC allows attendees to take advantage of additional education on product testing and quality assurance in the burgeoning cannabis market, as well as preconference workshops delving into infused product safety and compliance that will appeal to both food safety and cannabis professionals.”

All of these events will take place October 16-18, 2023, at the Hilton in Parsippany, New Jersey.

If you would like to present at the Food Safety Consortium, please submit abstracts here.

For sponsorship and exhibit inquiries, contact RJ Palermo, Director of Sales. Stay tuned for registration and early bird specials.

About The Food Safety Consortium
Organized by Food Safety Tech, the Food Safety Consortium Conference has been providing education and networking for Food Protection professionals since 2012. The conference focuses on food safety, food integrity and food defense as the foundation of the educational content of the program. With a unique focus on science, technology, best practices and compliance, the Consortium features critical thinking topics that have been developed for both industry veterans and knowledgeable newcomers.

About Food Safety Tech

Food Safety Tech is a digital media community for food industry professionals interested in food safety and quality. We inform, educate and connect food manufacturers and processors, retail & food service, food laboratories, growers, suppliers and vendors, and regulatory agencies with original, in-depth features and reports, curated industry news and user-contributed content, and live and virtual events that offer knowledge, perspectives, strategies and resources to facilitate an environment that fosters safer food for consumers.

Paul Damaren and Francine Shaw

The Return to Hospitality: How To Enhance Employee Onboarding

By Francine L. Shaw, Paul Damaren
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Paul Damaren and Francine Shaw

After restaurants nationwide experienced several years of a stressful, disruptive labor shortage, the leisure and hospitality industry has recently added 128,000 jobs, leading all sectors.

Hiring new employees is exciting, especially after years of being seriously understaffed. As you welcome new employees to your team, do not underestimate the importance of onboarding, as 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they were onboarded properly. Additionally, organizations with an official onboarding process experience 50% greater new-hire productivity.

When new hires are trained properly, they feel more confident in their roles and the companies they work for can maximize safety, quality, and compliance. To accomplish this, restaurants and other food businesses should:

Adopt Integrated Digital Solutions

Tech solutions can improve all aspects of your operations, making everything from budgeting to scheduling, forecasting, purchasing, and inspecting more efficient, accurate, and streamlined. Tech tools offer many significant benefits, helping your brand save time and money, reduce waste, and optimize operations.

What’s more, an integrated tech stack can help you get a holistic view of your entire enterprise, whether you have one location or dozens. Easy-to-understand reports provide critical information, allowing operators to make more informed, data-driven decisions.

Digital tools do require an investment, but they offer a tremendous ROI. These solutions help improve safety, efficiency, transparency, accuracy, and consistency. These positive changes boost key performance indicators, including increased sales, profits, customer loyalty, and employee retention.

Prioritize Safety, Quality, and Compliance

Each year, 48 million (1 in 6) Americans get sick from contaminated food or beverages. Don’t let food safety breaches happen at your business!

Prioritize a food safety culture, where all employees work together to maximize safety and minimize risks. Put food safety protocols in place and be certain that all employees are following them. Provide the proper tools for employees to ensure food safety, such as Bluetooth sensors that can tell when walk-in temperatures rise above safe temperatures, and state-of-the-art food thermometers that ensure foods are cooked to proper temps.

It’s not enough just to follow proper food safety protocols yourself, you must be sure that all your suppliers adhere to the strictest food safety standards, as well. If you are following all the right protocols, but a supplier delivers compromised products, your customers (and your business) are at risk.

Food safety and quality assurance must be followed from each product’s point of origin until it’s prepared and served to the consumer. Audit all suppliers regularly and be sure that they have proper, up-to-date safety certifications. When you have multiple suppliers—as most food businesses do—it can be overwhelming to track and organize these important safety certifications manually. Tech tools make this ongoing process easier and more accurate.

Modernize Training Efforts

Some food brands, particularly smaller companies, think that they don’t need a formal training or onboarding process, or they rely on antiquated training programs that have been in place for many years. Swap out your outdated (and/or informal) training programs in favor of something more modern, relevant, and tech driven.

Add more interactive tech elements to your training program, such as microlearning platforms and gamification, to make the information more engaging and memorable. Supplement online training efforts with a live trainer, who can spotlight best practices, answer questions, and role play with your employees to make the lessons stick.

Don’t just tell employees what to do but explain why the rules are so important. Employees are more likely to comply when they understand why the rules are in place.

Keep in mind that training never officially ends. Provide ongoing training opportunities so employees on all shifts can keep important information top-of-mind. Digital tools not only provide key information during initial onboarding, but are essential for reinforcing lessons, delivering updates, and sending reminders throughout each employee’s tenure.

Work to Retain Employees

Did you know that the average restaurant employee changes jobs every 56 days, and that losing a front-line employee costs a restaurant an average of $5,864?

