Home » Multimedia » Podcasts » Food Safety Matters » Ep. 42. Joe Stout: Sanitation and Hygienic Design in the Food Plant
Food Safety Matters
Food Safety Matters is a podcast for food safety professionals hosted by the Food Safety Magazine editorial team – the leading media brand in food safety for over 20 years. Each episode will feature a conversation with a food safety professional sharing their experiences and insights of the important job of safeguarding the world’s food supply.
Joe Stout is the founder of Commercial Food Sanitation, a consulting firm that provides food safety and sanitation solutions to food processing plants. Before that, Joe spent nearly 30 years at Kraft Foods. While there, he held a variety of positions related to operations, quality, and sanitation, ultimately leading to his role as Kraft's director of global product protection, sanitation, and hygienic design.
In this role at Kraft, Joe had global responsibility for plant cleaning controls and processes, allergen and pathogen control programs, pest control, and hygienic design for facilities and equipment used in more than 200 Kraft plants. Joe also managed the Global Product Protection Group, assuring global support for internal and external plants.
Joe led the American Meat Institute’s (AMI) Equipment Design Task Force and has led Listeria Intervention training for AMI and the American Frozen Food Institute. He is the current leader of the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s Sanitary Design Working Group. He also conducts allergen training for the Food Allergy Research Resource Program. In addition to his involvement with these and many other leading industry organizations, Joe is a published authority when it comes to food safety, sanitation, hygiene, and other related areas.
In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Joe [16:19] about:
The basic fundamentals of sanitation in food safety
The persistent problem of Listeria in food processing environments
Sanitation best practices
The problem with preventative and corrective actions
The importance of using science-based approaches
Sanitation training offered by Commercial Food Sanitation
Advice regarding a food plant's implementation of Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs)
His thoughts on whether or not SSOPs should be shared amongst the food industry
Technological advancements vs. increasing productivity needs
The 7 Steps of Sanitation developed at Kraft, and the importance of performing those steps in the right order
Hygienic design and its implications regarding the future of food safety
The 10 Principles of Equipment Design
Good—and not so good—things he's seen when touring food processing plants
Nuno F. Soares, Ph.D., is an author, consultant, and trainer in food safety with more than 21 years of experience in the food industry as a food safety/quality (FSQ) expert and a plant manager. He is the founder of "I'm a SLO—Saving Lives Officer" initiative and the author of several books and articles on food safety, namely FSSC 22000 and ISO 22000 Blueprint and I'm a SLO—The Mindset and Framework to Develop a Positive Food Safety Culture. He works exclusively to help food safety professionals achieve a more fulfilled career by improving their knowledge, competencies, and mindset.
Beth Panko Briczinski, Ph.D. is the Senior Science Advisor for Milk Safety in the Office of Food Safety at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Casey McCue is the Conference Chair for the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) and the Director of the Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a position he has held since 2000.
Megin Nichols, D.V.M. serves as the Deputy Division Director for the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
Brandon Carter, D.V.M. is a Food Safety Technical Advisor for Elanco Animal Health. Dr. Carter received his B.S. degree in Animal Science and his D.V.M. from Mississippi State University. He also holds an M.S. degree in Veterinary Epidemiology from West Texas A&M University. His areas of expertise are disease prevention and control for poultry, with specialized expertise in epidemiology and data analysis.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, J.D. is Senior Manager at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She also serves as Deputy Chief of Party of EatSafe—Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food—which is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded, five-year program running through June 2024.
Richard Pluke, Ph.D. is the Food Safety Lead and Chief of Party for GAIN's EatSafe and an international rural development professional specializing in agricultural enterprises and value chains, with over 15 years of applied development experience in South America, Asia, and Africa.
Kathleen (Kathy) Glass, Ph.D. joined the Food Research Institute (FRI) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a food safety researcher in 1985, where she currently serves as Associate Director. Her primary duties are to assist the food industry in assessing and developing formulation-safe foods. In addition, she trains and oversees undergraduate and graduate student independent study research, and is a regular instructor at workshops on food microbiology, preventive controls, Listeria control methods, processed meat and processed cheese safety, and dairy Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).
Mark (Mick) Micklos, CP-FS, is an executive dedicated to food safety education and advocacy. His 27-year career includes 16 years in restaurant operations, training, and food safety, the majority of which was spent holding Director- or Vice President-level positions at Waffle House Inc.; seven years at the National Restaurant Association working on behalf of industry, culminating as Director of Food Safety and QA Programming; and most recently, as a Partner-Advisor with Active Food Safety LLC, where his work with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) has led to breakthrough discoveries in Food Safety Management System and food safety culture behavior in foodservice establishments. Mick has served on 19 professional advisory boards and committees. He has published six articles and three book chapters, and has contributed to two guidance documents. He has earned ten awards for his work and is a frequently requested speaker on a wide variety of topics.