For 30 years, Food Quality & Safety has chronicled some of the most significant advances in food safety, particularly in the field of microbiology. These advances took place in the lab, in the field or in the factory, and were led by some of the most knowledgeable people of the time. They faced previously unknown challenges, chased unseen threats, and worked feverously until they found answers. More than anything, a handful of leaders in the meat industry had the vision to establish food safety as a noncompetitive issue, a tenet followed by the entire food industry to this day.

New challenges will always test our food safety systems, and the leaders of the past taught us that the programs and policies that protect food safety must be flexible and readily adapted to meet them. Challenges such as a rapidly changing food supply chain during a pandemic or addressing infant formula shortages due to reduced production caused by bacterial contamination were covered in FSMA regulations or overcome by cooperation with FDA. That’s not to say we are now perfect, but we’re learning more and more how to apply the core principles in critical food safety situations.

All Experts Aren’t Created Equal

As we acknowledge the leaders who came before, we must also acknowledge the real heroes of food safety. They aren’t named. They aren’t remembered anywhere. They are the thousands of frontline workers that practice food safety every day. They are the essential workers who showed up every day during the peak of the pandemic. They are also the select few who stepped up to work on the food safety team. The hours are tough, the manufacturing conditions are often brutal, but they stick it out and do the job. They ensure that policies and procedures are followed and don’t hesitate to report when something goes wrong. They care about protecting consumers and take pride in product safety.

They do this from facilities located on the outskirts of cities and small towns across the country, in aging factories filled with old equipment and crumbling infrastructure. They often have limited resources and only the minimal training necessary to meet regulatory requirements. The internet provides some help, but they often find contrasting solutions. A lucky few get to attend food safety meetings and conferences to seek expert help, but they may or may not find the answers they seek. Food production facilities vary wildly in age, layout, and conditions, and food products vary in risk level so finding exact solutions is nearly impossible. A minor change in facts can have disastrous effects on the outcomes. They proceed with caution, knowing that they don’t know how much they don’t know. They ask for advice at every opportunity.

This is a good time to remind everyone that food safety experts are not created equally, and good intentions will not protect you from bad advice. To emphasize this point, the Jensen Farms cantaloupe recall in 2011 was responsible for one of the deadliest Listeria outbreaks in the U.S. Bad advice from an expert and a poorly executed third party audit were a lethal combination that resulted in a deadly outbreak that accounted for at least 33 deaths and 147 cases across 28 states.

FDA officials investigating the Jensen event found four strains of Listeria on dirty, corroded equipment, recently purchased second hand on the recommendation of an “expert.” Previously used for potato farming, the “equipment’s past use may have played a role in the contamination” according to the government’s final report. There was no clear evidence it was even cleaned before it was placed in the line. The use of sanitizer in the wash water, a process in use before this renovation, had been discontinued for some unknown reason. The fruit wasn’t being precooled, creating humid, damp conditions in the cooler that supported Listeria growth. This hardly sounds like an operation under the management of a food safety expert.

Jensen Farms declared bankruptcy in 2012 and, in 2013, charges were filed against the owners, who pleaded guilty to six counts of adulteration of a food and aiding and abetting. The owners also filed suit for negligence against the auditor hired to look at safety standards at their operations, but the work was assigned to a subcontractor, creating a conflict of interest. Since the subcontractor was involved in the renovations and operational changes that contributed to the outbreak, they never should have conducted the verification audit.

Sherri McGarry, a senior FDA adviser at the time, said: “We’re going to take these lessons learned, share that with our partners and industries, CDC and the states, and what we want to do is we want to really prevent this from happening in the future.” FSMA was signed into law in November 2011.

