Cindy Jiang is a senior director, Global Food and Packaging Safety, Global Supply Chain & Sustainability, for McDonald’s Corporation. Her responsibilities include developing food safety strategic plans, leading the effort to establish and maintain strong global supplier food safety and quality management systems and programs, having science- and risk-based food safety standards and policies, anticipating and managing food-related emerging issues, supporting the markets with farm-to-restaurant food safety practices, and elevating the food safety culture within the corporation, supplier, and franchisee communities.  

Cindy has been the lead for McDonald’s Food Safety Advisory Council since 2002, a forum for sharing food safety knowledge and best practices among leading suppliers and external experts. She has been actively engaged with industry and government collaboration on food safety. She has served on the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Board since 2008 and is currently a member of the Board for SSAFE and IFIC.

Cindy began her career with the McDonald’s Corporation after receiving an M.Sc. in food science and nutrition from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. She has held various positions at McDonald’s Corporation, from a food chemist to a quality assurance consultant, a senior quality assurance manager, and a director of food safety. Cindy has been actively engaged in leading the effort on harmonization of food safety standards by working with the food suppliers, the foodservice industry, certification program owners, and auditing firms since early 2007. She is a senior member of the American Society for Quality and has been a member of Institute of Food Technologists since 1989. She is also a current member of the International Association of Food Protection. She is passionate about advancing food safety for the benefit of consumers.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Cindy [19:43] about:

• The importance of meetings, team building activities, and volunteering in an effort to keep food safe
• The collaborative process McDonald's follows when new equipment needs to be developed
• McDonalds' approach to new employee training
• What regulators are looking for when they visit a foodservice establishment
• Understanding why collaboration is necessary and valuable
• Why food safety is not an area of competition
• McDonalds' three-leg stool system
• How McDonald's communicates with its many suppliers
• How McDonald's suppliers are required to have at least one GFSI benchmark certification
• Why there are so many benchmarked schemes, and why having a consolidated benchmarked scheme isn't feasible
• Government-to-government and government-to-business meetings
• Food safety culture
• Why every business within the food sector should be ready for an unannounced visit 24/7
• McDonald's and World Food Safety Day
• The ongoing challenge of meeting consumers' ever-changing expectations
• Technology, predictive analytics, and using data to predict potential foodborne illnesses and outbreaks
• How McDonald's has been delivering food in other countries years before it became a trend in the U.S.
• The importance of mastering soft skills, communication, and networking even in a science-based field

News Mentioned in This Episode
EFSA Identifies Three Food Safety Priorities for the Next 5–10 Years; Codex Agrees to Tackle E. coli in Certain Foods  [3:57]
Researchers Dissect 17 Years of Salmonella Outbreaks [8:51]
Viral Story: The Blue Bell Ice Cream Licker [11:12]  

Sponsored by:

MSU's Online Food Safety Program - Educating Food Safety Leaders
MSU's Online Food Safety Program - Curriculum, admissions, fees, and more

Rhodes Yepsen joined the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) in 2015, where he leads the organization's efforts to promote the value of compostable products. Rhodes is passionate about systems-based solutions, where there is synergy in solving for food waste and packaging simultaneously—addressing climate change, ecosystem impacts, and regenerative agriculture. Previously, he served on the Board of USCC, worked for biopolymer producer Novamont, and was a staff editor and writer at BioCycle magazine.

Brittney Miller is President of Manchester Farms, America's first quail farm. What started over 40 years ago as a backyard hobby has grown into a nationally recognized, family-owned business that produces more than 80,000 quail weekly, raising them responsibly, without antibiotics or hormones, and shipping premium products to chefs, retailers, and home cooks across the country. Brittney's story is about more than farming: it is about stewardship, innovation, and family values. She combines her passion for sustainable agriculture with modern food safety standards. Her SQF Level 2 certified, HACCP-compliant farm sets the benchmark for quality in specialty poultry.

Mindy Brashears, Ph.D. is the USDA's Under Secretary for Food Safety. Dr. Brashears previously served as Under Secretary for Food Safety from 2020–2021, and Deputy Under Secretary in 2019. Dr. Brashears returns to USDA from Texas Tech University, where she was a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Public Health, the Roth and Letch Family Endowed Chair for Food Safety, and the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence.

Justin Ransom, Ph.D. is Administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), where he oversees FSIS' mission to ensure the safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling of America's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and processed egg products. He leads the agency's modernization efforts, streamlining inspection systems, strengthening public health protections, and advancing science-based policies. 

Elena Medo, M.B.A. is an entrepreneur, researcher, and inventor who has spent nearly 40 years transforming neonatal care through leadership and innovation. She has secured numerous patents, raised over $40 million across four companies, and built a legacy of firsts, including the first commercially available shelf-stable donor breast milk product; the first milk bank owned exclusively by nursing mothers; and the first medical device designed to analyze human milk. Today, as CEO and co-founder of Leonie Health PBC, established in 2023 with her daughter, Adrianne Weir, Elena is developing a revolutionary product that replicates the immune properties of colostrum to protect preterm infants against the three deadliest neonatal infections—necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAC), and sepsis—which together claim the lives of more than 30,000 hospitalized infants per year.

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master’s degree in poultry science and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Arkansas. Her area of expertise is meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM).

Lyle Probst is the CEO of NomadX and an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in operations, product development, engineering, biodefense, and advanced technology commercialization.