Our Journey to Food Safety Leadership | Our Journey to Food Safety Leadership

Recently I met with the team at Deloitte Canada to offer some perspectives for a research report called Safe to move.  The report examines the issue of food safety and provides a comprehensive approach to help companies achieve their business objectives and manage food safety risks.

 Food safety can be a complex issue  and there are no ”silver bullets”  to solving all the challenges that food manufactures face but this report provides solid recommendations of what all the players need to do to assess, build and monitor an effective food safety program.  

Click here to listen to the Deloitte Canada pod cast.

Our Food Safety Vision is to provide consumers safe, great tasting food produced in a safe environment.  The foundation of this is building and maintaining a strong food safety culture, which requires strong leadership.  To this end we are delighted to announce the immediate appointment of Sharon Beals as the new Senior Vice President, Food Safety and Quality Assurance.

In this role, Sharon will be responsible for the continuous development and implementation of Food Safety, Regulatory and Quality Assurance initiatives, including mandatory common systems, compliance, technology development, and audit across all fresh and processed  meat and poultry plants at Maple Leaf Consumer Foods.

With a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food Science) from Cornell University, Sharon brings over 25 years of experience in Food Safety, Regulatory, Quality Assurance and Process Development.  The scope of this experience encompasses crisis management, government relations, HACCP, SPC, lab services, QA and food safety systems. 

In her most recent position as Vice President of Technical Services at Smithfield Packing, Sharon was responsible for Food Safety, Regulatory Compliance, Research and Development, Product Innovation, Quality Assurance, Laboratories and Corporate Sanitation across all facilities.  Prior to this role, Sharon garnered senior food safety expertise at Tyson Foods, Orval Kent Food Company, Arby’s Inc  and Land O’Frost.

Welcome Sharon we are pleased to have you join the team.

“Creating a high performing food safety organization” is one of the pillars of Maple Leaf’s Food Safety Strategy.  We are committed to building a world-class food safety and quality team to ensure we have  strong  technical and scientific expertise throughout Maple Leaf.

I am pleased to welcome Peter Slade to my team as Senior Director, Food Safety Technical Affairs.  Peter is an internationally recognized food safety leader with over 30 years of diverse and extensive experience globally in the food industry, including experience in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia and China.

Peter will play an integral role on the food safety leadership team and specifically will be responsible for working closely with each Maple Leaf business unit to identify opportunities to further mitigate potential food safety risks.  His work will include establishing clear lines of communication with the product development teams on new products as well as evaluating methods to reduce risk in current product lines.  Peter will keep abreast of new food safety technologies, best practices and the latest in food safety research. 

Peter began his career as Research Officer at Campden and Chorleywood Foods Research Association, U.K. and then in a Microbiologist position at Midwest Research Institute, U.S. where he provided food safety technical support to the government of Saudi Arabia.  He then joined Campbell Soup Company, U.S. as manager of Technical and Analytical Services. Peter then went on to McDonald’s Corporate Food Safety group where he led the Supplier/Distribution HACCP Programs across a number of different commodities as well as leading the McDonalds Food Safety Advisory Council.

Peter was recruited to the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), an FDA and industry- funded research and education center. During nearly 10 years with the Center, he directed food safety research programs as well as taught a number of graduate classes in food science, microbiology and food safety. Peter also successfully led the FDA-sponsored Allergen Task Force, and chaired the committee that developed the standardized Juice HACCP Training Curriculum.

Peter holds a Ph.D. in Food Science (Microbiology) from the University of Guelph.  

We’re very pleased that Peter is bringing his wealth of expertise and knowledge to join our team and participate on the blog.  Welcome to Maple Leaf Foods Peter!