I’ve just returned from Lubbock, Texas, and to cooler temperatures believe it or not here in Toronto. What took me to the Lone Star state was the annual meeting of the American Meat Science Association. For the next year I will be serving as President of the association and I took over that responsibility at the meeting Tuesday night. This annual meeting, dubbed The Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC), has been occurring annually since 1948.  The RMC got its name from the original format for the meeting which encouraged active dialogue and audience participation concerning scientific topics related to meat, hence the term “reciprocation”.  The meeting retains this same format today giving attendees the chance to learn and interact with experts across a wide variety of topics.  Typically held on a university campus providing access to laboratories and teaching facilities, this year was no different.  Over 600 attendees got to experience the amazing new meat science facilities at Texas Tech University

To those of you who don’t think about meat science too much, it may surprise you to learn how much the fresh and processed meat industry relies on research and science.  Just because we work with products you may have known and enjoyed for years doesn’t mean we aren’t constantly learning and reviewing new research to better understand food production and processing, safety and nutrition. Members of the association bring different perspectives in this respect – some are scientists from universities and others are with companies across North America and elsewhere. Government officials also play an active role as individual members of the association. The association is one way in which these folks come together to share the latest on animal husbandry techniques, muscle biology, meat chemistry and microbiology, and finished product safety and nutrition.

Some of the presentations at this week’s conference included topics on sodium-reduction initiatives and continuing research into nitrites and nitrates, and validation of in-plant microbial interventions.  These issues are important to consumers and there’s a lot that is being investigated so we can have a better understanding of them.  What makes the association’s work so important is that it’s not just supporting rigorous peer-reviewed science – it’s ensuring that the industry is made aware of the research findings that can have an impact on the work that food manufacturers do to produce everyday products. Members of the association benefit when we know the decisions we have to take in our jobs are based on all available evidence – from outside and inside our companies.

Two areas of focus over the coming year (yes, there are term limits to this Presidency) are strengthening the association’s base of support and carrying out its newly launched strategic plan to be the leading forum for knowledge about meat and meat science.  A key principle of our strategic plan is the importance of sharing information and knowledge – a principle that is especially important to those of us at Maple Leaf given our focus on sharing food safety information.

If you have comments or questions about how we in the industry are using research in areas of interest to you, let me know. Over the next year, I’ll be collaborating with researchers and professionals on a number of topics. For myself and our industry, I hope it’s another year where we continue to learn and improve in what we do every day.

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!