The Biggest Food Safety Challenge Of The Next 20 Years | Episode 98
Francine Shaw, CP-FS, FMP
CEO @ Savvy Food Safety l Co-Host @ "Don’t Eat Poop" Podcast ??? l Food Safety Expert ?? l Advisor-Consultant ????♀? l Published Author ?? l Keynote Speaker ?? l ? Goddess of Food Safety ?????
In episode 98 of Don't Eat POOP! A Food Safety Podcast, Matthew Regusci and I are joined by Sharon Beals from SKKB LLC, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2024.
Sharon truly cares about this work of keeping food safe. She has more than 40 years of experience in food safety, quality, and regulatory compliance, and during that time held senior-level roles across foodservice and manufacturing companies, and today she’s sharing her expertise with us.
Tune in to find out the lessons Sharon has learned throughout her career and that will help us keep food safe. We’ll talk through a culture of doing things right (even when no one is watching), the biggest food safety challenge of the next 20 years, and more.
In this episode:
In episode 98, Sharon shares what she believes will be the biggest food safety challenge of the next 20 years: RETENTION.
Steve Mandernach from AFDO shared similar concerns with us back in episode 90 in relation to the difficulty of keeping food inspectors on the job for more than a handful of years.
Brain Drain
The fact is we have a brain drain going on in the food safety world.
A lot of young food safety professionals see it as just a job or as a next step in their career.
At the same time, many seasoned food safety professionals decide it’s not worth putting up with the high demands of the job anymore.
Sharon mentioned talking to a friend who moved over to the sustainability world from food safety quality and told her that she missed her team and her plants, but she definitely didn’t miss ?sitting in the car in the parking lot of the restaurant while the family was inside eating and she was taking care of crisis du jour.
Unfortunately, this is the nature of the job. All three of us (Matt, Sharon, and I) couldn’t tell you the number of times we’ve had to step away from our families and activities during our time off to pull up our sleeves and handle crises (even if they’re not your crises) or the consequences of an outbreak in the industry.
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Thus, the challenge is: how do we retain these folks in these roles and keep them in the industry?
The Stories That Need To Be Told
I believe that one way we are going to keep people in the industry and for the right reasons – to educate, to help, and to lead others – is for people like us, who are truly passionate about food safety, to talk about why we do what we do.
Because we don’t do this because we want to get rich. We do this because we care. We do this because we don’t want people to get sick. We do it because it matters. We do it because it makes a difference.
We need to lead by example and share our stories, so we can inspire and teach, and that’s how we make a difference.?
Other Solutions
This is a complex challenge and one that will be pivotal for food safety in the coming years. I’ve proposed one way to help retain the much-needed talent in this industry, but I want to know from you:
?? What else can we do to keep the young, very enthusiastic, and passionate people in their food safety roles?
We'd love to hear from you!
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?? Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!
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