The Plantation FAFP C ONNECTIONS Florida’s Nature … · Peter Hibbard, Red Lobster Seafood Co. Directors at Large— Diane Kelsch, FDA ... Between Risk and Profitability Miguel

F AFP Connect ions P age 1 Florida Association for Food Protect ion

Our Mission: To provide Food Safety Professionals worldwide with a forum to exchange information on protecting the food supply.

Fal l 201 5 Iss ue

FA F P C O N N E C T I O N S

Get To Know this issue’s FAFP Spotlight Member –Vanessa Cranford.

Hello Vanessa, Thank you for being the “Spotlight” person for the FAFP Newsletter. We are pleased to present the Fall 2015 FAFP Spotlight Member –Vanessa Cran-ford, Director of Food Safety, and QA for Taylor Farms, Florida*

Vanessa, when did you first join FAFP?

In 2006, while working for the Walt Disney Company as a Laboratory Microbi-ologist. What led you to go into the food safety field? I was an Intern for the In-ternational Life Science Institute North America in Washington, DC. I at-tended roundtable ses-sions on food safety topics and began to understand the human health impact

(Continued on page 3)

Inside this Issue: Food Safety Focus 1 Member Spotlight 1

Special Events 2 Scholarship Awardee 2

REGULATORY –Updates 4 RAMIFICATIONS 5

HAPPENINGS 6-7 New Members & Sponsors 8

President –Marjorie Jones NSF, [email protected] President-Elect –Anthony R. Febbraro, Microbica Laboratory Partners, Inc. Vice President –Sherrod Bostocky, Sodexo Treasurer –Rick Barney , SE Grocers Secretary –Erica Craddock, AFC Sushi Past President –Ken Tyrell, Food Safety Resource Directors Zeb Blanton, SGS North Amer-ica Michelle Danyluk, University of Florida Jenny Lahnoudi, Walt Disney World Timothy McFarlane, Wal-Mart Erik Montanez, SE Grocers Tom O’Brien, Darden Tim Westbrook, Publix Affiliate Representative— Peter Hibbard, Red Lobster Seafood Co. Directors at Large— Diane Kelsch, FDA Tricia Baxter, NSF International

Newsletter Editor— Jenny Lahnoudi, Walt Disney World [email protected]

Food Safety Focus This issue is focused on the importance of Food Safety and specifically insights into promoting and achieving good food safety practices. Our spotlight person has offered some good ap-proaches to implementing improvements and helping assure safe products. New in this issue is a new regulatory section that will inform you of current and upcoming regulations. To compliment it, we have a new Ramifications sec-tion that highlights some not-so-good results of poor safety/quality behavior. To further improve our communication, FAFP has recently hired a dedicated webmas-ter. We also wish to thank Ken Tyrell –FAFP past-president for his efforts in building the website capabilities. With our new webmaster, our site will be taken to the next level with an enhanced look and feel as well as increased functionality. We hope you will enjoy the new functionalities in your www.fafp.net Finally, we are looking at growth in the Chapter, having held two luncheons this last quarter. We held a luncheon on the southeast coast to better serve our distant mem-bers. Response was excellent! More on that later in this issue. We are also looking for contributors of articles, insights, new technologies and events. Remember that Gold Sponsors can present a full page article. Please contact Editor Jennifer Lahnoudi. Thank you, Anthony Febbraro, President-Elect

FAFP AEC 2016

The Plantation on Crystal River

Florida’s Nature Coast

(Details to follow)

Member Spotlight

F AFP Connect ions P age 2

on how standards and manage-ment systems can be used to re-duce risk and help companies un-derstand the base of their busi-ness. Sean took the attendees through Coca-Cola’s manage-ment of their global supply chain ensuring food safety and quality and protecting one of the world’s most iconic brands. The speaker lineup and topics included: Debb ie Newslow, Owner/President of D.L. Newslow and Associates Inc – Understanding the Role of “Risk Analysis” in Your Food Safety Program Nicolae Alexandru, Global Head of Crisis Management at AIG – The Bottom line impact of major product failure Leandro Lecheta, VP CNH Inter-national Brand Global Controller and Global Sales and Operation Planning – Finding the Balance Between Risk and Profitability Miguel Maal, Partner of OC&C Strategy Consultants – A struc-tured view of Business Risk Map-ping and Mitigation in Forward-looking Strategy Development Ed Beesley, SVP and CIO NAM, SGS North America Inc. – Cloud Computing Understanding and Controlling the Risks Opening and Closing remarks were given by SGS’ SVP North America John Woodman and SGS’ VP Sales and Marketing North America Bruno Samuel.

