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.

We’ve undertaken a lot of things internally at Maple Leaf Foods to promote food safety, and we’ve outlined a lot of that on this blog.  But ensuring public health overall in our communities doesn’t end at our front door – it is a total partnership. One of the things we have promised to do as part of our Food Safety Pledge is to build partnerships to share information and support education on food safety.  Another step in this direction is a partnership with the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) which we announced today.

‘Public health’ tends to be something people overlook or take for granted as part of ‘health care’.  People’s top of mind expectations of the health care system tend to focus on “illness” or the response to it rather than a holistic look at “health”.  Public health professionals help bring that focus in seeking to prevent illness and promoting good health. CPHA is a non-governmental organization focused exclusively on public health and they have worked for decades to tackle a number of other well-known public health causes.

The partnership we’re undertaking with them aims to provide those who tend to be more at-risk for foodborne illness with the information they need to prepare foods safely for themselves and their families.  These include seniors, pregnant women, people with immune deficiencies such as those with HIV and people undergoing cancer treatment. A first step and a goal of the partnership is to ensure that people who are at higher risk know that fact (based on their risk category) and then given the information they need to minimize risk with simple and useful food safety tips and tools.  This will happen through educational and online materials targeted at those at-risk Canadians.

Once these materials are developed – which will be available in French, English and other languages –  we’ll be sure to share the links to them here and through other means.

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.