Digital solutions can help you retain employees, as these technologies make their jobs much easier. Tech tools can streamline tedious administrative tasks, such as inspections and inventory, so your employees can spend more time doing the things they enjoy, such as cooking delicious meals and interacting with guests.

Offer competitive pay, appealing benefits, growth opportunities, mentorship, and a supportive culture. And don’t discount the “seemingly small” gestures that can be a big deal to your team. Thank your employees often and sincerely. Praise them in staff meetings for going above and beyond. Write thank you notes. Give bonuses and small gifts. Promote from within.

Get Inspired by Innovative Brands

It may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but White Castle has a robot working its fryer. Dominos has delivered its first pizza by drone. KFC is using facial recognition technology that recognizes repeat visitors and tailors their experiences based on their past orders and meal preferences. And Panera Bread uses geofencing to track each customer’s location so employees can promptly bring their order to their vehicle.

Your organization may not yet be able to afford robotics in your kitchen or drone deliveries, and that’s OK. But, as tech solutions become more affordable, accessible, and user-friendly for food businesses of all sizes and budgets, it’s clear that technology is improving many aspects of our industry. Digital solutions are no longer “nice to have” luxury items. They’re necessities for brands that prioritize consistently excellent and safe experiences.

By investigating and integrating new technologies, you can provide better service, safer food, and a more convenient dining experience. All of which will help you better meet (and exceed) customer expectations.

Olivia Pitts

How to Successfully Implement an Integrated Management System

By Olivia Pitts
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Olivia Pitts

Implementing an integrated management system that encompasses food safety and quality standards is a complex process that requires careful planning, team buy-in and good communication. If an organization fails to plan properly, these large-scale projects can fall by the wayside.

The planning process will help to identify risks and potential roadblocks. Keep expectations realistic by considering the stakeholders’ needs and expectations. Reach out to those impacted for feedback before the project launches. The information gathered can be helpful in identifying stakeholders’ concerns, unforeseen issues, and resource constraints that may impact the project.

It’s also important to understand the certification process when working through the planning phase, as processes may vary slightly between certification bodies. Factors such as the need for single site vs. multi-site certification, number of standards included, the organization size, geographic location, and auditor availability can all impact the timeline. Meeting with your certification body to walk through these details will aid in setting a realistic project timeline.

Develop a Communication Plan

Communicating project details is critical to project success. This can be done in a variety of ways; often the development of a communication plan will help to set things into motion. These plans describe the who, what, when, and how of the project. Larger companies may need a more in-depth plan while smaller companies can take a more informal approach.

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Work with your management team to develop messaging for the larger organization around the project that fits into the overall strategic vision of the organization. The message should communicate the plan for fulfilling the goals and objectives of the project as well as the strategic connection to the overall vision or mission of the company. Remember, there is no one size fits all for communication plans. Feel free to get creative and do what works best for your organization.

Once the plan has been outlined, engage top management to build a strong foundation for success. Get their buy in on the timeline and agenda. Look to them to provide overall support of the project and act as advocates for implementing the change. Seek out their advice when issues arise or when delays are encountered. They are often the key to helping move the project forward.

Planning an official project kickoff as well as milestone events is a great way to give the project momentum. Encourage top management to attend the kickoff, and keep everyone engaged by providing frequent status updates. Highlight success stories and small wins throughout the life of the project.

Encourage implementation team members to communicate regularly with their internal groups. Utilizing communication boards and site wide meetings to keep everyone apprised of progress is helpful. Implementation projects often take several months, so it’s wise to continuously share information to keep motivation up.

Intentionally Select Team Members

Identifying the right people for the implementation team is a critical step in the project development process. Integrated systems often require collaboration between a variety of groups. When building your implementation team consider current activities and identify processes that are within the scope of the standards being implemented. The individuals who manage these processes are the ideal candidates for the implementation team. Pulling from a pool of subject matter experts will help to streamline the process, as the team will be able to spend their time aligning current business practices rather than mastering the subject. Utilize your team’s expertise and influence to drive change. An understanding of the standards requirements will help identify the specific expertise needed.

Review the standards within the scope of the project and identify differences and commonalities. This should be relatively simple due to fact that ISO standards are all based upon a High-Level Structure (HLS) format, which harmonizes the standard format and requirements. The standard creators adopted this approach with the understanding that many organizations intend to integrate management systems. Similarities often lie within management system activities such as context, leadership, document control, management review, internal audit, and corrective action.

Team meeting
Your team should include subject matter experts related to the standards requirements.

In each of the standards there are sections that will be unique depending on the specific focus. For example, ISO 9001 has extensive requirements around customer focus and operations, while ISO 22000 is tailored towards food safety with specific requirements around HACCP and PRPs. Identify who within the organization has the skillsets needed for the project and create an outline for the roles and responsibilities of each team member.

