In this episode of Food Safety Matters, the Food Safety Magazine team discusses:

• Top news stories and trending topics we covered on the podcast this year
• A look back at the Food Safety Modernization Act's rules that took effect in 2017
• Food Safety Magazine's most-viewed content in 2017
• Trends observed via Bob Ferguson's Food Safety Insights series and forecasts for 2018
• Commentary on some of our most memorable expert guests, and continuing themes we heard in various interviews
• Some podcasting lessons learned

News Mentioned in This Episode:

• Study: Effective Handwashing Does Not Require Hot Water
• 3.7 Million Pounds of Recalled Meat Products Linked to One Breadcrumb Supplier
• 7 Million Pounds of Meat Products Recalled After Consumers Find Bone Pieces
• Chipotle Customers Report Foodborne Illness Symptoms Online (includes links to previous Chipotle stories)
• Significant Foodborne Outbreaks of 2017
• FSMA Infographic

Food Safety Magazine's Most-Viewed Articles of 2017

1. Food for Thought: The Federal GMO Labeling Law
2. Nanotechnology in the Food Industry: A Short Review
3. Consumer Food Trends Create Food Safety Challenges for the Foodservice Industry
4. A Look at the Microbiology Testing Market
5. Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment and Pre-Filter for FSMA, GFSI and SOX Requirements

This special BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters focuses on Allergens. Concerns about food allergens have been around now for quite some time, and the food industry has done a respectable job of proactively guarding against unintended food allergens in their products. However, with the introduction of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), continued globalization of the food supply and increased regulatory activities, food manufacturers will need to keep diligent in their food allergen control plans.

To explore how the food industry can improve their odds of avoiding allergen risks, Food Safety Magazine’s Editorial Director, Barbara VanRenterghem, speaks with Tim Hendra from Neogen. Tim has been with Neogen for 21 years, specializing in diagnostic applications such as rapid testing and allergens. He has been a very active member of technical committees at various food industry associations, such as the Food Allergen Research and Resource Program (FARRP) and International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), and has co-authored several food allergen handbooks.

In this episode, we speak to Neogen’s Tim Headra about:

• Why allergens continue to be such an important issue for food manufacturers.
• Food allergen trends and recalls
• Risks to consumers and the business in the food industry
• How manufacturers and retailers can work together when allergen recalls occur
• Importance of transparency (for manufacturers)
• Reasons for allergen recalls other than mislabeling
• What the “Big 8” allergens mean on a global scale, and what allergens in other countries mean for the U.S.
• Efforts to harmonize allergen lists and threshold levels between countries
• Detecting allergens vs. proteins, and the relationship between the two
• FSMA and food allergen control programs, types of allergen testing kits and methods
• Limitations with PCR tests and LC-MS methods vs. ELISA tests
• What food manufacturers can do when they are faced with allergen issues

Resources

Visit Neogen’s Allergen website for information on Neogen’s complete line of allergen solutions. 
Food Allergen Monitoring Handbook
Validation and Verification Handbook

To speak to a Neogen representative call 1-800-234-5333

Sponsored by:

Will Daniels is president of the produce division at IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group. In this role, Will is responsible for lab and consulting services for the produce industry. Prior to joining IEH, Will was president and CEO of Fresh Integrity Group, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in operations and food safety consulting for the fresh produce and perishables industries. He was recently involved in the cold-pressed juice industry, working with two startups to develop their operations. Prior to his involvement with start-up companies, Will was with Earthbound Farm from 1999 until 2014. Having leadership roles in both quality assurance and operations, he helped the company grow from a small, regional salad producer to the nation’s largest grower, packer, and shipper of organic produce. As Earthbound Farm’s Chief Food Integrity Officer, Daniels was responsible for food safety, food quality, and the company’s organic integrity program. Before joining Earthbound Farm, Will worked for 15 years as a consultant in the foodservice sector; working in the back of the house designing menus, introducing food safety and, improving costs; he even had his own catering business. 

Will is a sought-after speaker and has addressed key issues in food safety in the produce industry at meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Restaurant Association, the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Association for Food Protection. He was the keynote speaker at the 2013 Food Safety Summit in Washington, DC, was one of the Packer 25 annual list of produce leaders for 2013 and was named one of the food industry’s top food safety leaders by Marler/Clark’s Food Safety News in 2013. He has also been featured in a variety of national news stories on food safety with media such as The New York Times and ABC News’s Good Morning America; he is the author of two book chapters, “Effectively Managing through a Crisis,” in Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce, published by Wiley in 2009 and “Pathogen Testing in Fresh Produce: Earthbound Farm,” in Global Safety of Fresh Produce; A Handbook of Best Practice, Innovative Commercial Collations and Case Studies, published by Woodhead Publishing in 2014. An active leader in the food industry, Will serves on a variety of boards and technical committees. 