The Jensen Farms case is an extraordinarily sad example of bad expert advice and misguided good intentions. Most would agree that bringing in an outside party to assess your food safety program is a good idea, just as most would agree that a third-party audit is a great way to confirm that your operation is in good shape. But the owners in this case either failed to understand the most fundamental food safety principles, such as preventing cross contamination, the proper use of sanitizer, and the danger of dirty standing water, or they simply chose to ignore them. Certainly, the staff, if properly trained, would have noticed what the experts and owners missed. Clearly, using an expert does not replace the need for well-trained staff, or retaining a senior management that understands and supports product safety.

What’s In a Training

FSMA’s preventive controls (PC) rules recognized the need for better training than previously included in HACCP programs. HACCP required a trained HACCP manager that signs off on the HACCP plan, and that’s about it, although it has added some requirements and modified some terms since FSMA’s release. The PC rules now require all personnel to be qualified individuals (QIs) for their assigned roles and require additional training for the role of a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI). Unlike the role of HACCP manager, the PCQI must also interact with senior management to ensure the Owner, Operator, or Agent in Charge signs off on the food safety plan. This seemingly small change makes senior management wholly responsible for the plan’s content and effectiveness, and that’s a big change. In short, with FSMA changes and USDA updates, both regulatory branches only require a one-time training course for the most senior food safety staff, while holding management ultimately responsible for the programs’ effectiveness.

It’s time to finally acknowledge what we all know: The required training alone is insufficient to prepare personnel for the job at hand, and the job at hand can be far tougher than just writing and following programs. We know that these jobs desperately need to be upgraded to acknowledge the true value of the critical thinking skills required to perform them effectively. In short, to build the leaders of the future, we need to create a true career path from entry-level food safety to advanced-level program management.

Once a PCQI training certificate is obtained, its applicable to any food sector, another potential gap our future food safety heroes must consider. From produce to candy to beverages, it’s all one course. It does include the requirement for a moderate amount of ongoing professional development, but this requirement is yet to be tested.

The necessary food safety knowledge to develop additional training for today’s food safety personnel is readily available. What is currently missing is the experience and knowledge in the science of teaching and learning. There are many methods for training development, delivery, and validating content retention. I’m not suggesting everyone rush off to write more in-house training plans; that would be wasteful and redundant. But there is an opportunity to increase training budgets when presenting the food safety plan for management’s signature.

To attract new talent, entry level personnel need standardized programs that can be delivered by modern web-based platforms easily accessible to the target audience—programs that can verify user participation and track an individual’s progress over time and portable achievements that follow the individual across job changes. Those that devote their time and energy to improving their work knowledge and skills should be recognized for their efforts through documentable achievements universally recognized.  

We owe it to our future leaders to share the knowledge and core food safety principles of the last 30 years so they can benefit from our collective past experiences. The food safety leaders of tomorrow depend on the proper development of the new employees of today.

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In the United States, school counselors often meet with middle school students to discuss their future education plans and career objectives. Students who express an interest in advanced professional careers are given advice on an appropriate high school curriculum to follow that supports preparation for college. Those who plan to attend college but have not decided on a specific major will be directed to a general course of study while making a final decision.

Once in college, there is a grace period before a major must be declared, but eventually one must be selected so the appropriate elective courses can be completed. Students interested in obtaining an advanced degree must complete the required post graduate courses needed for a master’s or doctorate.

Not all students are college bound; students who may be interested in working in the trades (electrician, plumber, mechanic, computer technician) are directed accordingly to short term programs in their chosen field. Some of these skill sets can be obtained at local community colleges or through online certificate programs. Many of these professions are overseen by licensing entities to ensure that competence requirements are met on a continuing basis. Many students enter the workforce directly from high school, particularly in areas where large manufacturing facilities or distribution centers are located.

Until recent years, the traditional academic track was not available to students interested in a career in food safety. Even today, a mere handful of schools offer a food safety major, limiting access to the broader public and restricting the number of graduates annually available for employment. In fact, few were even aware there was such a track unless a food manufacturer was located nearby.