When establishing roles and responsibilities seek input from the team members and take into consideration their workloads outside of the project. Implementation projects require an extensive amount of time, so you want to ensure you don’t overload them.

Consider allowing team members to establish their own deadlines to provide them with a sense of ownership of their identified areas. Use small, focused teams to help break the project down into segments to make it easier to manage. Team members will be able to focus on their individual tasks and not be overwhelmed with the overall scope. If workload is a concern, consider splitting responsibilities between team members or reaching out to those in your organization who maybe underutilized.

Building the project around current processes and process owners will save time and reduce the need to sell the idea of implementing an integrated system. Many times, organizations are unknowingly meeting partial requirements and only minor modifications will be needed to close the gap. By utilizing internal subject matter experts, gaps can be identified and corrective actions established with minimal effort.

Utilize Auditing Throughout Implementation

Gap assessments and internal audits are an excellent way to ensure the implementation efforts are going as intended. Conducting a gap assessment of the management system provides an overview of the full system and highlights where gaps may lie. This is a great tool to use for project planning and timeline development. The quantity and complexity of the gaps will help guide the team to the areas that need heightened focus.

Develop a team action log to track status of specific actions and identify responsible parties. Keep it simple with clearly identified project milestones. Consider incorporating these milestones into communication plans for awareness across the organization.

Once the team has begun to close the gaps identified, the next step is to verify that the changes are effective. Internal audits can be used to confirm that changes are being rolled out as intended.

Establish an audit program early in the implementation process to help clarify the requirements across the organization. The format of the audit schedule will be unique to each company. Consider aligning with the current processes or departments for a streamlined approach.

As integration activities are rolled out, conduct focused audits a few weeks after launch to verify proper adoption. Work with the team to build a checklist tailored to the process or department being audited. This customized approach will provide a detailed look at current activities.

Take time to accurately document the requirements and any nonconformities. Document the findings in a formal report and set aside time to discuss the results with the auditee. Be sure to include any positive findings that are encountered. Lastly, come to an agreement on the timeline for corrective actions and set a date for any follow-up audits.

When working through corrective actions be sure to work with your stakeholders to help them understand the ISO requirements and how the organization can adapt to meet them. Encourage them to ask for operator input on corrections. Their firsthand knowledge of day-to-day operations provides great insight on current processes.

Utilize team huddles or site wide meetings to spread awareness of the audit results and status of the implementation project. Be sure to allow time for questions and provide follow up as needed. With proper planning, leadership buy-in and consistent communication throughout the process, implementing an integrated management system can become a more manageable and positive process for the entire team.

 

 

 

 

OSU_CFI Logo
Food Safety Think Tank

Food Safety Tech Hazards + CFI Think Tank Coming to Ohio April 3-5

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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OSU_CFI Logo

The Food Safety Tech’s Hazards Conference Series + CFI Think Tank, “Industry & Academia Advancing Food Safety Practices, Technology and Research,” will take place April 3-5, 2023, at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

The program brings together leading minds in industry, academia, standards and regulation to provide in-depth education and discussion on the most significant pathogenic and chemical risks facing the food industry today.

Building on the popularity of the Food Safety Tech Hazards virtual series, the in-person event will offer practical guidance and cutting-edge research on the detection, mitigation, control and regulation of the most significant foodborne illness risks.

The CFI Food Safety Think Tank on April 5 will bring food safety experts together to take a deeper look at the hazards discussed during the first two days of the conference. Participants will brainstorm in small groups to develop a roadmap on research, innovation, policy, and prevention measures that need to be taken to make our food supply safer in the future.

“Food safety hazards continue to be a challenge for all aspects of the food industry from farm to fork.” said Rick Biros, publisher of Food Safety Tech and director of the Food Safety Consortium conference and Food Safety Tech Hazards series. “The detection, mitigation and control of food safety hazards issues must be discussed among peers and best practices must be shared, something you can’t do virtually. The human connection is so important for conference attendees. Whether it’s a random connection over lunch, a one-on-one question with a speaker after a presentation or a seat next to a new friend in a learning session—connecting with others is what makes events so valuable. We are excited to bring this program, designed to help facilitate this much needed critical thinking and sharing of best practices, to OSU.”

Learn more and register here.

For sponsorship and exhibit inquiries, contact RJ Palermo, Director of Sales.

About Food Safety Tech

Food Safety Tech is a digital media community for food industry professionals interested in food safety and quality. We inform, educate and connect food manufacturers and processors, retail & food service, food laboratories, growers, suppliers and vendors, and regulatory agencies with original, in-depth features and reports, curated industry news and user-contributed content, and live and virtual events that offer knowledge, perspectives, strategies and resources to facilitate an environment that fosters safer food for consumers.