Thanks to SGS and all of the guest speakers for putting to-gether an excellent and informa-tive summit. Looking forward to next year’s conference! Contributed by Tom O’Brien –Sr. Total Quality Manager –Darden and FAFP Director

SGS' FIRST ANNUAL QUALITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT SUMMIT SGS’ First Annual Quality and Risk Management Summit took place September 17th and 18th at Disney’s Coronado Springs Re-sort. Those in attendance had an opportunity to learn from industry leaders about quality and risk management across a variety of industries. The Summit was kicked off with a behind the scenes tour of Disney focusing on quality and how Walt and Roy Disney mastered the art of business creating a magical environment for guests around the world through leadership, cul-ture, service, brand, and innova-tion influencing thousands of or-ganizations around the world to think differently about how they can deliver the long-term results. John Knappenberger, CEO from ANSI-ASQ and Sean Leighton, VP of Quality Assurance, Safety and Environmental Sustainability at Coca-Cola gave the keynote addresses. John provided insight

FAFP Fall Scholarship –2015 The 2015 FAFP Fall Scholar-ship was awarded to PhD stu-dent, Ms Shuang Wu. Con-gratulations!

Applicant review and award selection was headed by FAFP Vice President Sherrod Bostocky. The Florida Association for Food Protection (FAFP) offers two academic scholarships each year for students that exemplify excellence and dedication in their pursuit of food safety knowledge. The $1,000 scholarship can be used to help support the re-cipient in advancing their knowledge of food safety. Eligibility requirements and an application can be found in the website. The scholarship is available to FAFP members, their dependents or members of a FAFP-Student chapter (6 months minimum membership required)

(continued Peanuts page 5) Stewart Parnell's lawyers insisted he was unaware of the scale of the Georgia plant's salmonella problem as he tried to manage the company from his home office in Virginia. And attorneys for Michael Parnell noted he didn't work for Peanut Corporation and said he should be considered a customer rather than a conspirator, a middle-man who unwittingly bought tainted peanut paste for Kellogg's. Wilkerson's attorney insisted she cooper-ated with authorities as best she could. Reprinted from CBS/AP September 19, 2014 (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/peanut-plant-owner-convicted-in-deadly-salmonella-outbreak/)


of food safety. It was exciting that microbial risk assessments could be applied to have real life impacts. For students interested in food safety, could you tell us what com-pany you work for and how the food industry has guided your ca-reer? I work for Taylor Farms Florida* as the Director of Food Safety for a RTE produce processing facility and Deli prepared foods. In becoming in-volved with FAFP or IAFP, you have the opportunity to stay updated with the most recent trends and pub-lished science. It also enables profes-sionals to connect on multiple levels professionally to discuss solving problems and creating solutions. We try to encourage members to become active participants and you have offered your time to give pres-entations for FAFP: In one presentation you showed us several food safety investments in the plant that were significant if not unique. In the world of cost cutting, how do you promote a major food safety investment to get effective buy in. Data analysis and trending is the key to quantifying an improvement need. A great example of this is we are often asking business minded professionals to speak ‘food safety language’. As food safety profession-als we have to analyze data and then quantify it to business results for our targeted audience. For example, in the facility we had a standing mezza-nine that was a plastic crate with small squares for standing. It was able to be justified based on ATP, APC data, and the length of time to meet the 7 Steps of Sanitation that migrating to stainless steel flip top mezzanines may be costly to install;