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Will Daniels about:

• How Earthbound Farm responded to a deadly E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to fresh spinach
• The complexities and challenges of the supply chain
• Balancing food safety needs with marketing objectives
• The importance of education along every point of the supply chain
• Low product pricing and its effect on food safety
• Misconceptions about FSMA regulations
• Getting the C-suite to understand the value of investing in food safety 

Articles by Will Daniels in Food Safety Magazine
Nationwide Produce Outbreak: A Moment You Never Forget
Earthbound Farm: Balancing Food Safety From Seed to Shelf
Industry Perceptions of Proposed FSMA Rule on Preventive Controls

News Mentioned in This Episode
Study: Raw Flour Linked to E. coli Food Poisoning
Ells Departs as Chipotle CEO
A Food Fight Has Broken Out Between the USDA and FDA
Editors Note: Our apologies to FiveThirtyEight for crediting the article to Politico in the episode.

Danone Welcomes Arbitration Award in Fonterra Case
Joining us for this discussion is Larry Keener, CFS, PCQI, president and CEO of International Product Safety Consultants and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine.

Other resources for Fonterra-Danone Story:
Danone Damages Anger Fonterra
2013 Fonterra Recall (Wiki page)

Download Incident Report from Government of New Zealand: 
The WPC80 Incident: Causes and Responses Government Inquiry into the Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident

Dr. Hal King is the founder and CEO of Public Health Innovations, an ideation technology and consulting business. 

Hal is a public health professional who has worked in the investigation of foodborne and other disease outbreaks with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has also performed funded research on causation of diseases at Emory University.

Hal has worked in the prevention of intentional adulteration of foods for U.S. Army Reserves Consequence Management Unit, then on the design and implementation of preventative controls for food safety hazards in the food industry while serving as director of food and product safety at Chick-fil-A.

Hal is past chairman of the National Restaurant Association Quality Assurance Executive Study Group, past board member of the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CDC Industry Partnerships, and past President of the Georgia Association for Food Protection an affiliate of the International Association of Food Protection.

Hal’s company, Public Health Innovations developed The Food Safety Lab, a website that facilitates open access to best practices in food safety for the food industry.  

He is the co-author and author of several food safety articles including numerous peer-reviewed research publications on the science of food safety and public health, holds several U.S. Patents and Patent Pending technologies. He has also authored several books including:
Food Safety Management: Implementing a Food Safety Program in a Food Retail Business and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls Improving Food Safety in Human Food Manufacturing for Food Businesses

He is now writing a new book to help the industry ensure food safety in restaurant operations called Active Managerial Control: Implementing Food Safety Management Systems in a Retail Food Service Business.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Hal King about:

• How to design a food safety management system that can enable control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness
• His time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and how it helped him to understand food safety management
• How and where food safety hazards occur in the restaurant environment
• Turnover in the foodservice industry, and how it can be a setback in terms of food safety
• How health inspections work and the important role they play in food safety
• HACCP in a restaurant environment vs. in a food manufacturing facility
• Food hazards that get the most--and least--attention at the restaurant level
• Why some restaurant chains are reluctant to implement daily monitoring and other food safety systems
• The top food safety challenge facing restaurants today 
• How spending $10,000 on food safety could potentially save millions in preventing a recall, outbreak, etc.
• How consumers' perceptions of food safety have shifted, according to multiple studies
• Industry vs. consumers: Who bears responsibility when it comes to handling and preparing foods at home?
• Educational and career advice for young professionals interested in a food safety career

Hal King's Articles Published in Food Safety Magazine:
The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Foodservice
Is It Time for a "Kill Step" for Pathogens on Produce at Retail?
Implementing Active Managerial Control Principles in a Retail Food Business
Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Controls (HARPC): The New GMP for Food Manufacturing
Food Defense Perspectives within a Food Protection Landscape: An Invitation to All Stakeholders

Related Content and Resources:
The Key to a Successful Career in the Food Safety Profession
 

News Mentioned in This Episode
Delta Joins American Airlines in Suspending Use of LAX Kitchen to Listeria
Sonny Perdue's reorganization of USDA on New Food Economy
FDA Releases Small Entity Compliance Guide for the FSMA Sanitary Transportation of Human Food and Animal Food Final Rule

Dr. Darin Detwiler is the Assistant Dean of Graduate Academic and Faculty Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. He is also the Lead Academic of the MS in Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industry and Professor of Food Policy. In addition to being the Founder and President of Detwiler Consulting Group, LLC, Dr. Detwiler serves as the Executive Vice President for Public Health at the International Food Authenticity Assurance Organization. Dr. Detwiler serves on numerous committees and advisory panels related to food science, nutrition, fraud, and policy.  