About Food Safety Tech Hazards

Launched in 2020, the Food Safety Tech Hazards series brings together industry leaders, researchers and regulators to provide in-depth education and discussion on the detection, mitigation, control and regulations of the most significant pathogenic and chemical risks facing the food industry today.

Wendy White

Understanding the True Purpose of Environmental Monitoring Programs

By Wendy Wade White
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Wendy White

 Salmonella and Listeria are among the most prevalent foodborne pathogens, causing untold illnesses and a significant number of recalls each year. Experts have determined that the source of this contamination often comes from the manufacturing facility. Five years ago, the FDA published, Draft Guidance for Industry: Control of Listeria Monocytogenes in Ready-To-Eat Foods (we’ve also been promised a similar guidance document for Salmonella). The Food Safety Modernization Act’s Preventive Controls for Human Foods also contains provisions for evaluation of environmental pathogens in a ready-to-eat hazard analysis.

Employee in cheese plant
A product’s risk level varies based on the amount of pre-packaging exposure to the environment and direct handling by employees.

The challenge with these pathogens is that they are often found in the surrounding environment, and once they enter a facility and become entrenched, these residential pathogens can cause sporadic contamination that is very hard to pinpoint. The best way to prevent this type of contamination is to design and implement a robust Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP), and many manufacturers have added these surveillance programs to their food safety systems.

Unfortunately, many do not understand that the true purpose of EMPs is to seek and destroy residential microorganisms of concern that are living inside facilities before they have a chance to proliferate and contaminate products. This key control involves swabbing surfaces around the facility in the hopes of finding any of these residential pathogens or spoilage organisms. Having a robust, written EMP that includes clear action levels for unsatisfactory results and corresponding corrective actions will help manage pathogen positives and mitigate disaster.

Defining the EMP Scope and Balancing Resources

When designing an EMP, it’s easy to understand how expensive they can become. The question is, “How extensive does your EMP really need to be?” It’s best to start with a risk assessment to understand the program size and then estimate a realistic budget.

These programs are more necessary for ready-to-eat facilities, especially ones in which the post-processed product is exposed to the environment before being safely packaged. Risk is determined by how much pre-packaging exposure the product receives, the amount of direct handling by employees, and the condition of the equipment and surrounding facility. Use this risk analysis to determine how much sampling must be done to properly survey the facility. The scope of the program (and therefore the budget) must be balanced with the risk (severity and likelihood) of contamination.

It is then important to understand the microorganism(s) of concern for your products, facility, and processes. For example, should you stick to true pathogen testing or indicator organisms, such as Aerobic Plate Count (APC or TPC), Enterobacter, or Total Coliform tests? If you do test for pathogens, Listeria is more appropriate for wet processing environments and Salmonella better for dry processing; you might need to test for both. Sometimes its beneficial to evaluate spoilage organisms, such as yeast and mold testing, depending on the risk. For example, a ketchup facility may be less worried about residential pathogens than osmophilic yeast.

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Next, one must determine the frequency and number of swabs that should be taken. Most facilities are large and contain thousands of potential hiding spots for microorganisms. For this reason, understanding your facility’s risk and available resources, and prioritizing the swabbing site selection can help maximize efforts. Will a dozen swabs every quarter be sufficient? What is your level of confidence that the sampling program is sufficient to find any hidden biological hazards? Being logical about the target microorganisms and swab frequency/number can help control the budget and allow for better use of resources to accomplish the true EMP goal, minimizing risk to your product.

Creating an Acceptable Site List

Just as important as defining the microbe of concern and the frequency/number of swabs is creating a good site list. An EMP expert once advised to, “think like Salmonella.” Where is our target pathogen/microbe of concern most likely to be hiding? Factors to consider are potential ingress points (roof leaks, employee shoes), opportunities for travel (water/air flow points like drains, foot or wheeled traffic routes), and likely niches (cracks and crevasses). Also important are areas that are often missed by the sanitation crew due to inaccessibility.

Organizing surfaces into zones is a good means of prioritizing swabbing. Zone 1 (food-contact surfaces) and Zone 2 (surfaces adjacent to food-contact surfaces) are cleaned often and not as likely to harbor hidden caches of microbes. It’s important to conduct routine verification testing of these equipment surfaces to evaluate the performance of sanitation, but this is somewhat different than the true purpose of EMP, which is to seek and destroy residential biological hazards. Zone 3 surfaces (those inside production areas but not immediately near food-contact surfaces) are the best focus for an EMP site list, and most of the surface swabbing should be concentrated in these areas.

Consider areas within the facility that could harbor microorganisms and allow biofilms to develop. Cracks, areas regularly exposed to water, and places that are very hard to reach/clean are all likely candidates. These include underneath equipment frames, inside motor casings and pumps, deep inside drains, underneath ramps and stairs and inside air vents/AC units. Cast a wide net, ensuring that all areas are rotated through the swabbing list, while prioritizing the high-risk locations.

