The Maple Leaf Food Safety Advisory Council
December 9th, 2009 by Dr. Randy HuffmanUpon joining Maple Leaf as Chief Food Safety Officer earlier this year, one of my first priorities was to bring together a team of independent experts to increase our knowledge in the areas of food safety, microbiology and public health. The Maple Leaf Food Safety Advisory Council is comprised of some impressive food safety experts whose primary mandate is to challenge Maple Leaf’s status quo on our food safety program and keep us abreast of any new research, testing methods and other emerging trends from around the world.
The following individuals have been appointed to the Food Safety Advisory Council:
o Dr. Harvey Anderson, Director, Program in Food Safety, Nutrition and Regulatory Affairs and Professor, Nutritional Science and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto;
o Professor Colin Dennis, Chairman, Industry Advisory Group, International Agri-Technology Centre Ltd, and retired Managing Director of the Campden, BRI food research centre in the U.K.;
o Dr. Mansel Griffiths Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety and Chair of the Masters Program in Food Safety at the University of Guelph;
o Dr. R. Bruce Tompkin, a microbiologist with more than 45 years in the food processing industry and one of the fathers of HACCP;
o Mr. John Weisgerber, former Director of Quality for a major North American meat processor with nearly 40 years experience in quality and food safety management.
We recently established the Council’s key priorities for the first year. These include performing an ongoing critical review of our food safety strategy that will include recommendations on additions or modifications to advance Maple Leaf’s programs, provide insight on any global emerging food safety risks and guidance on Maple Leaf’s employee training and education programs
With our first meeting behind us, I know this accomplished team will bring a wealth of knowledge and breadth of expertise to Maple Leaf that will support our commitment to becoming a global leader in food safety.
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It all sounds so nice, BUT… Why can’t Maple Leaf (and other food industry companies) match the manufacturing processes of, for example electronic equipment makers? That means rather than implement fluff like HACCP, actually TEST. It means rather than hope your buyers and suppliers are consistent, track everything.
Amusingly, the food industry uses cost as an excuse to maintain practices that would be considered shoddy, wasteful and risky by most other industries when analysis generally shows change makes economic sense.
Don-
The notion of applying similar testing approaches across very diverse manufacturing industries is a novel one, but I question if the suggestion is scientifically sound. I am not an expert in the manufacture of electronic equipment, but I would assume that the testing for microbiological targets in perishable food products certainly must be very different that testing done in electronics manufacturing. The manufacturing process for electronic equipment versus food production creates significant challenges that must be considered. Testing for microorganism in food has scientific limitations which cannot be ignored and must be fully understood before an effective testing program is developed. At Maple Leaf Foods we have implemented very aggressive testing schemes in our food manufacturing environment that meet the regulatory requirements and in many cases exceeds what required by law . These protocols give an indication of process control and allows us to be proactive in addressing food safety risks. Testing is an important component of a total food safety system, but to suggest that testing is the only way to ensure safety of food is misguided. A properly designed and implemented HACCP program combined with all the critical pre-requisite programs is in fact the best way to ensure safety of food.
Dr. Randy Huffman