Member Spotlight (Continued from page 1) but would be a food safety and fi-nancial benefit. The Sanitation team now takes half the time to clean that particular mezzanine because it has improved sanitary design. It also poses less microbial risk due to this improved sanitary design implemen-tation. I’ve come across food safety or quality control professionals who had hoped to focus only on their task, and try to shy away from the budget part of the equation. Do you think those days are behind us? As food safety professionals we have to understand the big picture. We cannot have budget influence our decision for food safety but, in un-derstanding it we can create appro-priate solutions. When we offer technical expertise and we under-stand the budget we can then ex-plain where the planned risk cannot be performed with the defined budget; or what other modifications can be made but there would be process or behavioral limitations in the process because of the defined budget. What do you like most about your job? Produce Food Safety is very fast paced and short shelf-life. It requires the facility to collectively be working together to meet targeted out-comes. All departments engaged and coming together to make end goals reality. What benefits do you get from be-ing an FAFP Member? As a FAFP member a real life exam-ple was I met a chemical supplier at one of the meetings and we started discussing what we were looking for regarding foot traffic separation and the height of the foam, the spray pattern, and also to have it moni-

Become a Member of FAFP

Who Can Join? The Florida Asso-ciation for Food Protection is looking for professionals to join us in enhanc-ing the level of education, service and commitment for Food Safety Officials in Industry, Government and Acade-mia within the State of Florida. Benefits of Joining: Membership demonstrates your support and com-mitment to promoting food safety in Florida. The Association helps develop procedures, new legislation, ideas and methods. Membership allows us to educate food safety professionals in all areas, advancing knowledge and awareness of safe food handling. At-tend our regional meetings to learn the latest in the industry and meet fellow professionals. How Can You Join? Simply submit the application with membership dues for the first year. Please contact us for more information or visit our website at www.fafp.net.

tored based on traffic patterns for a defined spray frequency. The most important need was to have validated published science on the process. In collaborating, an application in an-other sector was able to be modified and then applied to manufacturing. FAFP members share similar experi-ences, challenges, and can work to-gether to solve problems. We are all in this together to provide safe food and when we work collec-tively with our operations team we understand their needs and limita-tions; then we collaborate with techni-cal peers to propose solutions.

Thank you Vanessa! *UPDATE: Since submitting this article, Vanessa has assumed her new role as Sr. Manager Brand Standards, QA and Regulatory Compliance for Denny’s.


Final Food Safety Regulations Are Here On August 31, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an-nounced it had submitted final versions of two of the long-awaited Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations. The two regulations that have been finalized are: Current Good Manufacturing Prac-

tice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Hu-man Food; and

Current Good Manufacturing Prac-tice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Ani-mals

These two final regulations, commonly referred to as Preventative Control Rules for Human and Animal Food, are the central two pillars of FSMA. FDA announced last week that each has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication. Its announcement also cautioned that, “Documents submitted to the Federal Register can publish several days after they are submitted, with larger documents taking longer to p r o c e s s and dis-play.” As of the writing of this article (September 8, 2015), the Federal Reg-ister had not yet processed and published these rules. The Federal Register website states that “This document [Human Food Rule] is unpublished, but on 09/17/2015 it is scheduled to be pub-lished and available on (this page)1 . Until then, you can download the pre-publication PDF version.” The date of submission of the two pre-ventative control rules was in compli-ance with court-ordered deadlines. FSMA was signed into law by Presi-dent Barack Obama on January 4, 2011. Following extensive delays, FDA found itself defending a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety and the

Center for Environmental Health. These consumer groups demanded that FDA issue the regulations re-quired to implement the new food safety laws found in FSMA. After los-ing before the trial court, the FDA ultimately entered into a consent de-cree which set forth the following deadlines for issuing final regulations: Preventive Controls for Human

