Food safety is not a subject that has typically been on the minds of elementary and high school teachers or their students’ minds in the past.  But helping the next generation understand what the risks are, where they exist and the roles of government, food companies and consumers in contributing to safer food was an essential program to introduce. 

Following the Listeria crisis in August 2008, we made food safety our priority at Maple Leaf which included investing in food safety education.  As part of that commitment, we partnered with the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) to develop innovative food safety resources for teachers and students in elementary and high schools.  

Through these new teaching resources, students can discover and explore food safety issues in interesting ways, making connections to real life situations and in their day-to-day lives.  We’ve developed hands-on activities and engaging research exercises for elementary students in grades 1, 5 and 8, and senior science students in grades 11 and 12.  Part of the curriculum also provides insight into careers in the food industry.

These educational resources were launched at STAO’s annual conference in Toronto last week and are now available online.  For more information or to download the resources, visit: www.stao.ca.

In addition to two sessions to introduce these educational resources to teachers attending  the annual conference, I was also given the opportunity to speak to conference attendees.  I talked about the critical importance of food safety to the global challenge of feeding a population expected to hit nine billion people by 2050.  Science and technology play such an incredibly important role in ensuring that our food system produces safe, wholesome and great tasting products to this ever growing population worldwide. 

While science is critical, I also made the point, very strongly, that the real key to safe food is having every person involved in the food chain, from farmers and ranchers, to processors and retailers, and even consumers, fully aware of their role in food safety.  We preach this concept daily at Maple Leaf Foods with our 22,500 employees, and I encouraged the science teachers in attendance that they also have a huge role to play as they are developing the next generation of food industry employees and consumers.  I want to thank the leadership of STAO for giving Maple Leaf Foods this opportunity to contribute to food safety education. 

It’s been an incredible partnership working with the STAO to develop these excellent teaching resources which I’m confident will engage the young and inquiring minds of the next generation.  By investing in food safety education, we are taking another step forward in our journey to food safety leadership and building stronger food safety practices in Canada.

Last night, I had a chance to meet with a number of bloggers at our Mississauga offices. I’ve dealt a lot with “mainstream media” over the years but meeting with bloggers, particularly those who keep followers up to date on food and nutrition, was a new step for me.  It’s part of a new reality where people are using social media to speak directly to hundreds and in some cases thousands of followers especially about issues that aren’t always in the mainstream. And that’s important. People are using the internet to get the information they need when they need it.

The real goal for Maple Leaf Foods in doing this kind of event is to keep in touch with our consumers who want to have confidence in the products they have purchased and trusted from our company for years. They have expectations of us and we want to meet those expectations and hear from them. 

Following the listeriosis outbreak of August 2008 we’ve redoubled our efforts in so many areas of food safety and quality control.  And we’ve updated information about our efforts, our commitment, and our record in these areas in our Food Safety Pledge.

One of the things I learned from the events of 2008 is how much the various players in system – consumers, industry and government – can and need to benefit from up-to-date food safety information.

To that end we’ve committed inour  Food Safety Pledge to share what we’ve learned Science and best practices are evolving all the time and new information is always coming on stream. Food safety is a fundamental responsibility that every one of us operating in the food industry shares, and by sharing information we will collectively raise the bar even higher than regulations require.

But what about information for consumers – the millions of Canadians who trust Maple Leaf Foods for a range of great tasting, quality products? That’s why we continue to engage in conversations through different channels. Yesterday, and last week in Vancouver, bloggers we met with put various questions to me and members of our food safety team that their readers wanted addressed. Questions focused on :

What happened to create the crisis in 2008?

What are we doing to ensure training and standards have an effect going forward?

How are we ensuring quality throughout the process: not just in our plants but also at farms and during shipping to stores?

What is our reaction to recent studies about nitrites in food and are we promoting nutritious and healthy options?

These are all areas where we’ve made advances. But we are continuously looking for ways to improve – whether it’s offering a range of healthy choices and balance in our product lines or improving in food safety,

We’ll be looking to see what other comments and questions that bloggers’ readers have in response to the  blog posts based on last night’s session. As well, we’re hoping to hear from you here on this blog.  We’ll continue to answer the top questions and comments we receive on an ongoing basis, as well as share information and updates about our efforts.  It’s all part of maintaining an ongoing discussion on food safety and health issues and I look forward to your participation.

This week I participated in my very first “bloginar” – a meeting with about 15 bloggers in the Vancouver area. These were parents who blog regularly about a range of topics of interest to moms and dads and are read by parents across North America and beyond.  Healthy eating and food safety are high on the list of topics of importance to them.  We spent the evening talking about their concerns about the safety of the food system and what Maple Leaf is doing to advance food safety.  

Top concerns and questions raised by these bloggers focused on the recall of 2008 and the discovery of Listeria in Maple Leaf products. They wanted to know about the training programs that are in place now to make sure we’re following best practices. They asked what will help ensure we remain motivated to continue to raise the bar on our standards. One very good question on that topic was whether or not employees feel comfortable taking action if they have a food safety concern in our plants.

These are important questions for Maple Leaf. We went to great lengths to determine what happened in 2008 that caused the death of 23 Canadians. In responding to their questions I had a chance to explain the new practices we put in place to ensure better sanitization based on what we learned from detailed investigations. I talked about how we continue to submit our plants to regular and random audits and are working towards certification under the internationally recognized standards (specifically what’s known as GFSI or Global Food Safety Initiative standards).  And we actively encourage employees to let us know if they have a food safety concern or ideas to improve how we do things…it’s a critical part of building a culture of food safety.   

We also talked a bit about what consumers should know and can do to protect their families, and the types of home cleaning products such as bleach or even vinegar that can act as antimicrobials.

We’re really grateful that people came out and shared candid feedback last night. It was informative and good conversation and I think participants enjoyed it; I know I did. We have to stay in touch with what consumers expect of us bacause it’s going to help us do a better job.

After about 30 years in this industry, I joined Maple Leaf in late 2009 as SVP Food Safety and Quality Assurance, in part because I was impressed with the company’s commitment to lead in this area. I want to thank those Vancouver bloggers I met for coming out to the event. I’m looking forward to more sessions like this as well as continuing the discussion on-line. Keep visiting this blog as we’ll be sharing more updates. We want your comments!