Baking&Snack - December 2016 - 12

Words to live by

When I was working for a public relations firm a number
of years ago, I found myself in the midst of a client crisis.
It was one that neither I nor my team had started but that
we were held responsible for. In that moment, it felt like
the world was coming to an end. Then a person new to
the team whispered in my ear, "You know what? No one's
going to die from this. Chances are, no one's even going
to get sick."
Great words to live by ... if only it were that simple in
the world of commercial food production.
It's a legitimate daily concern: Is anyone going to
die from this? Is anyone going to get sick? No one
understands that better than Karl Thorson, food
safety and sanitation manager, General Mills,
and our 2016 Operations Executive of the Year.
Mr. Thorson was chosen from a list of
highly deserving candidates because of his
and General Mills' dedication to continuous
improvements in food safety and sanitation
for the baking industry. With a lifetime of family farming behind him, Mr. Thorson is no stranger
to safe practices in agriculture, but he never dreamed
he'd become a sanitation expert, let alone that he'd come
to love it ... and love it he does.

EDITORIAL
Editorial Director
Dan Malovany
Executive Editor
Laurie Gorton
Editor
Joanie Spencer
Senior Editor
Charlotte Atchley
Managing Editor
Nico Roesler
Multimedia Editor
Matt Hamer
Contributing Editors:
Donna Berry
Theresa Cogswell
Jim Kline
Joe Stout
DESIGN
Design Services Manager
Sadowna Conarroe
Associate Design Services Manager Ryan Alcantara
Designer
Brian Peterman
Manager of Advertising Design
Becky White
Classified Ad Layout
Nick Martens

Today, Mr. Thorson gets up every day and heads to
work with the same goal in mind: Produce high-quality
food that is safe to eat. If one thing were to keep him up
at night, it would be the fear of the unknown - appropriately managing the pathogen risk. And you know what?
Thanks to the efforts of General Mills' Sanitation Center
of Excellence (SCOE), of which Mr. Thorson is a longtime member, he can sleep pretty well.
If you were to ask him, though, Mr. Thorson probably
wouldn't call himself a lifesaver. Actually, he leaves
the lifesaving to his wife, Melissa, who runs a Level-1
Trauma Center in Minneapolis. But the work Mr.
Thorson is doing - through SCOE and other sanitation working groups - does ensure that the chances of
someone so much as getting sick are as close to zero as
you can get.
"I know we have great people here, great processes and
world-class food safety," Mr. Thorson said. "That's my
philosophy on how I handle things in general. It's thinking about others and what they need. That will help me be
successful going forward."
And those are words to live by.
- Joanie Spencer, Editor
jspencer@sosland.com

PUBLISHING
Publisher
Paul Lattan
Associate Publisher
Steve Berne
Audience Development Director Michael Barbee
Director of E-Business
Jon Hall
Advertising Manager
Nora Wages
Advertising Assistant Manager
and Ad Coordinator
Erica Reyes
Digital Systems Analyst
Marj Potts
Circulation Specialist
Molly Brown
Director of Digital Advertising
Carrie Fluegge
Promotions Marketing Manager
Jim White

CORPORATE
Chairman and CEO
Charles S. Sosland
President
L. Joshua Sosland
Chief Financial Officer
Staci Greco
Director of Publishing
G. Michael Gude

Editorial and Midwest Sales Office
4801 Main St., Suite 650, Kansas City, MO 64112 / Phone: (816) 756-1000; Fax: (816) 756-0494
E-mail: BakingSnack@sosland.com / Internet: www.bakingandsnack.com

BAKING & SNACK is distributed free-of-charge to qualified readers with managerial responsibilities in the baking and snack food industries. SUBSCRIPTIONS: To apply, log on to
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Publishing Co., a division of Sosland Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited. Printed in USA

12 Baking & Snack December 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

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Baking&Snack - December 2016

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