In 2004, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed Detwiler to two terms on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national advisory committee for meat and poultry inspection. He later advised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the Senior Policy Coordinator for a leading national food safety advocacy organization, where his committee work and presentations supported the FDA’s progress towards implementation of Food Safety Modernization Act by bringing forward the true burden of disease to various federal, state, and industry audiences.

He is a sought-after speaker and has addressed key issues in food safety at corporate and regulatory training events, as well as national and international events in Spain, Dubai, and the UK. He has been featured as a speaker before VTEC, STEC CAP, Food Safety Summit, Conference for Food Protection, National Food Policy Conference, AFDO regional events, FDA regional seminars, and multiple state public and environmental health conferences.

Detwiler is a contributing writer to numerous food industry publications and is quoted frequently by journalists across the country. A consumer food safety advocate since his son’s death from E.coli during the landmark 1993 “Jack-in-the-Box” outbreak, Detwiler has been featured in a variety of national news stories on food safety with media such as The New York Times, Food Safety News, CNN, NPR, PBS’s Frontline, CNBC, and ABC’s Good Morning America. A Navy submarine veteran, Detwiler holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy at Northeastern University with his research on state food regulatory capacity and alignment with federal policy.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Darin Detwiler about:

• How his son's unexpected death led to an unplanned career in food policy and food safety
• The positive policy changes and technological advancements the food industry has seen in the Jack in the Box outbreak in 1993
• The difference between the 1993 outbreak and Chipotle's recent food safety issues
• Pushback he experienced from the food industry when speaking out about his son's death and Jack in the Box's negligence
• The importance of the food industry understanding that their mistakes have a lasting impact on thousands of lives
• Working to make E. coli a common household term that consumers know, understand and ultimately prevent
• The lack of food safety focus in schools
• The evolution and trajectory of the food safety career path

We also speak with Marianne Gravely (USDA) and Hilary Thesmar (FMI) about:

• How industry can support the importance of the "Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill" concept as consumers head into the Thanksgiving holiday
• How consumers can prevent cross-contamination when grocery shopping for meat and poultry products
• Messaging and concepts that retailers should be educating consumers about
• The most frequently asked questions submitted to the USDA's Meat & Poultry Hotline
• Educational materials and resources available to both retailers and consumers 

About Marianne Gravely
Marianne joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Meat and Poultry Hotline staff in 1988. As the senior technical information specialist, she provides consumers with safe food handling guidance daily through phone, live-chat and email inquiries and is one of the persons behind the USDA virtual representative “Ask Karen” answering food safety questions. She also researches and writes materials for the Food Safety Inspection Service website, and handles media inquiries.Marianne has a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics with an emphasis in foods and nutrition from Hood College in Frederick, MD. She received her Master’s degree in Human Nutrition and Foods from Virginia Tech. 

About Hilary Thesmar
In her role as the chief food and product safety officer and senior vice president of food safety programs for the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), Dr. Thesmar provides leadership for all safety programs for FMI’s retail and wholesale members and provides support for members on food safety training programs, FSMA training, recall plans and management, crisis management, research, and overall safety and sanitation programs. Dr. Thesmar has a Ph.D. in Food Technology from Clemson University, a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition from Winthrop University, a bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Clemson, and she is a Registered Dietitian. She has over a decade of experience in scientific and regulatory affairs with food trade associations. 

Darin Detwiler's Articles Published by Food Safety Magazine:
Food Safety: A Century of Warnings

Related Content and Resources:
Jack in the Box: Fostering Food Safety Through Great Partnering
Food Safety & the CEO: Keys to Bottom Line Success
Why Don't We Learn from Our Mistakes?
VIDEO: Jack in the Box E. coli Outbreak
VIDEO: Northeastern University's Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industries
FightBac--Partnership for Food Safety Education
FoodSafety.gov
Ask Karen
USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline: 800-535-4555
Requests for bulk food safety reading/educational materials can be sent to fsis.outreach@fsis.usda.gov

News Mentioned in This Episode
New Study Pinpoints Source of Salmonella in Ground Turkey
American Airlines Stood Along in Suspending LAX Catering Kitchen Over Listeria Find

Do you have questions or guest suggestions for the Food Safety Matters podcast? Let us know!
You can leave us a voicemail anytime at 747-231-7630. You can also email us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com. 