The main stumbling block that managers face when designing EMP is challenging themselves to find problems, because once you find an issue, you must deal with the consequences.

Having a Game Plan for Unsatisfactory Results

The best way to mitigate the fear of success (finding a residential pathogen or microbial issue) is to be prepared with an action plan. This starts by defining what constitutes an unacceptable result. Pathogen results are easy (the presence of a pathogen is always unsatisfactory) but the quantitative results from indicator organisms can be tricky. How high do your Enterobacter or yeast/mold results need to be before they trigger action? What is that action?

Family in grocery store
Environmental monitoring programs are most needed in facilities that process and package ready to eat foods.

It’s all too common for unsatisfactory swabs to reemerge a few weeks after initial corrective actions because the true source of the contamination wasn’t found. Requirements for EMP corrective actions are often limited to 1) Reclean 2) Reswab and 3) Retrain. This is extremely limited and doesn’t really address the root cause. Vector swabbing is a great tool to identify root cause, as well as conduct an evaluation of variables that could spread contamination. For example, Listeria found in a drain might have originated by an unsealed wall/floor junction, a perfect microbial niche. When the crack is flooded, the biofilm periodically releases fresh contamination to spread across the floor and into the original identified drain.

Different results should trigger different responses. Certainly, reclean/retest/retrain is a smart approach, but finding the true source of the contamination and taking steps to eliminate it is vital. This might involve special cleaning, such as fogging or hiring a consultant. It might require a redesign of equipment or replace and repair of damaged or vulnerable areas. Ensure that all unsatisfactory results involve an investigation, graph results to identify trends, and communication of findings to all appropriate stakeholders.

EMP Review and Reevaluation

EMP doesn’t have to be a static program, and there’s no “one-size fits all” approach. It’s recommended to design your program based on risk and the above-mentioned variables, implement, and monitor the results. If you never find unsatisfactory results, you might need to increase your frequency/number of swabs or reevaluate your site list. Are you properly challenging yourself? Are you REALLY trying to find problems or just going through the motions to satisfy some requirement? You know your products, facility, and employees and should be able to make these determinations. Don’t be afraid to revise your EMP as a result of historical data and changing variables inside the facility. This might involve increasing your frequency/number of swabs, but the reverse might also be appropriate. Sometimes EMP can be scaled back, and those resources better used elsewhere.

The best approach to a well-written EMP is to understand the scope by considering the risk and applicable variables, employing thoughtful and risk-based logic to the design, and planning for potential unsatisfactory results with thorough corrective actions. Be mindful the true purpose of Environmental Monitoring Programs, which is to seek and destroy harmful microorganisms of concern inside your facility. A robust EMP, coupled with proper training, implementation, monitoring/trending, and communication, will go a long way towards peace of mind that your facility isn’t harboring a potential, biological hazard threat.

 

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From the Editor’s Desk

FDA Proposes Redesign of Human Foods Program

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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On January 31, Robert M. Califf, M.D., MACC, FDA Commissioner of Food and Drugs shared a proposal for a unified Human Foods Program that would combine the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR) and certain functions of the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) under one leader.

The new model was proposed in response to the findings of an external evaluation of the FDA Foods program conducted by an expert panel of the Reagan-Udall Foundation and a separate internal review of the agency’s infant formula supply chain response completed last year.

The Reagan Udall evaluation identified several concerns, including lack of communication, lack of a clear vision and mission, lack of a clear, overarching leader, and siloed workers within the FDA’s Human Foods program. The panel also found that the FDA Human Foods program was ill defined with multiple agencies, including CFSAN, OFPR and OVA, working independently of each other, often with separate leadership and little sharing of information. It recommended creating a new Federal Food Administration under HHS that would operate parallel to, rather than under the auspices of, the FDA.

In his statement announcing the proposal for a more unified Human Foods program, Califf highlighted the issues identified by these independent reviews, including problems with the current culture, structure, resources, and authorities in the FDA Human Foods program.

“Today I am announcing a new, transformative vision for the FDA Human Foods Program. I am also announcing a transformative vision for the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA, the FDA’s field-based operations) to support the FDA organization as a whole. The proposed structures for both groups will have clear priorities that are focused on protecting and promoting a safe, nutritious U.S. food supply that more quickly adapts to an ever-changing and evolving environment,” said Califf.

The “Vision for a Reimagined Human Foods Program” includes the recommendation to create a Human Foods Program under a single leader who reports directly to the Commissioner. Under this plan, the functions of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR), as well as certain functions of ORA will be unified into a new organization called the Human Foods Program.

“The FDA will conduct a competitive national search for a Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, who will oversee the Program. The person in this position will report directly to me and will be charged with leading a unified Human Foods Program that keeps the foods we regulate safe and nutritious, while ensuring the agency remains on the cutting edge of the latest advancements in science, technology, and nutrition,” said Califf. “The Deputy Commissioner will have decision-making authority over policy, strategy, and regulatory program activities within the Human Foods Program, as well as resource allocation and risk-prioritization.”