Food by August 30, 2015 Preventive Controls for Animal

Food by August 30, 2015 Produce Safety Standards by Octo-

ber 31, 2015 Foreign Supplier Verification Pro-

gram by October 31, 2015 Accreditation of Third-Party Audi-

tors by October 31, 2015 Sanitary Transportation of Food by

March 31, 2016 Intentional Adulteration/Food De-

fense by May 31, 2016 Assuming continued compliance with this court-ordered schedule, FDA will have issued what it refers to as its seven primary pillars of food safety by spring of 2016. Other less central FSMA regulations have been and will

c o n -tinue to be pub-lished. Follow-ing pub-

lication of each of these regulations, FDA will provide guidance docu-ments. While not having the effect of law, a guidance represents FDA’s current thinking and interpretations of a particular regulation. In this in-stance, FDA has promised to publish guidance documents with recommen-dations for implementation of the new food safety laws. In the announce-ment on August 31, 2015, regarding the Preventive Control Rules, FDA stated, “The FDA is committed to sharing information about the final rules and how food facilities can com-ply as soon as we are able to do so. Please check back here for updates, which the agency will share as soon as the final rules are available via the

FDA will have issued what it refers to as its seven primary pillars of food

safety by spring of 2016.

Federal Register.” Kathy Hardee, Esq., is co-chair of the Food & Agriculture Industry Group at Polsinelli, PC, which is com-posed of a team of attorneys from every legal practice area and who each have a focused background in the food industry. By Kathy Hardee, Esq. eNewsletter September 15, 2015 (http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/enewsletter/final-food-safety-regulations-are-here/) 1Federal Register Links: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/09/17/2015-21920/current-good-manufacturing-practice-hazard-analysis-and-risk-based-preventive-controls-for-human FAFP ADDENDUM: FDA has set up a NEW ONLINE WEB PORTAL where questions can be submitted to the agency. Stakeholders can submit situation spe-cific inquiries and clarifying questions to the FDA about the new FSMA PC rules so as to inform the FDA as to what type of questions need to be addressed in the forthcoming guidance documents. ( http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm459719.htm)

EDITOR’S QUIZBOX: Key terms Hazard: A biological, chemical, or physical agent that is reasonably likely to cause illness or injury in the absence of its control.

Control: (a) To manage the condi-tions of an operation to maintain compliance with established criteria. (b) The state in which correct pro-cedures are being followed and cri-teria are being met.

REGULATORY UPDATES


Peanut Plant Owner Convicted in Deadly Salmonella Outbreak {Stewart Parnell, Former Peanut CEO Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison} ALBANY, Ga. - A federal jury con-victed the owner of a peanut plant and two others Friday in connection with a salmonella outbreak that prompted one of the largest U.S. food recalls ever, sickened hundreds across the country and was linked to several deaths. Experts say the seven-week trial in Albany, Georgia, marked the first time corporate executives and plant workers were tried in a food poison-ing case. Former Peanut Corporation of Amer-ica owner Stewart Parnell was con-victed on numerous counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruc-tion of justice related to shipping tainted peanut butter to customers and faking results of lab tests in-tended to screen for salmonella. His brother, Michael Parnell, was also found guilty on multiple charges re-lated to the false lab results, but was acquitted of actually shipping salmo-nella-tainted food. The jury also found Mary Wilkerson, the plant's quality assurance man-ager, guilty of obstruction of justice for hiding information about the plant's salmonella problems from in-vestigator. But Wilkerson was acquit-ted on one of two obstruction counts she faced. All three will be sentenced at a later date. Prosecutor Alan Dasher told the judge the Parnell brothers will likely face prison sentences "well in excess of 10 years," and noted it's possible the middle-aged brothers could re-main imprisoned for the rest of their lives. For that reason, he asked the judge to have the Parnells jailed pending sentencing. "The government's primary concern is about flight risk," Dasher said. All three defendants have remained free throughout the course of the trial.

