NSF International, using their new technology and science-based approaches, will create supply chain food safety management systems and training programs that can be scaled to fit a global retailer’s operations worldwide. They have appointed Gina Nicholson to oversee NSF’s team of retail food safety experts for this project.

“New developments in technology and increased cooperation among government and the food industry have led to improvements in addressing foodborne illness outbreaks. However, prevention through training and a strong farm-to-fork food safety program must remain the focus of retailers as the globalization of the food supply chain poses new challenges. Food safety and quality is equal to brand protection and no third-party organization understands this better than NSF International. Food safety is what we do,” said Nicholson. “NSF has cultivated a team of leading scientists and regulatory experts that understand the science behind food safety and quality and use innovative approaches­­ to tailor food safety programs for retailers all over the world.”

In 2012, NSF International launched an innovative behavior-based food safety training model that has caught the attention of many leading retailers. In partnership with Cognisco, a specialist in assessing and developing workforce competence, NSF International combined leading research on human behavior and psychology with their expertise in food safety to design an intelligent behavior-based food safety assessment and targeted intervention model that helps companies build a culture of food safety. This is crucial as an initial assessment of nearly 10,000 trained food handlers revealed that 41 percent of these workers still demonstrate a dangerous gap between their knowledge of food safety handling practices and their actual application of these principles in the workplace.