Other key elements of the proposed new Human Foods Program include:

  • Creation of a Center for Excellence in Nutrition that prioritizes the agency’s ongoing efforts to help American consumers make more informed food choices, including by working with industry to offer healthier, more nutritious food products.
  • Establishment of an Office of Integrated Food Safety System Partnerships that will focus on elevating, coordinating and integrating the FDA’s food safety and response activities with state and local regulatory partners to more effectively meet the vision of an Integrated Food Safety System in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011.

The proposed program would also include the establishment of a Human Foods Advisory Committee made up of external experts who will advise the agency on challenging and emerging issues in food safety, nutrition and innovative food technologies.

“Finally, there will be an emphasis on strengthening our enterprise information technology and analytical capabilities to fulfill the promise described in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety and support the improvement in workflow that will accompany these changes,” said Califf. “This area of focus will support the work of the Human Foods Program by enabling more facile communication, more efficient operations and enhanced empirical risk algorithms to guide the priorities of the program and the work in the field.”

To execute this new plan, the FDA has formed an Implementation and Change Management Group that will be charged with developing a detailed plan for implementation of the newly organized agency. “While details of this proposal continue to be developed, CFSAN, ORA, and OFPR will continue to operate under their current structures, with my direct oversight. I look forward to providing additional public updates by the end of February on our progress, organizational design and timeline,” said Califf.

 

Rick Farrell, Plant-Tours
FST Soapbox

Improving Communication on the Food Plant Floor

By Rick Farrell
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Rick Farrell, Plant-Tours

In the food manufacturing industry, a well-trained workforce is essential to maintaining product quality, consumer safety and operational efficiency. In this line of work, everyone must know what they’re doing and be engaged with the task at hand. Yet, ensuring workers are trained, competent, and properly onboarded can be a challenge.

Time is one of the biggest impediments to employee onboarding and training. Most food manufacturers have limited time to offer training before getting new workers onto the floor, and it can be difficult to offer ongoing training in an efficient and effective manner. Part of this is due to the nature of manufacturing work. The production floor is a fast-paced, noisy environment where workers are engaged in time-dependent, manual activities.

Unlike knowledge-based professionals, it’s difficult to train manufacturing workers without interrupting the corporate workflow. Employees can’t be removed from their work for training purposes without disrupting the rest of production or cutting into manufacturing hours.

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This results in high costs and limited opportunities for dedicated training times, leaving many food manufacturers heavily reliant on initial training and onboarding sessions. As a result, employees often complete their onboarding and initial training without fully grasping what they were taught.

In an independent study by the Center for Research and Public Policy (CRPP), workers across the food chain reported not being well-trained. Nearly one third (29.6%) of respondents felt they hadn’t received enough training to perform work safely, 37.2% felt their training was too complicated or difficult to understand, 20.6% said they received too little safety training before doing their job, and only 51.8% reported receiving enough on-the-job coaching.

We can’t onboard new food workers by dumping knowledge onto them during a few preliminary training sessions, then leaving them to work things out on their own. This can result in employees adopting poor work habits from co-workers, becoming disengaged, and leaving the workplace.

How To Bring New Team Members Up to Speed Quickly

Offering only a few information-packed training sessions or learning courses isn’t an effective way to train workers involved in motor skill-based work. Employees trained this way tend to find the information hard to understand, are likely to forget what they’ve learned, and may have difficulty translating theoretical knowledge into practical work tasks.

If you want to get new hires up to speed faster, offer learning that’s action-oriented, continual, and manageable. Employees, especially new hires, also need immediate feedback on whether they’re performing their work correctly. This requires direct, mid-task guidance and corrective observations rather than delayed video training.

After your initial onboarding and training, employees need ongoing training to reinforce initial learning, deepen knowledge, shore up weak spots, and provide updates. This is best done in brief stretches of around five to seven minutes. Longer learning sessions can overload workers, leading them to tune out, lose focus, and forget. Brief, tactical training sessions are far more effective and efficient, and can be used for on-the-spot training and knowledge refreshment.

Supplement these short training programs by placing multimedia training materials, such as videos or recorded reminders, in break rooms, locker rooms, and other areas where workers spend downtime. Offer mobile coaching tools, apps, and handouts for independent learning.

Peer support can be invaluable in onboarding and training new employees. Workers joining a new organization look to their co-workers to understand how things are done and what values are truly upheld.

By incorporating rapid skill acquisition tactics, environmental learning cues, and approved employee partnering or mentoring programs, companies can onboard and train new employees more quickly, while keeping training requirements manageable and efficient for the organization.