As a result, staffing in the field of food safety has traditionally prioritized ongoing workplace education coupled with skills development and formal external training as needed to meet regulatory requirements. Otherwise known as “workforce development,” this route allows employers to meet the job-specific needs of food safety in the absence of more traditional academic options.

Workforce development can be described as an interconnected set of solutions developed to meet employer needs for skilled workers. In food safety, this can include a wide range of knowledge, given the diversity of food manufacturing techniques and ever-increasing food hazards. The ideal goal of workforce development is to create a structure in which workers are placed in jobs where there are career development opportunities, providing an incentive for workers to systematically advance by acquiring the new skills and additional knowledge needed to achieve the goal of promotion to a management position. That’s quite a mouthful, just to say that there are limited opportunities to pursue a defined career path in food safety.

Along Came FSMA

As new microbiological hazards emerged in the 1990s, external training in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) became a USDA-FSIS requirement, and the position of HACCP manager represented an advanced career step for those in the meat and poultry industry. HACCP training was a one-time, three- or five-day course that did not typically require an exam for completion. A simple certificate of attendance was adequate to prove completion, and there was no requirement for ongoing professional development. This remained one of the most advanced food safety positions on the production floor until the Food Safety Modernization Act’s (FSMA’s) Preventive Controls regulations were published.

Under FSMA, the HACCP manager role in FSIS was elevated to the Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) role for FDA-regulated producers. FSMA placed the ultimate responsibility for food safety on the “owner, operator, or agent in charge” and required all personnel to be qualified for their assigned positions. The role of PCQI expanded workforce training requirements, requiring a minimum of eight hours per year of ongoing professional development training, but still remained a single external course from an approved trainer accompanied by a certificate of completion that is applicable to all types of foods produced. From produce to cupcakes, a PCQI certificate is transferable to any FDA-regulated facility.

In other words, the majority of today’s food safety employees are developed internally with limited advancement choices. In fact, most food safety team staffing typically relies on an informal career path of internal promotion based on the completion of external workforce training such as HACCP or PCQI in conjunction with other basic job performance criteria.

Workforce Development

Workplace training is often focused on a specific job or skill that is necessary to perform an employee’s job. It is generally a compulsory component of employment and can be a regulatory requirement for HACCP or the PCQI role outlined in FSMA. Workforce development is different from workplace training; workforce development is considered a more long-term, ongoing strategy to help improve a workforce or build capacity.

Workforce development helps to create a culture of learning and constructive attitudes that builds a workforce’s tangible and intangible abilities to manage and deal with future challenges. Research shows that skills development and opportunities for professional and personal growth are important aspects of employee retention, especially among millennial workers. When an employee feels like their leadership skills are being valued and nurtured, they are less likely to leave a company.

In an industry already combating increasingly high rates of employee turnover, the need to shift from workforce training models to a workforce development model is crucial. Today it is reported that 36% of millennials and 53% of members of Gen Z would leave a job to join a new organization within two years if given the chance to advance elsewhere. In food safety, these numbers could be significantly higher.

Often, workforce development opportunities are highly sector specific, which is not a workable solution in food production. The current mandated workforce training doesn’t differentiate between the relatively safe production of cupcakes and cookies and foods such as refrigerated pasta salads that can present multiple hazards, leaving a gap that will require a modified approach that combines the broader workforce development theories with the specifics of workplace training models.

Food Safety Auditors

A similar situation applies to those who perform supplier or third-party audits. In addition to the food product sector-specific knowledge needed to adequately assess a facility, auditors must also acquire the skills and knowledge needed to perform an effective audit. Ironically, one must have auditing experience to become an auditor, but without auditing experience, one can’t audit. This perpetual circle creates a vacuum where auditors are receiving a wide range of initial auditing experience, with some good, some bad, and some downright awful. Unlike PCQI training, which covers all FDA foods, audit experience does take into account the types of products one is considered approved to audit, but there are still knowledge gaps to be addressed.

All Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) auditors must have a significant amount of auditing experience in each requested food category to be approved to perform an accredited certification audit, which helps address the experience component missing in the PCQI training; however, all food categories and prior audit experience are often treated as equivalent. There is no distinction between the higher risk, more challenging audits of a ready-to-eat food facility and the lower risk, more simplified audits of a cracker facility. This can easily be seen when reviewing job descriptions for food auditors. Most include a complete list of skills and knowledge needed to be able to audit any type of food, yet that may be overkill if the auditor will primarily be assessing pesticide applications in orchards. In terms of career advancements, once an auditor is approved to audit, they can request additional categories in a variety of ways, but there are no formal paths to achieve this growth and no additional advancement for those who do.

On the downside, limited mechanisms exist to remove auditors delivering unsatisfactory reports from a category or from the field of auditing in general. This is especially true for auditors operating as independent contractors. One certification body may stop using an auditor, but others may be unaware of the shortcomings of the auditor until they too receive unsatisfactory results.

Are Credential Programs the Answer?

Many industries find themselves in the same predicament as the food safety sector and have turned to the use of credential programs to solve their capacity and skills gaps. Unlike workplace training models, in which attendees receive a certificate of attendance or completion, credential holders must pass an exam to participate in the program and must then complete a required amount of approved, ongoing training for each two-year cycle. These programs offer a standardized record of accomplishments that can support career advancement. Further, a credential can be withdrawn if the participant does not continue to meet the program requirements.

The dedicated staff who protect our food supply every day deserve the recognition and rewards they have so clearly earned. It’s up to the industry to improve how we develop the leaders of tomorrow. These issues and potential solutions will be explored in future segments of this department in Food Quality & Safety.

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In recent years, the legalization of cannabis for medical and adult use in states across the United States has opened doors for new careers—and career advancement—throughout the industry.

Since California became the first state to allow marijuana sales in 1996 through a medical marijuana program, 38 more states (and Washington, D.C.) have passed medical marijuana legislation and 18 have passed adult-use laws. In addition, the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp products, leading to many cannabidiol (CBD) tinctures and edible offerings. However, some states still restrict the possession and production of CBD hemp.

Career Opportunities in the Cannabis Industry

As with many industries, the job market is hot at cannabis companies. Cannabis industry-specific recruiters such as Vangst, CannabizTeam Worldwide, and Careers Cannabis, in addition to more common hiring sites like ZipRecruiter and Indeed, currently list hundreds of cannabis industry jobs on their sites, from gig workers to personnel trained in food safety at facilities that make edibles throughout the U.S.

CannabizTeam Worldwide, which reports more than 320,000 people employed in the cannabis industry, expects this number to expand to 500,000 jobs by 2024. Vangst puts that number at around 900,000 by the end of the 2020s.

In recent months, food safety experts have also expressed concerns about turnover amongst food safety personnel and highlighted the need for continued recruitment and mentoring. With jobs opening up—from harvesters to executives and managers at cannabis edibles companies—the outlook for cannabis careers brings good news for those looking for career changes and opportunities to advance. This includes avenues for food safety professionals looking for a career boost.

Food Safety Training

Hiring practices can vary widely in different industries and even at companies within the same industry. Still, human resource experts agree that skills training is critical when bringing on new talent. Indeed, choosing the right person for the job will bring a solid background to the role, but it’s incumbent on the company doing the hiring to ensure that employees have proper training when they’re on the job.

At non-cannabis food companies, food safety training fulfills regulatory mandates outlined in the Food Safety Modernization Act, including the requirement to have a trained preventive controls-qualified individual on staff at every facility. A lack of federal oversight has led to varied state cannabis regulations with respect to current good manufacturing practices (GMPs), hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), and preventive controls. Training employees to understand hazard analysis and preventive controls can ensure that each facility operates at a high standard for food safety.

Management and food safety teams at companies making cannabis-infused edibles should strive to instill a culture of food safety in new employees. Including training on food safety expectations for each position can help foster a food safety culture and position employees for professional growth.

