Last Wednesday, September 15, I along with Maple Leaf Foods, President and CEO, Michael McCain had the pleasure of hosting our 2^nd annual Food Safety Symposium, at the Mississauga Convention Centre.  Following last year’s highly successful food safety summit which focused on best practices in Listeria control in ready-to-eat foods, this year’s theme centered on understanding and gaining support for the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) within the Canadian landscape. 

Headed by a network of CEO’s and senior management from various sectors of the food industry, the Consumer Goods Forum launched the GFSI initiative about 11 years ago with a goal of building consensus among major retailers regarding a common approach to food safety systems and the third party audits that are conducted to assess compliance to standards. The audience heard from Kevin Swoffer, the chairman of the GFSI technical working groups who is based in the UK, and spends a great deal of his time with the GFSI staff in Paris, France and supporting the initiatives of the GFSI around the world.    Kevin described how the GFSI has evolved over the past decade and has created a common platform against which various food safety programs can be benchmarked.  Having this common approach allows the food industry to make food safety improvements more effectively and deliver safer products to consumers.   

The day was filled with informative discussions as each perspective was highlighted by the range of experiences offered by the speakers and panelists.  These talks truly underscored the importance of continually revising our risk management systems, emphasizing the fact that food safety is not simply limited to a specific sector rather it spans the entire food supply chain.  There was a good debate around how success is measured and one panelist shared some preliminary data to indicate that since implementing GFSI their retail chain had seen a 30% decline in recalls with suppliers whose facilities were certified against a GFSI benchmarked standard.  Ultimately, the goal is to be able to demonstrate a reduction in foodborne illness as a result of implementing effective food safety management systems.

We divided the program into two segments: a customer-focused panel and a manufacturer/supplier panel.   The customer-focused perspective shed light on how retailers and foodservice companies are working with their suppliers to achieve certification against one of the GFSI benchmarked auditing programs.   There was recognition that in most regions of Europe the GFSI is widely adopted whereas in North America the implementation has only recently begun. That said, one retailer indicated that the commitment by their suppliers to receive certification has been very good and momentum is building in the Canadian and US marketplace.

The  manufacturer and supplier’s panel explored the hands-on experiences of meeting the GFSI requirements.  The panel was represented by a primary pork processor, a grain milling company, an artisan bakery, a major North American CPG company, and finally a non-profit organization that owns a GFSI benchmarked program for fresh fruits and vegetable growers.  Certainly a very broad cross-section of the food industry!  It was clear in this discussion that there is more than one approach to achieving certification of a food production site, but the common theme was the need to have each function within the company, including operations, logistics and purchasing, product development and marketing as well as the quality and food safety group participating in the process and doing their part. It was stated by one panelist that the key to success in achieving certification against a GFSI benchmarked program was commitment from the top to provide the financial support and vision.  At Maple Leaf, our experience would support this fact, that without multi-function participation in the food safety system and strong senior management commitment, the programs will not be effectively implemented and achieving certification will be difficult, if not impossible.   

One of the more insightful presentations of the day came from Dr. Les Bourquin of Michigan State University who discussed his efforts to develop food safety training programs for employees in developing countries.  The training modules are designed to support the general systems that are required for a food production site to become certified against a GFSI standard.  Measuring effectiveness through assessment of behavior change as a result of the training was a key element of Dr. Bourquin’s talk.

 At Maple Leaf we firmly believe that sharing food safety knowledge and best practices among industry sectors and stakeholders is critical for success and we will continue to foster this approach.  We were gratified that over 200 people were in attendance and so many were open to sharing their knowledge.  It demonstrates the commitment of our industry to engage and continuously improve in the area of food safety.  I would like to once again thank all of those in attendance.   The opportunity to learn from each other’s insights opens up many avenues and I look forward to sharing our success with you through our future symposiums.

One of the contributors to this blog is Dr. Randy Huffman, who joined our company in early 2009 as our very first Chief Food Safety Officer - a position we created after the Listeriosis outbreak of 2008 that resulted from products made at Maple Leaf.  Bringing Randy on board was one of many steps we undertook to improve as an organization.  He oversees and leads our activities in food safety and quality systems, sanitation, testing, and technologies.  But he also helps us keep up-to-date with industry and that’s vital to our commitment to food safety – to share information and learn the latest in food science, microbiology and nutrition.  

Another sign of what Randy brings to our organization is the fact that he assumed the role of President of the American Meat Science Association just this week. The AMSA has a membership of over 1800 meat scientists from 32 countries representing major  research and teaching institutions and  food companies .  It s core purpose is to be the global source of scientific information on meat science by holding forums and  conferences that share the latest science and  the association publishes the peer reviewed journal  Meat Science.  It’s a career milestone for Randy and shows what a leader he’s been in food science going back many years and with many collaborators.

It’s a real asset for us to have someone who we know is respected in his field and up-to-date in working with international partners in sharing research and state-of-the-art industry information. And we congratulate him on his achievement.

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.