This article is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Fred Shank, a former CFSAN Center Director and my first boss at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), who showed me that to be a leader in Washington, DC, you need to be technically sound, do the right thing and have a thick skin.
Every chance I get, I ask people how they found their way into food safety. As a data-driven analytical thinker, maybe I’m looking for patterns. I’ve been trying to figure out what makes someone “great” at food safety. Like beauty, “greatness” is in the eye of the beholder. But just as we can all rattle off the types of foods that are “high risk” [even in the absence of a list from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)], there is some general recognition of the cream of the crop—those who are great and visible food safety leaders. But leadership—or at least the potential for leadership—exists at all levels, and this article seeks to explore how this potential can be cultivated for the betterment of food safety, given the challenges that lie ahead.
My interest in the food safety leaders of today is multifaceted. Selfishly, I want to learn from them. But as I look around at the food safety needs that we currently have in this industry, and look at the expertise required to move food safety to the next level (both in terms of regulatory compliance as well as building best-in-class systems), I also hope to play a small role in recognizing and cultivating a new crop of food safety leaders (see “Best Practices for Developing Young Food Safety Professionals,”).
Perhaps I am a wannabe academic. I’ve always had an interest in outreach and education. I was fortunate to contribute to these efforts while at IFT, and hope that my veteran interns, direct reports and coworkers would also attest to my interest in developing them, so that they can be the best they can be. As I spoke to people about this topic, the conversation often went off on tangents. How do we even get people into the food safety pipeline? What does “food safety” mean anyway? Does it include sanitation, operations, marketing? Have we defined roles and the behaviors we expect of these individuals doing these jobs? How do we develop global food safety expertise? This article will attempt to capture the conversation and key issues around each of these topics, but frankly, each of these questions could probably be explored as part of a dissertation.
As an advocate of “beginning with the end in mind,” I will start with the key points:
1) If you want to make a difference in food safety, surround yourself with people who make a difference, reach out to them and be open to learning from them.
2) If you notice someone who has the spark, passion and motivation to do great things, help him or her find opportunities to develop.
3) We need to do a better job communicating how awesome food safety is, so that leaders gravitate toward our profession.
The Need for Food Safety Leadership
The food safety landscape is ever changing. We are faced with some truly new risks (or perhaps they were always there, but we are just now recognizing them) such as Salmonella in low-moisture foods, Listeria monocytogenes in caramel apples and cantaloupe, heavy metals in agricultural products, allergens and other dietary sensitivities, and the long-term health impacts of food ingredients. We are faced with changes in technology: technology that can help us better assess and document our systems, technology that can more definitively link illness with a source and technology that allows information to be shared worldwide in an instant. The regulatory landscape, along with consumer pressures, is also changing at lightning speed. How can a food safety professional keep up? And given the myriad of issues: scientific, regulatory and political, how does one even define a food safety professional, let alone determine the attributes of a great one?
Several of the proposed rules being promulgated as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act will require decision making by “qualified individuals (QI).” Yes, FDA gives a formal definition for what constitutes a QI, and is developing, with the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (www.iit.edu/ifsh/alliance/), a standardized curriculum to develop training, but does a certificate on a wall translate into someone truly being “qualified?” And at the same time, the expectations of food safety inspectors (federal, state and local) will increase exponentially once the rules are finalized and they are inspecting facilities for compliance. People can be educated about facts, such as the temperature range for pathogen growth, but how can people be trained to make good decisions when circumstances fall outside the bounds of a textbook? And how can true leaders be recognized and encouraged, so that they can serve as a resource and coach within their own companies and, importantly, to the broader food safety community?
As I contemplated an article on developing food safety leaders, I thought the best (if not the most scientific) approach would be to reach out to a handful of people who I feel are great and find out what they think the ingredients to their success, and the success of their peers, are. The enthusiasm they displayed testifies to their passion for food safety, and I thank them for sharing their insights and perspective. But my sample size may not be statistically significant. I’ve had the great fortune of interacting with scores of gifted leaders, and those mentioned here represent the diversity of backgrounds and experiences to illustrate the many paths that lead to food safety leadership.
There are hundreds if not thousands of food safety leaders, in varying stages of career development out there, and I hope we can continue to connect with one another. The safety of the food supply depends on food safety professionals, and a theme in our discussions that rang out loud and clear is that we need to work together.
After a preliminary round of input, some themes began to emerge. There are two components inherent in developing food safety leaders: scientific and technical competency, and the people skills associated with leadership.
Leadership in General
A recent op-ed piece in The New York Times points to a shift in schools from a focus on intelligence to the development of personality traits associated with success.[1] KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program),[2] a network of public schools serving underserved communities, has rallied around these seven character strengths:
• Zest
• Grit
• Optimism
• Self-control
• Gratitude
• Social intelligence
• Curiosity
Great leaders—of all sorts—arguably have all or most of these traits. But are they innate? Can they be taught? Dr. Frank Busta, professor emeritus of food microbiology at the University of Minnesota, who has trained some very notable food safety leaders, wouldn’t take credit for the successes of his students. Rather, he sees that he gave them opportunities to do well—but it was up to the students to work hard and do it. Thus, mentors can help cultivate and hone these leadership attributes, but it is up to the budding food safety leader to pursue opportunities to further develop them.
Stephen Covey, in the well-known book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, cites these seven habits:
1) Be proactive
2) Begin with the end in mind
3) Put first things first
4) Think win-win
5) Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6) Synergize
7) Sharpen the saw (continuous improvement, but meant outside the context of food safety in a facility; continuous improvement of ourselves)
People with these skills and traits can be charismatic and inspiring. They can rally people to take action and embrace a cause. I think we can all see how being effective at improving food safety requires the regular implementation of these habits. But the general literature on leadership is not specific for food safety. Just because someone has great character traits and is highly effective, does this make one great at food safety?
Shawn Stevens, an attorney at Food Industry Counsel, LLC, states that there are three Cs in food safety: compassion, commitment and culture.[3] As he describes it, a food safety leader must “truly believe that food safety is important for the right reasons—not marketability and not profit.” Courtney Bidney, who leads global regulatory affairs at General Mills, adds that “food safety leaders must feel a personal responsibility for taking care of the consumer and the corporation.”
The importance of food safety culture noted by Stevens was reiterated by Bidney and was recently discussed in Food Safety Magazine.[4] Leaders need to set the example to develop and continue to promote a strong culture of food safety. But who are these leaders? Are general leadership skills enough? What other attributes define one as a “food safety leader?”
I would add one more “C” to the list of food safety leadership prerequisites: competency. It is great to have the right intent and back it up with commitment, but you need to have the background to make decisions supported by science. There are some technical competencies and foundational knowledge that provide a solid platform on which food safety leaders grow.
Dr. Jim Gorny, vice president for food safety and technology at the Produce Marketing Association, notes that most people working in food safety are trained as scientists. We are not trained to manage people. And yet, many career paths require these leadership and managerial skills, including communication skills, in addition to the technical areas in which we’ve been trained.
Best Practices for Developing Young Food Safety Professionals