How to Climb the Corporate Ladder

Experience counts, until it doesn’t. In most cases, a job candidate who has worked in the industry (with good references) will stand out among candidates without a similar background. With so many jobs projected to be available in the coming years, however, most candidates will compete against others who are also new to the industry.

Many seeking to advance their careers can do so, even if it’s crossing over from a non-cannabis position. For example, a member of the food safety team at an FDA-registered company that makes candy or baked goods is well prepared for supervisory and quality control roles at a company manufacturing cannabis edibles. Additionally, those with experience in company departments such as IT, marketing, and accounting will find that similar roles at a cannabis company require many of the same skills.

Here are some tips for employees climbing the corporate ladder in the cannabis industry:

• Research, research, research. The cannabis industry continues to reinvent itself as legalization spreads, and each state brings its own regulations for food safety and other oversight. Someone seeking career advancement at a company in another state must learn about the similarities and differences in the rules before the job interview.
• Certification needed? Some states require employees in specific roles to undergo training and certification. Background checks are also standard in roles that involve handling and accessing cannabis and cannabis-infused products.
• Find a mentor and network. The cannabis industry is still relatively new, and mentors can provide valuable advice and guidance when seeking a promotion or career advancement. It’s also smaller and more close-knit than many other industries, and networking with others could pay off with referrals and recommendations from colleagues.
• Prepare for the future. Because cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, there are no FDA food safety mandates for edibles; however, experts in the industry believe that it’s just a matter of time before Congress legalizes the drug at the federal level, bringing around nationwide regulatory measures. Therefore, companies that offer access to training and employ FSMA-compliant policies (including preventive controls-qualified individual [PCQI] training) will be ahead of competitors. Likewise, someone who is already a PCQI could find themselves in demand.

Remote Training

Robust food safety training doesn’t have to be complicated. When 100% online training is available, there’s no need to send new hires to in-person classes in another city or delay food safety duties while waiting for classes to be available. Look for a web-based platform that offers food safety training built specifically for the cannabis industry and for all employees—from the front line all the way up to management.

Dr. Birmingham is chief operation officer and vice president of research and instructional development at ImEpik, an online food safety training company that caters specifically to the cannabis industry.

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The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a coalition of the Consumer Goods Forum, has launched the first-ever set of benchmarking requirements for food safety auditor professional recognition bodies. By raising the profile of the profession of auditing and focusing entry requirements on competence, the aim is to attract and retain talents into this profession.

Over the years, the industry has faced mounting difficulties in recruiting and retaining auditors, putting a strain on the certification bodies’ ability to cater to the increasing demand in food safety audits. GFSI says situation has worsened due to increasingly complex and duplicated requirements applying to new and existing auditors, including the increasing GFSI benchmarking requirements for certification program owners on auditors.

To combat this, GFSI has now developed a new recognition program for professional recognition bodies in the food safety sector, setting them up as responsible for validating common competencies in a food safety auditor for all GFSI-recognized certification program owners. The move also means that the food industry can rely on this registration and validation to verify the competency of the auditor.

“The current qualifications and industry experience required for a food safety auditing career are stringent and specific, which narrows the field of potential recruits dramatically,” says Erica Sheward, director of GFSI. “By harmonizing training and professional development across the industry, we can make food safety auditing an accessible, attainable, and desirable profession for many more people, helping to safeguard the future of an essential component of the food safety ecosystem.”

GFSI says that this initiative forms part of the larger GFSI Race to the Top framework, which works to improve trust, transparency, and confidence in GFSI-recognized certification and audit outcomes. For more information, access the benchmarking requirements on the GFSI website.

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The world of compliance is not free from conflict. Navigating competing priorities, negotiating favorable outcomes, addressing audit observations, and enforcing good food safety culture are some everyday activities that require seasoned conflict resolution skills.

In an age when consumers and suppliers struggle to keep up with technological advancements, the ongoing pandemic has added yet another a layer of disruption. Shifting work policies, recovering supply chains, and rapid changes to the availability of skilled and unskilled workforces are some of the many challenges food safety professionals face worldwide. It’s becoming progressively important for food safety leaders to be able to resolve conflicts mindfully so that they can lead their teams through transition and change.

Here are few key areas worth considering.

Know Your Team Before You Lead Them

The common mistake I’ve seen new managers and supervisors make is not taking the time to understand the dynamics of the team to which they’ve been assigned. Every team has its mix of high performers, eager collaborators, independent problem solvers, and people who are relatively new to the team. A leadership approach that may have worked for a previous team may not necessarily produce the same results with a new team. Knowing the difference between managing and leading is important, too: Managing is how you get things done, and leading is who you are.

New HACCP team leaders may struggle with delegation, especially if they are skilled at accomplishing certain tasks. Switching gears from a “do-it-yourself” mindset, to a “getting-it-done” mentality takes practice, patience, and perseverance.

Humanize HACCP Team Meetings

HACCP team meetings, if conducted correctly, offer great opportunities to help teams to solve problems together. Again, keeping in mind the dynamics of your team, HACCP meetings can help open transparent dialogues between two or more departments. To humanize HACCP team meetings means to create moments of vulnerability, such as asking the team, “What did we learn from this experience?” or “How might we do things differently next time?”

Understand Your Conflict Management Style

Looking back, I wish I had spent more time understanding my conflict management style before taking on a leadership role. K. Thomas and R. Kilmann developed the modern-day Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Management Model to help individuals understand their strengths and pinpoint areas that need development when it comes to resolving conflicts mindfully. The model describes the five common conflict management styles: collaborating, competing, accommodating, compromising, and avoiding.

Another element that impacts how we address conflicts is cultural background. Some cultures embrace conflict, while others are averse to them. In some regions, addressing conflicts sounds foreign to them, especially within a hierarchical society. Understanding these differences while managing a diverse team will help avoid common pitfalls that can arise while managing conflicts.

Place Context at the Forefront

Context is everything. It’s a misconception that high performers always stay high performers. Performance is tied to people, systems, processes, and—most importantly—purpose. The purpose is often overlooked as a performance driver, and this gets in the way of building trust between teams and leaders. Even as challenges arise, helping teams connect the dots between roles, responsibilities, and their purpose helps reinforce a positive workplace culture.

What are some conflict resolution styles that you’ve adopted recently? What was the outcome? Leave your comments below.

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I used to have a sign on my desk that read, “The sign of a good boss is that he/she hires people smarter than they are.” One can look at this is different ways, but I like to think of that boss as not being afraid to hire bright, dedicated people who are interested in growing. Having a bright team makes life easier, as the boss should be able to delegate responsibilities, which makes operations more efficient. This also has the potential benefit of boosting staff confidence and putting them in a position where they might think, “The boss has placed his confidence in me, so I don’t want to let him/her down.”

Managers with this attitude also tend to be great mentors. Sit back and think about your life. I’ll wager that you can identify several people who helped your career path and/or helped you grow as a person and as a professional. I can look back and pick several persons who fit that bill, including two very supportive parents. In fact, my mother, Dr. Elizabeth Stier, has a major award offered through the IFT in her name—the only award named after a woman. I can pick people from Rutgers: Roy Morse and Mike Solberg. They focused on teaching problem solving, as opposed to regurgitating every little fact related to an issue. When I was a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, my advisor, Dr. George York, actually sent me out into the field to help processors in need of help. It was sink or swim, and I managed to swim.

But the greatest mentors for me were those from the National Canners Association, later the National Food Processors Association, a trade association that represented the food canning and processing industry. I joined the microbiology section, headed up by Keith Ito, whom I am proud to claim as a friend and mentor. Keith allowed his people to work up to their abilities. It was a real pleasure to watch Keith work with, listen to, and advise people. He had a unique ability to lead the discussion so that by the end of a meeting, the client felt that they themselves had figured things out. Keith would smile and say, “Let me know if you have questions.”

If you have people in your lives who are mentors, consider yourselves fortunate. We at Food Quality & Safety hope that you may find one or two pieces in each issue that are added to your reference files. We may not be mentors, but we hope we are a good source.

Richard F. Stier
Co-Industry Editor

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The editors and advisory board hope every piece of content in Food Quality & Safety magazine contains at least one (and hopefully more) teaching moments. I define a teaching moment as an “Aha” or “Wow” where a piece of knowledge is conveyed in a way that will be filed and remembered for future reference or the reader will say, “Now there is something that I/we can use in our operations.”

The post From The Editor: Share Your Food Safety Teaching Moments appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

Changes in the food industry, including increased regulatory attention on food safety, are having profound effects on career development paths and opportunities for food safety professionals, according to experts involved in industry and academia. The Food Safety Modernization Act, along with other factors, has resulted in a growing demand for both young, entry-level food safety professionals and more experienced hands—the future leaders in the field. At the same time, a movement toward formalizing training in a systematic fashion is under way.

“We have certainly seen companies hire more food safety professionals recently, and also there are more and more individuals who are into their careers in their fields going back to school to attain higher degrees,” said Michael Roberson, director of corporate quality assurance for Publix Super Markets Inc., of Lakeland, Fla. “This is something that a lot of people in the food industry are working on: trying to find the next generation of leaders in food safety and quality assurance, developing those leaders, seeing where those leaders are coming from.”

“I’d say there has been a push in food safety for the past couple of years,” said Moira McGrath, president of OPUS International, an executive search firm specializing in technical positions in the food science industry. “Food safety has become a huge area for food manufacturers to stock up and staff up.”

Staffing up is also taking place on the regulatory side. In response to the passage and ongoing implementation of the FSMA, regulatory agencies in the U.S. have been adding entry-level personnel and moving talented individuals into leadership roles.

“On the regulatory side, there are concerns in some states of a food safety workforce with no succession planning. This can be concerning, especially if there are many retirements at one time,” Roberson said.

As a result, efforts have begun to standardize food safety training and define career paths in the field, according to industry and regulatory observers. At the same time, some educational institutions are attempting to align their food safety programs with these career paths, as they advise students about the professional possibilities for young people with food safety degrees.

Integration of Industry with Regulations

The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) was formed in 2009 to address a lack of standardization and integration in the training of food safety inspectors and regulators. The IFPTI, based in Battle Creek, Mich. and supported by grants from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is an initiative of the Global Food Protection Institute and is closely aligned with the Association of Food and Drug Officials.

In its first couple of years of operation, the IFPTI focused mainly on training regulators and inspectors, but it is broadening its focus to address the whole range of food safety professionals, including those working in industry, according to officials with the institute.

“Yes, the first focus was on the regulatory community, but we realize that we need to connect and link all the training networks and training providers through a system. It’s really a systems approach, not limited to regulators,” said Gerald Wojtala, executive director of the IFPTI. “If you talk to folks in industry, they’ll readily tell you that there’s so much in common in food safety issues and training that you shouldn’t have separation, whether it’s regulatory or industry or laboratory people or veterinarians. So we want to make sure there is not a lot of duplication and that people are getting common training across the board, across professions.”

More than 90% of food safety inspections in U.S. food manufacturing and distribution establishments are carried out by state and local agencies, yet there has been no mandatory training and no career-spanning, standards-based training curriculum for food safety professionals in these agencies, according to the IFPTI.

The institute aims to implement a national food safety training system and develop certification to help ensure that the performance of food safety professionals is comparable and competent at all levels, including local, state, national, and international. To do this, the IFPTI has designed a curriculum framework that identifies four levels in food safety careers: entry level, journey level, technical specialists, and leadership.

