Ep. 220. Ramirez and Hodgson: What it Takes to Build and Maintain an Effective Food Safety Culture
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Miguel Ramirez is a seasoned food manufacturing executive with more than three decades of operational leadership experience in the food industry. He currently serves as Vice President of Operations at Fresca Foods Inc. in Louisville, Colorado, where he has held progressive leadership roles over the past 13 years including Plant Manager, Director of Operations, and his current VP role. Prior to Fresca Foods, Miguel spent over 24 years with Butterball LLC, where he managed more than 12 production lines across a two-shift operation with a workforce of 350 employees.
Known for championing food safety culture at the operational level, Miguel brings a rare perspective to food safety conversations—that of a senior operations leader who understands that food safety and operational excellence are not competing priorities, but instead, are deeply interconnected.
Madisen Hodgson, M.S. is a food safety and quality assurance professional with nearly a decade of progressive experience spanning food manufacturing, retail bakery, beverage, and airline catering environments. She currently serves as a Quality Assurance Manager for a protein and nutritional bar manufacturer in Denver, Colorado, where she oversees the full food safety management system and leads a multi-shift quality assurance team across multiple production lines.
Madisen holds an M.S. degree in Food Safety from the University of Arkansas and carries certifications including PCQI, SQF Practitioner, HACCP Coordinator, and CP-FS. She is passionate about building strong food safety cultures, developing food safety professionals, and bridging the gap between regulatory compliance and practical, operational food safety.
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In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Miguel and Madisen [30:31] about:
- The evolution and current understanding of food safety culture in the food manufacturing industry
- Operationalizing food safety culture across teams and balancing production demands with food safety priorities
- Specific practices and behaviors that indicate a robust food safety culture
- How leadership visibility and engagement influences employees’ food safety behaviors and accountability
- Challenges companies face when trying to move from a compliance-based mindset to a true culture of food safety, and how they can be overcome
- Measuring the effectiveness of food safety culture initiatives by paying attention to certain indicators and utilizing feedback mechanisms
- What sets a great food safety culture apart from an average or ineffective food safety culture
- The future of food safety culture in light of increasing regulatory scrutiny and industry emphasis on accountability and transparency.
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