This special BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters focuses on Listeria Right Now, an environmental Listeria test offering molecular-level accuracy, with no enrichment and a total time to results of under one hour. This innovative food safety product was introduced at the annual IAFP meeting this year, with many people remarking that it was a “game changer”.

Because of the pervasiveness of Listeria in the environment, the risk that Listeria can be introduced into a food processing facilities can happen at any time. The goal of an environmental monitoring program is to verify the effectiveness of contamination control programs, identify microbial harborage sites, and ensure that corrective actions have eliminated organisms such as Listeria from the plant.

With the intent of helping to control this ubiquitous pathogen in food processing facilities, Neogen has developed a one-hour Listeria test that features the total elimination of the enrichment process. Neogen’s new Listeria Right Now test is fast and flexible enough to be used in a “seek and destroy” mode, as well as to identify vectors and sources of contamination.   

To understand the practical applications of this innovative new pathogen test and the possibilities it brings to food processing and production we spoke with Jim Topper, a senior marketing development manager with Neogen.

In this episode, we speak with Neogen’s Jim Topper about:

• Conventional environmental monitoring methods and how Listeria Right Now has moved the needle.
• FDA’s guidance on Listeria testing that supports “seek and destroy” methods.
• What the Listeria Right Now actually is.
• Obtaining Listeria test results in under one hour and the timeline to results.
• The types of validations performed for the Listeria Right Now system.
• How this product will be used throughout the food industry.
• Whether the product should be used for all Listeria testing.

Resources
For more information, visit the resource page on Neogen’s website for Listeria Right Now
or call Jim Topper at 1-800-234-5333

Sponsored by:

Dr. David Acheson, is the founder and CEO of The Acheson Group and brings more than 30 years of medical and food safety research and experience to provide strategic advice as well as recall and crisis management support to food companies and ancillary technology companies on a global basis on all matters relating to food safety and food defense.
 
David graduated from the University of London Medical School and practiced internal medicine and infectious diseases in the United Kingdom until 1987 when he moved to the New England Medical Center and became an Associate Professor at Tufts University in Boston, studying the molecular pathogenesis of foodborne pathogens.
 
Prior to forming The Acheson Group, David served as the Chief Medical Officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and then joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the Chief Medical Officer at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). After serving as the director of CFSAN’s Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response, David was appointed as the Assistant and then Associate Commissioner for Foods, which provided him an agency-wide leadership role for all food and feed issues and the responsibility for the development of the 2007 Food Protection Plan, which served as the basis for many of the authorities granted to FDA by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
 
From 2009 to 2013 he was a partner at Leavitt Partners where he managed Leavitt Partners Global Food Safety Solutions. 

David has published extensively and is internationally recognized both for his public health expertise in food safety and his research in infectious diseases. He is a sought-after speaker and regular guest on national news programs. He serves on a variety of boards and food safety advisory groups of several major food manufacturers.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to David Acheson about:

• His role in building the 2007 Food Protection Plan and how it parallels FSMA
• The importance of the food safety crises that took place in 2006 and 2007
• The differences between food fraud, food security, food defense and food adulteration, and how sometimes these instances do not necessarily implicate a public health risk
• His advice to food companies gearing up to comply with FSMA's food defense regulations
• Facing the realities of determining whether your food plant is at risk of committing a food-related crime
• How to advocate for more or better resources, and how to convince the C-suite to invest in food safety
• Balancing food safety goals with a company's other metrics—sales, margins, etc.
• The main challenges he sees facing food companies
• His views on announced vs. unannounced audits
• How the Peanut Corporation of America debacle helped shape FSMA's Preventive Controls rule and how it forced some food companies to rebuild their own supply and control programs
• His thoughts on how legal roadblocks keep food safety violations from ever coming to light

Articles by David Acheson in Food Safety Magazine
Why Don't We Learn More from Our Mistakes?
Industry Perspectives of Proposed FSMA Rule on Preventive Controls

News Mentioned in This Episode
FDA Reminds Public of Soy Nut Butter Recall
Opponents Say USDA Reorganization has Mulitple Problems
Raw Milk Dairy Out of Time to Appeal Retail License Suspension
Why Is it So Hard to Track the Source of a Food Poisoning Outbreak?
Food Truck Commissary: The Foundation of a Mobile Business
Savor Safe Street Food