The Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are co-hosting a highly anticipated food safety culture webinar live from the Food Safety Summit on Thursday, May 11. During the live session, academic, regulatory, and industry professionals will discuss how they assess food safety culture and its impact. 

The May 11 webinar will be the seventh in a ten-part series focusing on food safety culture and leveraging public and private sector leaders across the food system. Panelists will discuss the value of fostering, supporting, and strengthening food safety cultures to help ensure the safe production of food and, importantly, the real-life lessons learned along the way. Topics are informed by feedback from webinar attendees, as we seek to share insights that are applicable across all sectors and sizes of food companies. 

Dr. Lone Jespersen (Principal at Cultivate SA) will kick off this session and detail her boots-on-the-ground observations about how and why companies need to measure their food safety culture and its progress. She will share learnings from her consulting and academic work to set the stage.  

Regular webinar contributors Dr. Conrad Choiniere (Director of the Office of Analytics and Outreach at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition) and Dr. Donald Prater (Acting Director of the Office of Food Policy and Response) will provide insights into FDA's thinking on the topic, as well as take audience questions regarding the measurement of food safety culture.  

In addition, attendees will hear from Dr. Philip Bronstein, Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service's (USDA's FSIS') Office of Field Operations, on USDA's approach and what USDA-regulated firms can do to stay current. While FDA and FSIS both encourage companies to work toward strong food safety cultures, neither agency is actively working to regulate culture. 

Following our favorite regulators, Brian Perry and Karleigh Bacon will share lessons from the journeys of their companies. Perry, the newly minted Senior Vice President—Chief Safety Officer of Treehouse Foods will share his team's approach to food safety culture by measuring and re-evaluating to avoid drift. Bacon, McDonald's Director of U.S. Supply Chain Food Safety, Science, and Regulatory, will explain how the global chain has implemented a strong, advanced food safety culture measurement process.  

If you are planning to attend the Summit, please join us during Session 19 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois from 2:45–4:00 p.m. CT. We have allotted 45 minutes to Q&A and dialogue between panelists. This will provide both in-person and virtual attendees the opportunity to ask burning questions and engage with other practitioners at various stages of their food safety culture journeys from across the world.  

Everyone is encouraged to register online to receive updates and webinar materials, including one NEHA-accredited continuing education credit. 

If you have missed any of the webinars in the series and would like to catch up (and earn the other six continuing education credits), the materials and recording can be found here.