Food Safety Resource Utilization and Success

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Question from an Aspiring Food Professional:

Young professionals provide great opportunities for the experienced folk to be great mentors.

A young Food Science professional asked: “How can I improve my experience and improve my knowledge of Food Hygiene & Good Manufacturing Practices?” 

Freely share what you know because knowledge diminishes if it is hoarded.

A recent Food Science and Technology graduate, upon reading some of my posts, sent me a message with this question. Other young professionals starting out in the food safety and quality management profession or planning to enter this field may be asking the same question.

Here are some of the points in my response:

An academic background in food science or related field is good place to start. Once employed, the practical everyday experiences at work (good or bad) provide very good learning opportunities. Ongoing professional development training may also be necessary. Such training could be obtained through short courses, seminars and professional certification programs by reputable organizations or institutions. In every case, the courses should offer practical content based on real experiences along with real opportunities for practice. The post on "Mercenary or MOM Training” provides additional information about how to determine what courses are good to take.

Secondly, any practicing or prospective professional will benefit from reading as broadly as possible. Reading the news about actual related events in the industry, as well as following open forum discussions could be helpful. Participating with comments, questions, etc., could also provide very good opportunities to learn and test your knowledge.

Other veterans in the food safety and quality management profession may have things to add. As for current veterans, we must first regain respect for the food safety and quality management profession. Spreading misinformation and commercialized complicity will not help this at all. Plain honesty about current failures with a determined and demonstrated effort at pursuing real (not superficial) solutions will. We must re-establish the trustworthiness of the profession. Otherwise, we will not have a worthwhile legacy to pass on to future generations.

Please share your thoughts if you have anything to add. This may even be a question.

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.

Food Safety and Acrobatic Balancing Acts – Where do you stand?

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

The Lion, the Goat and the Yam Test for Prospective Food Safety Managers

You very likely have heard this old Nigerian riddle but not as a food protection aptitude test. All good food safety managers should be able to solve this riddle. Your yam and goat, are they safe? With some modification, clarification and added challenge to appease critical minds, here is the riddle:

A man has to cross a river with his lion, goat and tuber of yam in a canoe. The canoe needs to take at least two of the passengers for balance each time but cannot hold more than three (the yam has sufficient weight as a passenger - huge yam). The lion has no interest in the man or the yam as food but finds the goat to be irresistibly appetizing. The only reason the goat is spared is because the man gets between and separates them every time the lion goes for the goat. The goat sees the yam and feels the same irresistible  urge to consume it. The man and the lion are of no interest to the goat. The man also protects the yam from the goat. However, with him having to do the paddling, the protection intervention is not possible in the canoe. How should the man get his yam, goat and lion safely across with no consumption casualties?

Note: Like certain situations in food safety and quality management, there is no opportunity for "corrective action".The challenge demands SSQA kind of strategic and preventive action. 

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.

Assurance of Food Safety, Quality and Business Survival

Is your business fit and ready for the inevitable change?

The SSQA concept may be well ahead of its time but things are already happening in the industry that will force the adoption of what it proposes. - The Coming Shift 

Many advocates, perhaps unknowingly, are calling for changes that align with SSQA proposals and the calls are growing louder as unfortunate events continue to occur around the world. Many businesses may not know anything about SSQA today and they may not care to know but they will not survive without doing what it proposes. What is your business missing? - Scope of the SSQA Manual

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection