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“We, as human beings, take it for granted that our food is safe,” says Lone Jespersen, Ph.D., Principal and Founder of Cultivate SA. “We need to keep it that way.”
Jespersen, who will deliver the theme address at the 3-A SSI 2024 Summit on Hygienic Design, has made this passion her life’s work. Her company works with food industry leaders all over the world to address an often-overlooked aspect of food safety – culture.
Her session, “Alone and Relentless: How Does Your Organizational Culture Impact Your Sanitation Performance?” is one of the powerful opening presentations in the Wednesday morning general session.
Alone and Relentless
“We work with individuals who might have been in the food industry for a long time,” Jespersen says, “and are just going through the motions of checking off boxes. ‘I do what I need to do, I come into work, I check in, I go through the motions, and then I go home again.’”
We all rely on the cleanliness of food plants and retail food environments where food is handled. It’s a leadership and culture challenge, Jespersen says. “We rely on individuals who are often coming in at night when they only see taillights as the evidence that they're not alone.”
“Leaders in food companies and in food plants have to learn about and adopt practices around assessing the mental conditions, the psychosocial hazards,” explains Jespersen.
Diverse Teams
The leadership challenge, Jespersen says, is made more acute by the increasing diversity of teams. “What does it mean to engage a cross functional team? What does it mean when you have people coming from vastly different parts of the world, and how do you engage? How do you have curiosity? How do you learn from how they prefer to be engaged in a topic or spoken with?”
The concept of psychosocial hazards – how an individual perceives control over their work, their support from others, and how those perceptions influence their work – isn’t new. But it is a relatively new concept in the food industry.
“To actually have a true measure of the food safety risks that we're dealing with – and it comes back to that,” Jespersen says, “We cannot separate human behavior from the systems that those team members are acting on. We have to integrate them. We integrate by adding psychosocial hazards.”
The concept is catching on. “I'm sitting across from a lot of CEOs, executives that are not necessarily in manufacturing, who are becoming so educated,” Jespersen says. “They are well-versed in risk, especially risks around food safety, to the success of the business. I get very excited about that.”
It’s A Process
Nonetheless, Jespersen says the food industry has been conditioned to think about food safety as “flipping a switch, because we've been used to having a manual and the manual equals food safety. But now we're talking about changing behavior, and that's very much a process.”
That process requires leaders to go beyond the manual to ask, “What kind of behaviors and mindsets do you need as well?” Jespersen asks.
After promoting these ideas for nine years through Cultivate, Jespersen says she has encountered her fair share of skepticism, which she says she “really appreciates, because then we can talk about it.”
It’s the “passive enthusiastic” who are more difficult. But Jespersen says she can always find common ground by bringing the conversation back to what matters most. “This is not about procedures. This is about human life. We have to bring it back to that.”
Two Food Industry Experts Round Out General Session Presentations
Jespersen will be joined in the general session by two recognized food safety experts, noted food industry attorney Liz Presnell, and food industry veteran Jennifer McEntire.
Presnell, who will present the session, “Risk Management Through Hygienic Design: Legal Considerations and Best Practices,” is an attorney with Food Industry Counsel, LLC.
Presnell will discuss risk identification and management, with a particular focus on risk mitigation through hygienic design. “Food safety, and hygienic design more generally, principles overlap significantly with legal risk identification and management principles,” Presnell says of her presentation. “Including an evaluation of legal principles when making food safety (or hygienic design) decisions can allow an individual or company to better and more comprehensively identify and address potential risk.”
Food safety litigation has continued to expand, both on the civil and criminal side, she says. “Having a better understanding of legal risks, and how to mitigate those risks, can assist food safety professionals, regardless of industry, make informed and educated decisions.
The presentation will also cover regulatory requirements and best practices in risk mitigation, and legal and regulatory implications of unmanaged risk. Attendees will leave the session with actionable takeaways that can be incorporated into their operations.
Presnell says her presentation will have been a success if participants ask her how they can “proactively identify and manage risks while still in the process or product design phase, instead of reacting to risks after a product or process has launched.”
McEntire, who will present the session, “Cross-Industry Insights: Food Safety Challenges in Hygienic Design,” is the founder of Food Safety Strategy, LLC, a consulting firm focused on developing critical thinking skills within the food industry and facilitating action-oriented initiatives that will have the greatest impact on public health.
McEntire’s presentation will focus on the variability within the food industry and of the maturity of hygienic design itself.
“Science and technology evolve, and the food industry keeps evolving to more safely produce food-- just not all at the same time,” McEntire says of her presentation. “Progress happens in silos, usually prompted by outbreaks or issues. But each part of the food industry begins to understand that the way their equipment is designed is pretty important for food safety.”
The session will explore the unique food safety challenges of different sectors of the industry, including dairy, meat processing, produce, others, in context of hygienic equipment design.
“Some of this talk will be a history lesson,” McEntire says. “Showing the reactive nature of the industry, woven together in hopefully an interesting way.”
McEntire will discuss how best practices and innovative solutions adopted by one sector may or may not benefit others. She will share case studies demonstrating successful implementation of hygienic design principles with the goal of equitable improvement of hygienic design of equipment throughout the food production chain.
“A key take-home is that the saying, "don't reinvent the wheel," only partially applies to hygienic design of equipment. There are some basic principles that apply broadly, but there are also some unique needs,” explains McEntire.
Register Now for These Expert Presentations and Much More!
Hear more from Jespersen, Presnell and McEntire at the 3-ASSI 2024 Summit on Hygienic Design. The event features a total of 24 speakers on an array of topics related to hygienic design. The annual education event will be held May 7-9 at the Marriott Chicago O’Hare. This new location makes it easier for attendees from all over the world to attend.
In addition to programmed education, participants will have nearly eight hours of networking time with a diverse audience of food safety specialists from a range of industries. Also, a talented group of graduate and undergraduate students will be on hand to present posters on their academic investigations.
Through Friday, March 15, most registrants can claim an early registration discount. Also, attendees can take advantage of a 3-A SSI group rate at the host hotel through Friday, April 19.
To learn more and to register and book a hotel room for the event, visit the 3-A SSI2024 Summit on Hygienic Design website.
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