How to Keep Workers Safe and Happy

In the CRPP report, 60.5% of food production supervisors and managers felt that lack of training was the primary cause of workplace injuries within their facility. Employees who are well-trained, supported, and socially engaged report higher levels of job satisfaction and happiness. In addition, they are more comfortable letting higher-ups know about potential issues, leading to a safer work environment and end product.

Therefore, companies must consider cultural onboarding that includes constructive communication and social interaction with coworkers and supervisors, in addition to skill-based and protocol training.

Happy and satisfied workers experience high levels of social exchange with their organizations, leaders, and peers. Good communication allows them to share information, integrate into the culture, become more invested in their work, and achieve positive outcomes.

Manufacturers can support a safer, more productive, and happier working environment by facilitating productive communication on the floor.

Tools and Strategies That Support Effective Communication

Quality on-site communication can be achieved through strategically selected channels and technologies. Most organizations already have effective ways to broadcast communications and offer mass learning opportunities. For example, emails with safety reminders, tips, process guidelines, or recommendations can be blasted out to various employee segments. Video displays, posters, and other media forms can be placed around the environment to provide warnings or critical reminders, while apps and online courses can be used to facilitate independent, self-paced learning.

These are all, however, impersonal mechanisms that don’t connect workers with supervisors who can guide, assess, or correct their knowledge. The real challenge for food manufacturing has always been how to train employees while on-the-job.

Common challenges for management include spending enough personal time with new hires, correcting errors spotted from a distance, guiding workers without interrupting workflow and providing ongoing training without removing workers from the production line.

These specific issues can be resolved with technology that allows instant communication at a distance, such as two-way communication headsets. Two-way headsets enable one-to-one or one-to-many conversations, providing clear audio even on noisy plant floors.

Industrial communication devices can be used to facilitate ad hoc, personalized onboarding assistance or coaching from coworkers and team leaders. Trainers can use headsets to remain connected with new hires, provide training as needed, offer instant corrections, and assess entire groups at a time. To further boost onboarding, experienced peers can be offered headsets to guide new workers.

Food manufacturing has always been a tech-forward industry. Safe and efficient operations depend on the effective use of new technologies. By continuing to investigate and adopt new tools and strategies, manufacturers can continue to drive business objectives forward while bolstering on-the-job safety, performance, and employee satisfaction levels.

Melody Ge
Women in Food Safety

Don’t Let the Challenges Distract You

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Melody Ge

Compassion is at the core of food safety, and it is a trait that shines through for anyone who has had the opportunity to meet Melody Ge. As the Director of Food Safety & Quality Assurance (FSQA) at StarKist, which produces nearly 50% of canned food goods on the market, and founder of Women in Food Safety, Ge has devoted her career to helping others—both by protecting consumers and by nurturing young professionals.

We spoke with Ge to learn more about her background, her career and what drives her success as a food safety leader.

What led you to a career in food safety?

Ge: My mom worked for food safety labs, and I knew that she was doing something good that was helping society. After graduating from University of Maryland with a Food Science, Technology and Nutrition degree, I started my job with Beyond Meat in R&D and food safety & quality. During my time there, I was on a business trip with one of my grad school classmates who accidently had a serious shrimp allergic reaction at a restaurant where we ate together during the trip. Even though he emphasized that he is allergic to shrimp to the waiter. This was over 10 years ago, and it still gives me goose pumps. I am always a person willing to help, and to see him go through that was a traumatic experience.

At that moment, I understood firsthand the critical role that food safety plays in society. That experience combined with my own work experience made me want to focus on food safety, and I found my passion. I started to focus my career path on safety and quality by working for GFSI CPOs, EU retailers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced working in food safety and quality assurance?

Ge: I always say that FSQA professionals are heroes because they take a lot of what they do to heart. They put a lot of responsibility on their own shoulders to protect consumers. Often, FSQA professionals are seen as the police of operations. So, communication is one of the challenges: how we can translate the technical knowledge and share the sense of urgency to other department stakeholders within the company so we can achieve FSQA together within the business?

The other challenge is on the technical side. We deal with an evolving environment. For example, what we knew about listeria 10 years ago is different than what we know today. The regulations are always changing. Hence, keep ourselves updated and keep learning are crucial.

Do you have any tips or strategies on how to do that in the midst of doing your day-to-day job?

Ge: My advice would be to use the pieces or fragments of time. You don’t have to devote two hours of your day to learn a new policy, for example, the new FDA traceability rules. Sometimes, while I’m sitting down having my coffee, I am scanning the news, and that’s learning. When I’m having lunch, I try to look at some webinar recordings, and that’s learning. When you have small pieces of time throughout the day, you actually can learn quite amount of new information. Subscribe to the industry publications like Food Safety Tech and Food Quality, and learn from everyone around you. I learn from my team and my coworkers. I also send them to webinars and then we learn from each other.

