Anyone interested in the culture of food safety is invited to attend a series of free webinars with panels of international presenters and organized by the International Association for Food Protection.
The non-profit group has thousands of members worldwide, including government leaders and employees, academics, industry representatives and others interested in food safety.
The free webinar sessions are free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The series begins May 26 and wraps up on July 22.
The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) has the goal of advancing food safety worldwide. Following are IAFP’s descriptions of the webinar sessions and the panelist who are scheduled to participate.
May 26 — How to get Buy-In, Develop Metrics, and Properly Implement
Building a culture of food safety is important, but how do you do it? In this webinar, attendees will go through a three-part process corresponding to essential, practical measures for developing a culture of food safety: leveraging leadership support, identifying learning needs and corresponding metrics, and strategic roll-out of effective programs.
- Lone Jespersen, moderator, Cultivate, Switzerland
- Austin Welch, moderator, Sage Media, Colorado, USA
- Neil Coole, presenter, BSI, Virginia, USA
- Richard Fleming, presenter, Sage Media, Colorado, USA
- Megan Kenjora, presenter, The Hershey Co., Pennsylvania, USA
June 8 — Food Safety Culture & Communication – It’s about People
In 2019, FDA established priority areas of focus for internal working groups and stakeholders and they are 1) Tech Enabled Traceability and Foodborne Outbreak Response 2) Smarter Tools and Approaches for Prevention, 3) Adapting to New Business Models and Retail Food Safety Modernization and 4) Food Safety Culture.
In spite of the release of GFSI’s position paper on Food Safety Culture, several food industry professionals are at a loss in terms of where to start. Those of us in quality and food safety often believe that food safety is our sole responsibility. But is it only our responsibility? Are we being too exclusive and not allowing open conversation with our peers in sanitation, HR, operations, marketing or business leaders? Perhaps we are not sure how best to communicate the importance of package integrity in preventing recontamination, or swabbing to seek the source of the problem as a topic of interest to our peers.
How can we engage others, and have an influence on employees and companies to commit to food safety? We are very interested to help the audience walk away with a toolkit that they can use to connect with various stakeholders in their organization.
- Akhila Vasan, moderator, Institute for Food Safety and Health Illinois, USA
- Neil Coole, presenter, BSI Group Virginia, USA
- Lone Jespersen, presenter, Cultivate Switzerland
- Linda Smith, presenter, SmithCom, Toronto, Canada
June 22 — Latest Food Safety Culture Research From Four Doctoral Researchers
Get five practical insights from five passionate researchers in the field of food safety culture. From the role of regulators, application of GFSI dimensions, impact of communication, to assessments in SMEs and processing facilities.
- Lone Jespersen, moderator, Cultivate Switzerland
- Sophie Waung, presenter, Purdue, Indiana, USA
- Emma Samuel, presenter, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
- Rounaq Nayak, presenter, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom
July 6 — SQF and Culture Improvements – Hear Practical Learnings From Two Companies
More information to come. LeAnn Chuboff, moderator, SQFI Virginia, USA
July 13 — Evolving the Retailer Stand on Food Safety Audits; Culture and Behavioral Assessments
Learn how leading retailers are Incorporating culture and behavioral assessments into their food safety audit.
- Lone Jespersen, moderator, Cultivate Switzerland
- Andrew Clarke, presenter, Loblaws, Toronto, Canada
- Ray Bowe, presenter, Musgrave, Ireland
July 22 — Dynamic Leadership by Supervisors = Strong Organizational Cultures
Spending the time in leadership development of your supervisors and management team translates to a stronger culture and proven return in that investment to your organization. Against the current backdrop of the current COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever leaders and emerging leaders must tap into skills of adaptability, managing vs. leading, building and maintaining trust and increased engagement to successfully navigate these new challenges.
Hear directly from industry leaders sharing their approaches to investing in their leaders to affect positive cultural change and bring added value to their organization.
- Lone Jespersen, moderator, Cultivate Switzerland
- Laura Nelson, presenter, Alchemy Systems, Texas, USA
- Kent Summers, presenter Daily’s Premium Meats
- Kristin Kastraup, presenter Alchemy Systems, Texas, USA
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