At the 21st annual Food Safety Summit in Rosemont, IL, editorial director Barbara VanRenterghem sat down with four food safety pros for real-time insight on the Summit sessions, topics, trends, and more.

Craig Henry is a food safety consultant with Intro Inc. There, he specializes in U.S. food safety program development and review for federal regulatory compliance such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). He is a lead instructor for FSMA Preventive Control Qualified Individual training for human food. He also led the contracting team delivering technical content for FSMA human food guidance to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Prior to this role, Craig's previous roles were with Decernis, Deloitte and Touche, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Koch Foods, Foster Farms, and Cargill, among others. 

Gary Ades is president of G&L Consulting Group LLC. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine.

Paul Kiecker is the Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)—a role he's held since May 2018. From August 2017 through January 2019, Kiecker was the agency’s Acting Administrator. He initially joined FSIS in 1988 as a food inspector.

​Will Daniels is president of the produce division at IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group. In this role, Will is responsible for lab and consulting services for the produce industry. He's also held past roles at Fresh Integrity Group, Inc., Earthbound Farm, and as a consultant in the foodservice sector. Will is a sought-after speaker and has addressed key issues in food safety in the produce industry at meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Restaurant Association, the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Association for Food Protection. He was named one of the food industry’s top food safety leaders by Marler/Clark’s Food Safety News in 2013. An active leader in the food industry, Will serves on a variety of boards and technical committees.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Craig [9:15], Gary [20:18], Paul [36:05], and Will [47:31] about:

• Food Safety Summit's new format, Community Cafes, and the new focus on supply chain management content
• Recurring challenges for Summit attendees: keeping up with documentation, lack of resources, little commitment, incorrect reporting, and more
• The need for university extensions to bridge the gap with smaller food businesses
• Problems associated with incongruent messaging from the government agencies
• Why business and financial expertise are needed when making food safety decisions
• How changes within the industry are leading to food safety problems not seen in years
• Whole genome sequencing
• Blockchain technology

News Mentioned in This Episode
LGMA Releases New, Stricter Water Rules for Leafy Greens Growers [1:45]
Foodborne Illness is on the Rise, Says CDC [2:26]
Walmart Welcomes Sara Mortimore as New Food Safety Leader [2:58]
CDC Tweets: Don't Wash Raw Chicken [3:25]

Sponsored by:

The 2019 Sani Awards
No-Rinse Sanitizing Multi-Surface Spray 
SaniProfessional.com

Justyce Jedlicka serves as the Food and Beverage Regulatory Liaison in North America for MilliporeSigma, where she is responsible for engaging with influencers in the food and beverage industry to align initiatives with regulatory compliance and promote best practices for food safety and quality testing methods. Justyce has been serving the food and beverage industry since 2013, and received both a B.S. degree in Chemistry and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Missouri in St. Louis. She currently serves as the Food Sciences Section Chair and Executive Board Member of the American Council of Independent Labs, and is a member of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT), and AOAC International.

Sally Powell Price is MilliporeSigma's Regulatory and Public Health Expert for Food and Beverage Safety Testing in North America. Previously, she served as Director of Lab Operations at a biotech startup in Boston and was the Food Lab Supervisor at the New York City Department of Health Public Health Laboratory. She holds a B.S. degree in Biology from Hamilton College, an M.S. degree in Microbiology and Immunology from James Cook University in Australia, and did continuing coursework in public health and foodborne disease at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She is a member of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), and AOAC International.

Thomas Gremillion, J.D., M.A. is the Director of Food Policy at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). He oversees research, analysis, advocacy, and media outreach for the group's food policy activities, and monitors food safety activities at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and in Congress, where he advocates for strong food safety protections for consumers. He also coordinates the Safe Food Coalition, a group of consumer, trade union, and foodborne illness victim organizations dedicated to reducing foodborne illness by improving government food inspection programs.

Paul Shapiro is the author of the bestselling book, Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World. He is also CEO of The Better Meat Co., a company that uses fermentation to turn microbes into alternative meat. Paul is a five-time TEDx speaker, the host of the Business for Good Podcast, and a long-time leader in food sustainability.

As an authority on food and agriculture sustainability, Paul has been interviewed by numeorous news outlets—ranging from CNN to StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He has also published hundreds of articles in publications like the Washington Post, Scientific American, FORTUNE, and academic journals. In 2023, Paul was named as a Most Admired CEO by the Sacramento Business Journal.

Johanna Velez is Vice President of Quality Assurance for Monin Americas, having joined the brand in 2002. With more than 27 years in the food industry, Johanna has a wealth of experience in leading, directing, and guiding the company’s food safety and quality programs at all Monin North America locations. She successfully led Monin to achieve Safe Quality Foods (SQF) and Organic certifications for both the Clearwater, Florida and Sparks, Nevada facilities, resulting in an "Excellent" rating for the brand’s food safety practices. Prior to Monin, Johanna spent five years at Wild Flavors (now Archer-Daniels-Midland Company) in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), including the Florida IFT Division, as well as the Bay Area Manufacturers Association (BAMA). Johanna graduated from Louisiana State University and later attended Michigan State University to obtain her certification in Food Law and Regulations.

Carolyn Ross, Ph.D., M.Sc. is a Professor in the School of Food Science at Washington State University (WSU), Affiliate Professor in the WSU School of Medicine, and Director of the WSU Sensory Science Center. Since starting at WSU in 2004, Dr. Ross has established her lab and the WSU Sensory Science Center as a hub for graduate student training in the areas of sensory science and analytical chemistry. Specifically, the overall objectives of Dr. Ross's research and graduate education program are to understand the theoretical basis underpinning the sensory perception of foods and wines and correlate these attributes with quantifiable characteristics. Dr. Ross has also expanded her research to explore food texture perception in children. She has thrice been awarded the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT's) Tanner Award for most‐cited article in the Journal of Food Science (in the Sensory and Food Quality section). Dr. Ross was also awarded the WSU Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction and is a Fulbright-Australia Scholar at Deakin University in Melbourne. She holds a Ph.D. in Food Science/Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University and an M.Sc. degree in Food Science from the University of Guelph.

Lone Jespersen, Ph.D. is a published author, speaker, and the Principal and Founder of Cultivate SA, a Swiss-based organization dedicated to eradicating foodborne illness, one culture at a time. Dr. Jespersen has worked to strengthen food safety through organizational culture improvements for 20 years, since starting at Maple Leaf Foods in 2004. She chaired the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) technical working group "A Culture of Food Safety," chaired the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) professional development group "Food Safety Culture," and was the technical author on the BSI PAS320 Practical Guide to Food Safety Culture. Dr. Jespersen holds a Ph.D. in Culture Enabled Food Safety from the University of Guelph in Canada and a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Syd Dansk University in Denmark. She is also a visiting Professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. Dr. Jespersen serves as Chair of the IFPTI Board and as Director on the STOP Foodborne Illness Board. She is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine and a member of the Educational Advisory Board of the Food Safety Summit.