Food Protection Trends - October 2009 - 706

and clear messages from credible food safety personnel who are able to connect on a emotional level that creates a buy-in attitude and loyalty to employees and customers. Companies must utilize both internal branding and branding partners to strengthen message. Dr. Ann McNamara, Jack in the Box, concluded the session with a food safety video by employees. Jack in the Box has changed the entire culture of the workforce to focus on food safety in every activity they perform. Their training is 70% on job training, 20% manager role modeling, and 10% computer based classroom training. Employees are taught why food safety is so important through senior management resources and scenario situations. During the panel discussion questions were asked on employee training, language barriers, allergen concerns, the handling of internal and external audits, where should food safety starts in the process, and the importance of answering the “why questions” with food safety. RT3 – Measuring and Interpretation Foodhandling Behavior and Its Impact on Policy R.D.C. Senaka Ranadheera, University of Newcastle, Australia Pardeepinder Kaur Brar, University of Florida This roundtable discussion was organized to discuss food safety education, food hygiene and sanitation, national alliance for food safety and security. Five speakers presented their ideas and findings after the introductory remarks from organizer/convenor Dr. Christine Bruhn. Dr. Randall Phebus from Kansas State University showed his concern towards consumer cooking practices. He presented some findings from a study which designed to investigate cooking practices done by consumers and how well labels are understood using a camera system. One of the interesting findings of this study was that participants did not follow product label instructions because of ambiguous labels which are hard to read. Dr. Ben Chapman from North Carolina State University provided some background on how the food preparer handles food affects the likelihood of foodborne illness under the topic of what happens in the food service kitchen? His findings based on video observations also revealed that poor hand hygiene is one of the most prevalent mistakes that leads to gross contamination. However, mostly it is indirect cross-contamination and food handlers do not directly cross-contaminate foods. Furthermore, he explained that there is high risk of contamination during busy times. Third presenter for this session, Dr. Amy Simone from University of Florida delivered a lecture on special challenges in Asian and Hispanic restaurants. According to her ethnic foods are foods prepared by different ethnic cultures. She emphasized that CDC reported 3–11% increase in outbreaks from 1990–2006. Mexican foods demonstrated highest number of outbreaks per year compared to Asian or other ethnic foods. Dr. Lidia Medeiros from the Ohio State University presented the wide range of information on motivating consumers to practice safe food handling. She explained how to construct a mental model to motivate consumers to practice safe food handling in details. Robert E. Brackett, senior vice president and chief science and regulatory officer from Grocery Manufacturers Association, Washington, D.C. put some light on the history of seven major outbreaks and how they have led to change in policies. Seven outbreaks include Bon Vivant Vichyssose (1971), Jack in the Box (1993), unpasteurized fruit juice including Salmonella in orange juice (1995) and E. coli O157:H7 in apple juice (1996), luncheon meats and franks (1998), row bagged spinach (2006), tomato/jalapeño pepper (2008), and peanut products (2009). He showed that these outbreaks lead to drastic changes in legislative and industry policies and the recent outbreaks have changed policies even more drastically. The take-home message after the discussion was to work better with multiple organizations, deliveries like chefs, contemporary culinary audience, science teachers, etc. Scientists need to be focused on risk communication as well. 706 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | OCTOBER 2009

Food Protection Trends - October 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - October 2009