You mentioned that a lot of people view FSQA as the police of the company. How do you overcome that?

Ge: Being an influencer, proactive communicator and trusted member of the team are keys to success. I find a way to communicate all these important aspects to the team at Starkist. I do feel lucky that at Starkist I am working with people who are aware of food safety and quality constantly. And now with social media and the direct face to consumers it offers, people overall are more aware of food safety and quality. There is a fundamental basic knowledge out there.

I try to use the audience’s language, whether its senior management or production employees. I also stay connected with the line people. Every time I’m in the plant, I walk with them and talk with them. I make them aware that I’m not picking on them; it’s about the products that get produced and consumed. And I am still practicing this every day to be better.

You are also the founder of Women in Food Safety. When did that group start, and what led you to put that together?

Ge: The group started in January 2020 with the intention of helping the younger generations. The initial idea was to provide a resource and a platform for students and industry, and this evolved after I met my committee members. Now we have two missions:  First to pipeline the younger generation and second to help bridge the gap between academia and industry.

We have five focuses:

  • Diversity in Culture. We really focus on supporting people who are coming from different cultures to help them adapt within their companies.
  • Adventure Starts. This is for the students and early first and second year professionals in the industry
  • Leadership. Believe it or not, there were a lot of females stuck in at the manager level for over eight years, and then it’s very hard to move up. This focus is to help them climb that ladder to eventually become an executive in the industry.
  • Boots on the Ground. One of the challenges in food safety is how we work with the line people at the plants to communicate food safety and how to adapt our working style in the manufacturer environment.
  • Work and Life Balance. This is not just for women who are having children; it’s also about how to take your breaks in life, enjoy your downtime and your family, and still stay up to date and come back to the industry as a new leader or professional at any time you are ready again.

How can people get involved in Women in Food Safety?

Ge: We have a LinkedIn group. You do need to be approved to get in just to keep the group focused on the mission and the industry needs, and keep it from being diluted into a commercial group. The group now has around 900 members. With our two—almost three—years partnership with Food Safety Tech, we have more and more influence. We now hold in-person events at the Food Safety Consortium and also at IAFP with the students. We also have a website, and it’s free to subscribe.

If you could turn the clock back to when you were just starting in the industry, what would you tell your younger self and would you have made different decisions?

Ge: I would say, “You are on the right path! Don’t let the difficulties and challenges happening in your career distract you or change you. You know who you are and you know what you’re doing.”

I don’t regret any of my decisions because they all made me the Melody I am today. In some cases, I chose to leave a very good boss for a better career, which was very hard for me. Those decisions and challenges still make me sad till today but I don’t regret those moves.

When people ask me, “How did you get such a wide variety of experience?” It is because I stepped out of my comfort zone, even though it was scary. I made decisions for myself that long-term I knew were going to help my career.

What advice would you offer professionals who are just starting their careers in food safety?

Ge: Try different things and say yes. Just say yes! Every time I get the question, “Can you do this?” I say, “Yes!” and then I figure it out. Don’t hesitate when there are new opportunities, and learn from anything you do at the moment. When I first started, I worked for three years in customer service. I answered emails and phone calls from suppliers who had technical questions. Was it a really fun job? Maybe not. But it helped me so much even up to today when I’m implementing any GFSI CPOs, I remember the details of the clauses. So, enjoy what you do—that is the foundation of doing a job well. Be patient, and keep in mind that nothing you do will be wasted. It’s all part of your own puzzle, and those pieces will eventually all come together.

What’s your opinion on mentors and mentorship?

Ge: One thing about mentoring I do want to share is that it is not a matter of saying, “I need a mentor so I’m going to go out and find myself one!” Mentoring is a concept. It’s a chemistry that naturally happens between two people learning from each other. You know this person will help you; or maybe it’s their style that influences you, and you don’t feel awkward to be vulnerable in front of them. There are many professionals in the industry who are my mentors—sometimes they might not know it. I learn from them and translate what I learn in a way that I can maintain based on my personality, so it’s sustainable.

What’s the main driver that keeps you in food safety?

Ge: Every day is a different day. I am not a person who likes doing things according to a preset list, meaning when you walk into the office you know exactly what you’re going to do that day. I enjoy investigating and identifying problems and finding solutions. That’s what keeps me in FSQA.

Another thing is this is a very friendly industry. I really like the people who work in food safety and quality. We are open to each other. We share best practices and knowledge. We ask questions and we share knowledge. We are like friends and family.

What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of work?

Ge: I try to learn something new every year. Each January, I set a personal goal for myself for the year. For example, in the past, I have learned photography, flamenco, surfing and so on. Some I maintained, and some I don’t because I don’t like them after I tried. Last year, I started learning Korean. I am a scuba diver and a yoga instructor. I try to explore new things each year. I am not an expert on those different things, but they expose me to new ideas, which keeps me energized.