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A service for global industry professionals · Friday, March 29, 2024 · 699,735,781 Articles · 3+ Million Readers

The 10,000 Mile FMI Food Safety Summer Tour

By: Adam Friedlander, Specialist, Food Safety and Technical Services, Food Marketing Institute

Food Safety TourThis summer, I traveled 10,640 miles to learn how U.S. food retailers can position themselves as global leaders to prevent foodborne illness. Over the course of three months, I attended a variety of food safety conferences, symposiums and workshops to help the FMI Food Protection Committee (FPC) gain greater expertise for 2018 Food Safety Priority Initiatives, which include:

  1. Cleaning and Sanitation
  2. Listeria Prevention at Retail
  3. Produce Safety
  4. Traceability Technologies
  5. Ill Food Workers

Retail Food Safety Symposium, June 5-7, 2018, Napa, CA: 

This symposium addressed the retailer’s need to constantly improve and monitor cleaning and sanitation procedures within a store. To keep customers safe from pathogens, retailers should assess their equipment, such as deli slicers, display cases and floor drains, to ensure easy cleaning and sanitation capabilities. 

This conference brought together federal, state, local and tribal public health officials, along with industry and academic stakeholders, to advance science-based initiatives that help protect consumers from foodborne illness. I attended sessions that identified methods to prevent Listeria harborage, improve food safety culture and enhance handwashing procedures. Retailers can participate in various AFDO Committees to enhance their understanding of food safety initiatives.  

Legal leaders in retail and wholesale industries converged in the nation’s capital to learn how a variety of regulations could impact a store’s daily operation. I gained a greater understanding of how produce safety regulations, antitrust laws, food labeling requirements and crisis management protocols can protect retailers from facing legal liabilities, while keeping customers safe. 

Nearly 3,600 food safety professionals from 53 countries congregated in Utah to learn how to better protect our global food supply. I enjoyed learning about how retailers can help prevent foodborne illness by effectively communicating food safety messages to consumers. Furthermore, I am grateful to have discussed, with leading experts, how whole genome sequencing (WGS) is being used in conjunction with epidemiology to precisely find the sources of foodborne contaminations. Retailers can join any IAFP Professional Development Groups, and thus increase their food safety leadership presence.  

With a mission to feed 9 billion people by 2050, over 20,000 food scientists from 90 countries attended this year’s conference. The most impactful conversations I had with conference attendees regarded how standardized traceability technologies can improve consumer trust, increase transparency and more rapidly find the source of contamination throughout the entire supply chain. Retailers can add value to these groundbreaking conversations by joining a variety of IFT Divisions

This USDA-Economic Research Services (ERS) hosted a workshop, titled, “The Convergence of Policy Issues in Produce Research: Labor/mechanization, NAFTA, and the Food Safety Modernization Act”, to prepare farmers, regulators, auditors and retailers for upcoming Produce Safety Rule compliance dates. Earlier this month, the USDA-ERS released a survey to determine the preparedness of U.S. produce growers to fully implement with these FDA requirements. 

Greatest Takeaways:

As I reflect on my 10,640-mile, three-month journey, I realized that food retailers play a crucial global leadership role to advance food safety knowledge. Attending these events not only expanded my knowledge of technical food safety content, but I also gained valuable insights from a diverse professional community, to support all FPC initiatives. While most food safety voyages do not require 10,000 miles of travel, it is crucial to continuously go that extra mile in supporting all store employees to help prevent foodborne illness. 

To learn more about food safety resources previously developed by the FPC, visit the FMI Food Safety Resource Page.

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