In food industry, we really like to talk about the same concepts – how to keep our food safe, sell them and keep our customer happy. It is important, isn’t it? But, why do we keep repeating these topics that by now, it did be a common sense.
Here are 5 reasons why I think why we kept repeating ourselves: 1st – These topics are important. Top of the list to keep the conversation going to remind ourselves to be always cautious on ensuring we contribute to the positive outlook of the industry. 2nd – To share good practices among the industry. For the beginner, great opportunities to learn and for the seasoned professional, it serve as a great experience sharing session. 3rd- To find ways to really keep up with consumers and regulatory requirement, bearing in mind, the demands will only get harsher. 4th – To find gaps in our current practices to ensure that preventative strategies are in place to minimize damage to the consumers and also, maintaining the hard earned branding. 5th – To expect what is next hit for the industry, whether it is the trend for popular flavor, food habits or simply new regulatory requirements. If you are not in the loop, you may missed out! So, there you go, my top 5 why(s) we speak about the same thing over and over again. Do you have any other reasons to add on?
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There are numerous ways the COVID-19 has impacted the food industry -from education to bringing our community together.
Education: I must admit Coronaviruses have done better and more impactful education compared to the accumulated 8 years of my career in the food industry (way beyond the numerous food safety training that I have performed). Without further explanations, food employees (and non-food employees) now recognize the keywords and importance of these keywords:
Introduction of Work from Home: Many people are new to working from home and are worried about how to keep their motivation, missing out on the social interactions and navigating the many online and conference options. The COVID-19 helps to bring us out of our comfort zone to learn about technology and how we can work together in a global community setting. Example: writing a food safety program can be done virtually while some of the implementation and verification steps can be done at the facility. By differentiating the tasks and working background, we can reduce the amount of possible face-to-face human interactions. It is important also to recognize the many different technologies that we have access to, call and conferencing options. Teams can get together via a conference call to ensure that the project deadline is met, getting ideas from the team and confirming information etc. Best apps for working from home: Office 365 (Document sharing), Zoom, Skype (Conference call), Calendly (Scheduling call) and your favorite calming music Figuring Out Social Distancing and Food Contamination: While there is no evidence that COVID-19 can be transferred and survive in food products, many food manufacturers are taking precaution to ensure their working employee is healthy and following the communicable disease policies strictly. The social distancing rule has also been incorporated into the working schedule to reduce the amount of employee working in a shift. Bringing Community together: I also like to acknowledge how the viruses bring us together as a community, living on the same boat, fighting the same war in an unprecedented world. Food companies are recognizing employee’s well-being and the importance of their frontline workers in keeping the food supply chain going. Keeping sick employees home so that they could recover. Running to Fill The Grocery Store: While the community is on a “panic buying mode”, it was the food industry, grocery store, the transportation companies (and all the front line employees) that help fill the grocery store. Many people do not know how it is being filled but basically, it takes numerous calls, rush orders logistic coordination with multiple suppliers throughout a supply chain to restock a shelf. That is just how much work that our grocery stores have put to ensure that we are able to get the product that we like to get. Sharing Resources is Caring: I am thankful that some food companies (and others) have come forward to make essential medical, protective tools and chemical sanitizers that they normally wouldn’t make, to ensure those who need the equipment and tools have priority access to them. It is important to keep our medical teams (doctors and nurses) safe as they help infected patients recover and to minimize possible disease spreading. COVID-19 has and will continue to change our community -we know that our people and our communities are key to keeping humanity and our (and other species) survivals. Over the last few months, we have seen reports of observation of a clearer sky, water and empty roads and parks that we have never seen these past few years. To some, the pandemic helps our earth to restore. I like to leave you with this, let’s take over COVID-19 and the responsibility to restore our earth on our hand. Jun 2019 -I have attended Emerging Leader Program run by Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). It is a highly recommended short program aimed to enhance leadership and networking experience for young food professionals. We are divided in group of eight (8) individual for 2.5 days long of programs and early mornings/late night that absolutely worth it. I always wanted to make a difference in what I do and often, I sell myself short and despite having sufficient skills and experience, I am not able to showcase my leadership experiences. Thus, I thought this would be a great way to showcase my experiences while meeting others in the industry.
Although the program go through the basic leadership skills that I have learned at school, I found that I am not using these skills. It is indeed a great reminder for me to incorporate these leadership skills in my day-to-day life. In addition, I am introduced to few new concept of embracing shame and vulnerability. Often, we hide things that we feel ashamed of. What that meant is that we are also hiding a part of ourselves and that hinders our growth. By openly sharing something small that we feel vulnerable at, we open up our life and inviting others to be a part of our life. The small group discussion that we have facilitate these discussion. I will be truthful -I felt that I opened myself and my brain played tricks on me that I am judge by how I live without fully embracing my situation. It is probably just my imagination. It is the exact uneasiness that made me reevaluate my situation of whether or not, I have the right strategies for my situation. Sometimes, the best thing in life is having that continuous challenge and opportunities to grow. ELN helped me made that choice to continue to grow, continue to seek opportunities to grow others and make a bigger difference, while evaluating the growth potential of my team. The program encouraged me to speak to important key members about the opportunities to grow the team and setting goals. Of course, this also come with a stake of driving effort without authorization. It is not the most comfortable things to do especially when I stand on my own feet. Getting the team to agree on barely a single term on having data to support evidences was a challenge despite it should have been an established terms in the food industry. Yet, I stand on my own feet for 6 months until data is generally accepted by the team, as supportive evidence. At the same time, I am also evaluating the impact I can make by staying in an organization versus working for multiple organizations that I can make bigger impact to protect food safety and public health. I have chosen to make a bigger impact and to learn more about the food industry. Now, I run my own food consultancy start-up, hoping to help build and support more food organizations, to create safe and quality food branding. In doing so, I combined food safety, marketing and management under a roof, called SFPM Consulting. If you have not explore ELN program and you are working with food, I encourage you to check this link and apply for the next program intake. |
AuthorFelicia Loo, CFS is a Certified Food Scientist and qualified SQF Practitioner. She has worked with numerous food businesses to develop customized and improved food safety programs. She has worked with different food safety and regulatory schemes such as SQF, ISO 22000, Primus GFS, Organic, Kosher and Health Canada (Natural Health Product). Categories
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