ANSI Food Safety Meeting to Include Proposals for Global System
A Dec. 2-3 meeting at Washington, D.C.'s L'Enfant Plaza Hotel will include a discussion of potential criteria for establishing and harmonizing a global food safety system, according to the American National Standards Institute, which is co-sponsoring the "Bolstering Consumer Confidence: Identifying Essential Third Party Food Safety Audit Criteria" two-day event. ANSI President/CEO S. Joe Bhatia will open the Day Two discussion, and Lane Hallenbeck, ANSI's vice president of accreditation services, will be on the morning's panel, "Improving Food Safety for Consumers: Establishing and Harmonizing a Global Food Safety System."
The meeting's other sponsors are the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Fisheries Institute, and the Seafood Products Association. The meeting is a follow-up to the Import Safety Summit, which was held in July 2008.
Attendees from across the spectrum of food producers and marketers are registered to attend. Speakers include David Acheson, FDA's associate commissioner for foods; Robert Brackett, SVP and chief science and regulatory officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association; Kenneth Peterson, assistant administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service's Office of Field Operations; Christopher Lischewski, president/CEO of Connors Brothers/Bumble Bee Foods; and Michael Robach, VP, corporate food safety and regulatory affairs for Cargill Inc.
Last month, FDA, USDA, and CDC launched the FIRST tool kit to teach front-line food industry employees how to keep the U.S. food supply safe from farm to table. The tool kit focuses on five key points:
- F – FOLLOW company food defense plan and procedures
- I – INSPECT your work area and surrounding areas
- R – RECOGNIZE anything out of the ordinary
- S – SECURE all ingredients, supplies, and finished product
- T – TELL management if you notice anything unusual or suspicious
The free kit includes a DVD, a training poster, and on-screen instructions. Visit the Food Defense & Terrorism Web site to order copies in English or Spanish.