This division helps to create a career pathway for those who aspire to move up in their professions. Training courses can be mapped to the framework, identifying them as appropriate for entry level, journey level, and so on, thereby eliminating the hit-or-miss nature of choosing courses, Wojtala said. Time for personnel development is a limited commodity, so managers must make the most of it, he said.

“Program managers and supervisors who make decisions about training staff now can do it more wisely,” he said. “By having this career pathway and sequencing, it really eliminates a lot of guesswork, and we’ve seen that benefit in people not spending money and wasting time for courses that are not appropriate for the audience or are not at the right level.”

The framework is also helping colleges and universities align their educational programs with the career pathways, Wojtala mentioned.

“Before these young people even get into their careers, they can start aligning with some of these professions and careers, so it really provides a pathway right from their education into their careers, and then [as they] continue training,” he said.

Designing Training

Education and training are two different things, Wojtala emphasized, and it is important to distinguish the two in designing—and choosing—a course for career advancement. The technologies used in training must be appropriate to the subject matter, he said.

“We’ve all sat through three days of a course that we probably could have taken online or read in a book,” he said. “In a face-to-face course, you want to have a lot of hands-on and observation: for example, teaching someone how to take a food sample. You want an instructor there who can give feedback or do an assessment of your technique—whereas the information about that sample could be read online, so you save a lot of time.”

The ways young professionals learn also seem to be changing, said Roberson of Publix.

“Nothing will ever replace the watch-me, follow-me, show-me type of training,” he said, “but as we look to the next generation, how do our young people learn best? We’re trying to figure out how we can leverage technology, be it tablet technology or different gaming systems, to provide more interactive training with a virtual reality-type environment.”

With the aim of identifying and developing tomorrow’s leaders, the IFPTI now offers an accredited fellowship in food protection for experienced food regulatory professionals (journey and technical levels). The highly selective program comprises three week-long programs in Battle Creek, capped by a trip to the annual AFDO meeting, where final posters and projects are presented.

“We’ve had so much success with this program on the regulatory side that we want to expand it and have an industry fellowship program that intersects with the regulatory program so that we have people training together and learning together, these future leaders,” Wojtala said.

Student Paths

As for food science students looking to enter the field of food safety, McGrath said the relevant degrees could be a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate in food science or food microbiology. More specifically, there is a master’s program in food safety at Michigan State University, she said.

“The positions available would include plant positions, where they manage the quality or food safety department at a manufacturing facility,” she said. “Or they could go into a corporate role, where they could be food safety scientists, food safety specialists, food microbiologists, or quality assurance specialists.”

Robert Shewfelt, a professor of food science and technology at the University of Georgia in Athens, noted that food safety students must understand the nature of the business they are going into.

“There is a tension between manufacturing, which gets reward for output, and quality control, which is responsible to ensure there is not a safety issue,” he said.

Roberson agreed. “Yes, companies have food safety programs, but at the end of the day there must be a connection between a strong food safety culture combined with the business aspect of providing a return on the food safety investment,” he said. “Somehow, as we develop the next generation of professionals in food safety and food quality, we have to do a better job so that food safety leaders have an understanding of business.”

Roberson expressed enthusiasm for the INROADS internship program (www.inroads.org), with which Publix is a corporate partner.

“We’ve found the partnership program to be quite successful. It has allowed us to provide early access and development of students with leadership potential and offer them an opportunity to gain professional experience to increase their potential to advance in their chosen career field at Publix,” he said.

“There is a wide range of job opportunities and a lot of opportunity for advancement,” Shewfelt said. “Most of our food science graduates end up in the food industry, but there is also regulatory, academic teaching, or research.”

He noted that the salary structure in the industry is good and that it is “a wide open field for women, but at a man’s salary structure. That may not be politically correct to say, but there is something to it.”

Tim Donald is a veteran journalist with extensive experience covering a variety of industries. Reach him at timdonald2020@gmail.com.

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