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Food Safety Consortium 2023
From the Editor’s Desk

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

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.

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.