Bob Whitaker, recently retired, served as the chief science and technology officer for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA). In that role, Bob was responsible for food safety, technology, supply chain management, and sustainability. He also served on the Center for Produce Safety's Board of Directors as well as on the California Leafy Greens Technical Committee. Prior to joining PMA, Bob spent 16 years in the biotechnology arena with DNA Plant Technology Corporation as a researcher, and then as vice president of fruit and vegetable R&D. Bob's career has also included roles at NewStar Fresh Foods and its subsidiary MissionStar Processing.

Bob earned his doctorate in biology from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Jennifer McEntire is the vice president of food safety and technology at United Fresh Produce Association. Before that, she was the vice president of science operations for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. She has also had roles as vice president and chief science officer at The Acheson Group and as the senior staff scientist and director of science and technology projects for the Institute of Food Technologists. She is an advisory board member of the Global Food Traceability Center, the technical committee of the Center for Produce Safety, and she serves on the executive committee of the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance.

Jennifer earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University as a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Needs Fellow in food safety. 

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Bob and Jen [18:13] about:

• Today's most pressing food safety issues in the produce sector
• The importance of personal engagement and individual operations
• Traceability challenges
• The benefits of having an electronic-based traceability system 
• Working with the Romaine Task Force
• Changes with how irrigation water is treated
• Providing federal and government agencies with the industry knowledge they need to complete an outbreak investigation
• What information agencies need when they conduct a traceback investigation
• Traceability issues with commingled food commodities
• Why blockchain is not a magical solution

Bob's Articles in Food Safety Magazine
Latest Research Findings Hit on Produce Safety Priorities 
Confronting Food Safety Challenges Head-On in Produce 
The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Primary Production 
The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Sector Leaders Sharing Their Challenges and Recommended Practices

Jen's Articles in Food Safety Magazine
Fixing FSMA's Ag Water Requirements 
Environmental Monitoring in the Era of Whole-Genome Sequencing
Building Food Safety Leaders
Product Tracing in Food Systems: Legislation vs. Reality

News Mentioned in This Episode
Chipotle's Use of Nurses to Verify Employee Cases of Norovirus [2:52]
2020 Goals for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service [7:41]
The Frozen Food Listeria Lot Risk Assessment Tool [9:39]
Update: Tyson Foods Wins Lawsuit Against USDA [15:27]

Sponsored by:

Safe Food California
Safe Food Alliance

Alex LeBeau, Ph.D., M.P.H., CIH is the owner of Exposure Assessment Consulting LLC in Orlando, Florida, where he offers toxicology, industrial hygiene, risk assessment, and public health consulting services. Over his 13-year career, he has evaluated environmental and occupational exposures and has performed toxicological evaluations of chemicals and biological agents. He has also performed human health risk assessments of contaminated sites using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulatory guidelines and has monitored remediation activities at those sites. To evaluate the exposure impacts on building occupants, he has performed indoor environmental quality assessments, including Legionella and water quality assessments, at healthcare, residential, and industrial facilities.

In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to MilliporeSigma food regulatory compliance experts about how regulators, laboratories, and manufacturers are responding to emerging food safety risks in an increasingly complex landscape.

Miguel Ramirez is a seasoned food manufacturing executive with more than three decades of operational leadership experience in the food industry. He currently serves as Vice President of Operations at Fresca Foods Inc. in Louisville, Colorado, where he has held progressive leadership roles over the past 13 years including Plant Manager, Director of Operations, and his current VP role. Prior to Fresca Foods, Miguel spent over 24 years with Butterball LLC, where he managed more than 12 production lines across a two-shift operation with a workforce of 350 employees.

Madisen Hodgson, M.S. is a food safety and quality assurance professional with nearly a decade of progressive experience spanning food manufacturing, retail bakery, beverage, and airline catering environments. She currently serves as a Quality Assurance Manager for a protein and nutritional bar manufacturer in Denver, Colorado, where she oversees the full food safety management system and leads a multi-shift quality assurance team across multiple production lines.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to WHO’s Dr. Elaine Borghi about the new global foodborne disease burden estimates, updates to the methodology, key insights from the data, and the importance of using data to target food safety interventions, aligning with the WFSD theme “From Burden to Solutions—Safe Food Everywhere.”

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, 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 in meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM). 

Brady Carter, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer at Carter Scientific Solutions. He specializes in water activity, moisture sorption, shelf-life stability, plant science, and wheat production and quality. He has 23 years of experience in research and development and previously was a Research Professor at Washington State University focusing on wheat end-use quality. Dr. Carter has pioneered work in using dynamic isotherms to investigate product stability and establish critical water activities for optimal shelf life. He also specializes in shelf-life loss and effective utilization of instrumentation to address product safety and quality issues. Dr. Carter holds a Ph.D. in Crop Science and Food Engineering and an M.S degree in Cereal Chemistry and Crop Science from Washington State University, as well as a B.A. degree in Botany from Weber State University.