There was no request to jail Wilkerson before she's sentenced. The judge planned to hear from de-fense attorneys on the issue later Friday. Prosecutors accused the Parnell brothers of shipping tainted peanuts and peanut butter five years ago and covering up lab tests showing posi-tive results for salmonella. Peanut Corporation's products were used as ingredients in crackers and other snacks. The Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention found that 714 people in 46 states were infected and nine peo-ple died - three in Minnesota, two in Ohio, two in Virginia, one in Idaho and one in North Carolina. The company's plant in Blakely was shut down after being identified as the origin point of the salmonella out-break in 2009. Peanut Corporation has since gone bankrupt. Federal inspectors also found roof leaks, evi-dence of bugs and rodents, and a peanut roaster that workers failed to ensure was heated to the proper tem-perature to kill salmonella. Investiga-tors say they also uncovered a sys-tem the plant used to fake microbi-ological test results required by cus-tomers so the company could con-ceal positive lab tests for salmonella contamination. Michael Parnell was in charge of sell-ing tanker trucks filled with peanut paste to Kellogg's, which required 40,000 pounds of paste from Peanut Corporation twice a week. Prosecu-tors said the Parnell brothers used fake lab results so that wait times for real tests wouldn't slow down their hectic shipping schedule. After being told a shipment faced de-lay while waiting on lab results, Stew-art Parnell wrote an email referenced several times by prosecutors in the

case that read: "Just ship it. I cannot afford to (lose) another customer." Stacks of emails, shipping records, lab test reports and other documents were introduced as evidence by prosecutors. Two former plant man-agers - Sammy Lightsey and Danny Kilgore - testified against their former boss and his co-defendants as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors. Lightsey testified that he once con-fronted Michael Parnell about the fake lab tests but allowed the practice to continue after he was told to back

down. "In my mind, I wasn't intentionally hurting anyone," Lightsey testified last month. CBS News' Paula Reid spoke about the case with Stuart Delery, Acting Associate Attorney General of the United States, who was head of the Civil Division at the Justice Dept. when the Peanut Corporation of America case was brought. "It is critically important that manufactures know that we will pursue them where they are put-ting the health and safety of the American consumer at risk," Del-ery said. He noted that it was a diffi-cult case to prosecute -- the trial went seven weeks with more than a 1000 pages of exhibits. "Obviously these cases are critically important given that all of us are in-terested in protecting ourselves and our families. There are a number of things we can do to protect ourselves like wearing a seatbelt in the car, wearing a helmet when we are riding a bicycle," he said. "But we cannot protect the integrity of our food sys-tem so we need to be vigilant in en-forcing the laws that protect what all of us eat." (Continued on page 2)

RAMIFICATIONS

"Obviously these cases are critically important given that all of us are interested in protecting ourselves

and our families…”


Happenings and Events

FAFP held its Southeast Coast luncheon on July 9th. 2015. Members and guests were treated to a gourmet lunch buffet provided by and held at Winn-Dixie/SE Grocers conference facility in Pompano Beach. Our thanks to SE Grocers and Eric Montanez and his team for hosting this event. Attendance was great at over 30 people!

This location was chosen to help our more dis-tant members attend in person. We hope to have more outreach sessions and in the future.

Guest speakers donating their time, insights and presentations included: Dale Yamnik, REHS, Yum! Brands "Fires and Power Outages and Hurri-canes, Oh My!!" (Emergency Action Plan for Retail) Anthony R. Febbraro, Microbica Laboratory Partners “Environmental Sampling Options, Alternatives and Strategies”

THE 2016 ANNUAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE Its never too early!

FAPP will hold the next AEC event in May 2016 at THE PLANTATION ON CRYSTAL RIVER

9301 West Fort Island Trail Crystal River, FL 34429 www.plantationinn.com

Dates and details will follow. Please check on the FAFP website at www.fafp.net

FAFP held its Quarterly Luncheon at on Thursday, September 29, 2015 at the C&S Wholesale Services facility in Plant City. Thirty attendees enjoyed presentations from: Dr. Michelle Danyluk, Associate Professor, University of Florida: “How did that get there? A case study of Salmonella on tropical tree fruit in South Florida” Diane Kelsh, CDR, U.S. Public Health Service Regional Retail Food Specialist, U.S. Food & Drug Admini-stration: 2013 Food Code Supplement Update Joe Goetz, Director of Food Safety National SME Seafood, C&S Wholesale Grocers: "Seafood HACCP; Translating the Barriers of Industry and Regulation"

The event closed off with a great tour of the C& S Distribution Center.

We would like to thank Eric Montanez and Rick Barney for arranging the food and for securing the location. We are now in the planning stages for the next luncheon to be held on Dec. 9th.


AEC 2015 “Don’t Gamble on Food Safety” That was the theme of the 2015 Annual Educational Conference of the Florida Association for Food Protection which was held on May 28th -29th at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Apopka, Florida. The meeting was a great success with 105 attendees, 14 exhibitors and 4 student posters. Over the course of the two days 10 speakers gave presentations on a variety of topics including the sanitary transportation of food under FSMA; food allergies; us-ing big data to make better informed food safety decisions; emerging pest control technologies; an update on the Blue Bell ice cream outbreak; an update on emerging risks associated with food borne pathogens; the role of the Conference for Food Protection; the burden of food borne disease; Nanotechnology and food safety; Biofilm control and highly sensitive analytical methods and how they affect food safety monitoring. Our speakers were highly regarded, well known professionals and included Dr. Gary Acuff, Past President of IAFP; Dr. Jordan Maeson; Dr. Laura Strawn; Dr. John Szpylka; Dr. Ron Harrison; Dr. Keith Schneider; David McSwane; Dr. Arie Havelaar; Dr. Ray Matulka; Dr. Dale Grinstead, Stewart Watson and Susan Turcovski. In addition to the seasoned professionals, four graduate students from the University of Florida, displayed posters and gave presentations on their graduate

Dr. Gary Acuff presenting

On the evening of May 28, we held our evening social event. FAFP is well known (actually our reputation precedes us) for hosting creative and fun network-ing activities. This year’s event was a Casino Night, in fitting with our theme. The meeting room was turned into a ca-sino with professional gaming tables and dealers. Game winners collected tickets which were then entered into a drawing for prizes that were given away at the conclusion of the event.

Our conference would not have been such a success without the support of our 14 exhibitors. In order to encourage interaction between attendees and exhibi-tors, each attendee received a ‘passport’ on which each exhibitor would attach a sticker indicating that the attendee visited their booth. Once the ‘passport’ had been completely filled, attendees could enter it into a drawing for a Fit-Bit exercise monitor.

Once again, FAFP’s Annual Conference was a win-ner and plans are already underway for the 2016 meeting. Contributed by Marjorie Jones -FAFP President


Sarah Markland, University of Florida Alan Gutierrez, University of Florida Jean Hamil, Duda Farm Fresh Foods Lionell Hicks, US Army Public Health Command Jessica Tulgestka, Alessi Baker-ies Rick Walker, D L Newslow & As-sociates, Inc. Obeta Osolu, Darden Restau-rants, Inc. Sarah Taber, Boto Waterworks, LLC Osayande Brooks, RaceTrac Patrick Fulco, Fun Sweets Pam Meijer, Silliker William Melnyczenko, Silliker Sara Symanietz, Silliker Mark Dargay, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. Joe Goetz, C&S Wholesale Gro-cers, Inc. Bryan Granger, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. Karen Herbert, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. Ian Bessell, Covance Laborato-ries Aaron Huckabee, DuPont Nutri-tion and Health Diagnostics William Burton Patrick Lannon, Southeastern Grocers

Welcome New Members!

Our Valued Corporate Sponsors Please support our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you the high level of education and information on our Web Page, Luncheons,

Newsletter and Annual Education Conference.

Gold Corporate Sponsors Chemstar Corporation

C&S Wholesale Grocers Ecolab/Kay Chemicals Gregory Pest Solutions

McCall Service/Copesan Orkin Commercial Services Publix Super Markets, Inc. Sealed Air, Diversey Care

Silliker Winn Dixie Stores, Inc.

Silver Corporate Sponsors Buckhead Beef

D L Newslow & Associates, Inc. Domino’s Pizza LLC

SGS United States Testing Company

Bronze Corporate Sponsor Advanced Fresh Concepts

ASI International Duda Farm Fresh Foods

EHA Consulting Group, Inc. Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association

Micrōbica Laboratory Partners NSF International

The Steritech Group, Inc.

If you are interested in being a Corporate Sponsor, please contact Zeb Blanton, Jr., P.O. Box 160032, Altamonte Springs, FL, 32716,

(407) 682-4720 or by e-mail [email protected].