Earlier this month, the Food Safety Magazine team gathered in Salt Lake City, UT for the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). The IAFP Annual Meeting was attended by more than 3,800 top industry, academic, and governmental food safety professionals from six continents. Each year, this premiere event for industry professionals convenes and discusses current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, and innovative solutions to new and recurring problems. The meeting also presents opportunities to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe.

While in Salt Lake City, we invited experts from across the industry to come to our booth and chat with us about all things food safety. Some of those impromptu conversations and interviews are included in our 30th installment of the Food Safety Matters podcast.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we spoke to a number of food safety professionals about a variety of hot topics:

Tim Stubbs, National Dairy Council (NDC)

• NDC's role within the dairy industry, resources provided, etc.
• Various food technologies including atmospheric cold plasma for packaging treatment, antimicrobial use in cheese, and more
• Advances inl food safety and technology in the next three to five years.

Will Daniels, IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group

• The romaine lettuce outbreak that originated in the Yuma, AZ, growing region (desert Southwest) and new food safety issues that have been brought to the forefront because of it
• One health concept: Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and soil… the connection between the animal world and the produce world
• Reducing microbial shedding events
• Community relations and food safety
• Lessons learned from the Earthbound Farms spinach outbreak
• Communicating risk within an organization, and publicly 

Paul Kiecker, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

• His roles within USDA
• What “modernizing” does (and does not) mean
• What food companies should expect
• USDA inspection roles (vs. U.S. Food and Drug Administration roles)
• Top priorities at USDA in terms of modernization
• Progress with pathogen sampling and whole-genome sequencing use
• Salmonella as an adulterant
• Standard setting for Campylobacter

Carmen Rottenberg, USDA

• An in-depth conversation about USDA's study on consumer handwashing, meal preparation, and thermometer use

In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Jenny Du, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Apeel Sciences, about Apeel—a clean alternative to traditional post-harvest produce coatings and treatments—its transparent approach to disrupting an $11 billion industry.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Sandro Tarchini of the Cardano Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the blockchain ecosystem, about the applications for blockchain throughout the food supply chain and how it can improve farm-to-retail traceability and transparency.

Suzette Stalker is Director of FSQA Program Compliance at FreshRealm Inc. Formerly, she served as Director of Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory compliance at Target Corporation. At Target, Suzette was responsible for food safety standards and programs, covering nearly 2,000 stores and more than 60 supply chain facilities. Her work encompassed owned brand supplier manufacturing facilities, product labeling, produce farms, supply chain facilities, retail stores, and managing food recalls. Previously, Suzette led teams to develop and execute comprehensive internal audits of food safety and operational risks across Target. 

Sabrina Terada is the Manager for Food Safety Risk Management and Measurement at Yum! Brands. She is a seasoned professional in food safety and quality assurance with extensive experience at Yum! Brands, where her roles have included Manager of Global Food Safety Risk Management and Measurement and Manager of Global FSQA. In these positions, Sabrina held responsibilities supporting the Food Safety Governance Framework, coaching, and assisting business units with crisis management. 

Chris McGarvey is the Director of the Regulatory and Compliance Team for Walker Morris LLP in the UK. He has more than 25 years of experience working in both the private and public sector, and has a track record of helping clients navigate complex legal challenges in areas of highly regulated economic activity. Chris specializes in food law and led the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) Legal Team through Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply chain challenges associated with the Ukraine conflict. Chris' typical clients are Directors, Senior Managers, and specialists, particularly food scientists, who demand quick, accessible, and accurate advice. His work often has national reach and spans all four nations of the UK.

Kye Luker serves as the Chief Product Officer at FlexXray, where he leads development of the company's innovative X-ray inspection process and technology. With more than two decades of experience in the service, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and food and beverage industries, Kye brings a wealth of knowledge in continuous improvement, quality assurance, and formulations to his role.

Richard (Rick) Stier, M.S. is a consulting food scientist who has helped food processors develop safety, quality, and sanitation programs. He believes in emphasizing the importance of how these programs can help companies increase profits. Rick comes from a family background in food science, with the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) establishing an award in his mother's name—the Humanitarian Award for Service to the Science of Food in honor of Elizabeth Fleming Stier. Rick holds degrees in food science from Rutgers University and the University of California at Davis. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine.