The AFDO Audio Podcast

Food Safety At Large Scale Events

Whether you have struck gold with a Super Bowl ticket or are attending your local concert with a few thousands of your friends, large scale events can be successfully managed for food safety.  Check out this article in the January 2020 issue of Food Safety Magazine that features the behind-the-scene planning that goes nto the large events. https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/december-2019january-2020/ensuring-food-safety-at-large-scale-events/

This podcast is with with one of the panelists in this article, Venessa Sims, MEP, GA-CEM, director of emergency management, Georgia Department of Agriculture. Sims presented about the her team's work on SuperBowl Food Safety at the AFDO Conference in 2019.  Georgia has practiced its response to large events to help keep the public safe. 
 

Key to Working With Legislators is Attention!

Legislators both national and state are packing up their bags and heading home. A new session of most starts in January. In this AFDO podcast, we look at ways to make your work with legislators more effective in 2020. We sat down with Doug Farquhar, Program Director for Environmental Health for the National Conference of State Legislatures, as he shared tips for helping state representatives as knowledgeable as they can be when they address issues that impact AFDO members. 

As State Legislatures Wind Down Looking at the Year Preps for the Future

The pace of legislative activity involving all facets of food and device safety at the state level has increased. We sat down with Doug Farquhar, Program Director for Environmental Health for the National Conference of State Legislatures, and discussed what has happened in 2019 and what state regulators should be looking at for the future. 

How Yum! Brands Piloted Social Media Use to Aid with Illness Outbreak Prediction

Dan Tew, Sr. Manager Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs for the Yum! Brands, shares an exciting pilot Yum! Brands has used to help locations stay ahead of illness outbreaks that could impact employee attendance as well as the spread of the illnesses.

Using Data in Support of Improved Food Safety at Retail

Laura Brown, Safe Food Section Team Lead for the CDC, discusses how CDC data shows what the food safety issues have improved and what still needs to be done. Brown discusses how data can bring focus to outreach for the most impact. 

The Rapid Road to Cannabis and Hemp Legislation at the State Level

There has been increased legislative activity at the state level on both cannabis and hemp. We sat down witjh Doug Farquhar,  Program Director for Environmental Health for the National Conference of State Legislatures and discussed how legislation is being developed and often passed across the country. Farquhar also shares ideas for working with representatives who make these key decisions. 

Kansas Professional Shares Food Safety Successes and His Musical Approach

We enjoyed visiting with AFDO members around the country during September's Food Safety Education Month so much, we kept on going.This week's podcast is with Adam Inman, Assistant Program Manager, Food Safety and Lodging, Kansas Department of Agriculture. He shares his team's successes with crossing the language barrier in food service, making a point of sharing with colleagues beyond Kansas, and sharing the Kansas approach as often as possible.  Inman, pictured above with his guitar, also shared an approach he is about launch that marries music and food safety education.

AFDO Training Programs Enhances Effectiveness and Accessibility

These are not your mother's training programs. Learning with AFDO is better than ever. AFDO's Randy Young shares how innovation continues to improve training that serves the more than 40,000 regulators nationwide. Randy is AFDO's Instructional Designer. He has be instrumental in continuing the improvements in ADFO's training partnerships. Randy shares what members should know about AFDO training and its future.

Got Task Force?

We recently sat down with Iowa's Jennifer Pierquet (now a member of the AFDO staff) and Jennifer Bonsky, MFRPS Coordinator and RRT Specialist Food and Dairy Division for the state of Michigan, to talk about the value of task forces.  They share their tips for making them most effective before you need them as well the value of getting everyone on board. 

Innovative Thinking (even a robot of sorts) Extends Food Safety Reach in Washington State

We are wrapping up National Food Safety Education Month with a conversation with Randy Treadwell from Washington State Department of Agriculture.  Randy is the Program Manager for the Rapid Response & Emergency Management.  He shares how integration and technology support the work he does meeting consumers where they are and the success of the RRT in Washington state.