Session Descriptions

The emergence of COVID-19 and its related worldwide travel restrictions have changed the way companies approach food safety audits. COVID-19 has halted travel, thus making companies think twice about allowing visitors on site and drastically changing how people interact with one another. As a result, auditors of private companies and enforcement agencies alike developed the process of remote auditing for checking compliance. Food safety professionals have mixed feelings when it comes to remote audits, appreciating the flexibility but questioning its thoroughness and efficacy. Remote audits may be here to stay for the future and require us to remain agile and flexible in our approach.

Ajay Shah is a highly experienced food scientist/technologist trained in the U.K. who has impressive academic achievements and career highlights. Ajay has lectured in the field of food science and technology to university students in Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand and has also shared his expertise by presenting technical seminars, conferences, and webinars. He has been operating his food technical consultancy business for the past 20 years by providing scientific and technical food solutions to the food industry. Ajay was named as a Fellow of the AIFST in recognition of the outstanding service to the food industry in 2018.

Krutika Kachhy is an experienced food technologist who completed her MSc in food technology from Australia. After working briefly in the quality assurance sector of the food industry in Australia, she moved into technical development in India, where food emulsifiers and their functionality became her key areas of expertise. Krutika has tutored food technology university students in Australia for new product development and quality assurance. Krutika has taken up a new challenge and has moved to the commercial side of the business. She is currently the head of business development for the food, feed, and nutraceuticals division of Molkem Chemicals.

The food industry, distribution processes, and consumer behavior must adapt to changing times. Today we must understand that we cannot use standards such as ISO 22000 in the same way as we did prior to COVID-19. For example, will the audit of a canning company now be done as it was before this year? No. In this presentation we will talk about the remote audit of some food companies, paying attention to the risks of remote auditing and the behavior of people in these new times that some call "the new normal."

Since 2002, Jorge Bravo has participated as a delegate to ISO/TC 176, ISO/TC 207, ISO CASCO, and STTF representing Chile or ISO liaison bodies. He is a training provider evaluator for Exemplar Global for Latin America. Jorge teaches management systems programs at the graduate level at several universities in Latin America and is a renowned international speaker and international consultant. He is a lead auditor in ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22000, ISO 37001, and ISO 45001 as well as director of Interqualitas Ltd. In Chile. He has completed more than 1,000 hours of training for professionals and some 100 management system audits. Jorge is a father, son, husband, friend, and triathlete.

Odd as it sounds, being a food safety auditor has more to offer than just first, second, and third-party food safety auditing as a career (although these are all great options!) Join the presenter as she shares a few moments from her career, highlighting the transferable skills of food safety auditors.

Wendy Edwards has more than 30 years of experience as an auditor, consultant, and in-house quality professional, specializing in high and low-risk food industries. She is currently the head of food safety and quality for a New Zealand-owned business which employs 1,500 people across three countries and generates revenue of around $300 million NZD per annum. Manufacturing operations in New Zealand and Australia are SQF-certified and export food to around 18 countries. In 2019, Wendy was recognized by SQFI as the SQF Practitioner of the Year.

In this session, the presenter will discuss food systems and their supporting sub-systems. These include food security, food safety, and the environmental impact of agriculture and food production. This presentation will highlight how regulators play their part using standards to support public policy, why a process approach with a focus on outcome is so important, and offering benchmark examples for policy and programs that could be adopted further globally.

Colin Christmas joined EAGLE in 2019 as a managing director to support EAGLE’s international growth. He is an experienced professional with more than 20 years in the food industry working for Nestlé. Colin had the privilege to live and work in numerous countries around the world, which helped him develop an excellent understanding for process, systems, and standardization while working with different cultures. He has a bachelor’s degree in computing and business analytics from The University of Huddersfield, with specialization in quality control, quality management systems, and business process management. He also has program completion certificates from Wageningen University and Research for Food Safety Management and from the London Business School for an executive leadership program.

Remote auditing has been around for some time but came to prominence during the global pandemic. There has been much debate about how to conduct a remote audit; in this session, the presenter will provide insight into what techniques he has used to ensure the audit runs smoothly and the evidence is collected. From planning and preparation through to writing the report, these components make up a successful remote audit. The presenter will share lessons learned, from being the auditor and the auditee to helping with your remote audits.

Daniel McConville is the director of McConville Risk Solutions and has extensive experience in food and hospitality providing both food safety and occupational health and safety (OHS) services to a number of industries. McConville Risk Solutions are recognized as food safety specialists and work with some of Australia’s largest providers. As a tertiary qualified food safety and OHS professional, Daniel has expertise in developing and implementing food safety management systems and occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) to a range of industries including education, hospitality, health and aged care, local government, facilities management, and food manufacturing. Prior to commencing McConville Risk Solutions, Daniel worked for the Willis Group, the world’s third-largest insurance broker, in their workplace risk team, during which he worked on several projects for major companies.

How confident are you that your food defense plan is effective? Remember, it is about protecting your customers, colleagues, premises, business, and brands! This session will give you an overview of food defense, a step-by-step proven process for building your plan as well as tips and guidance for conducting food defense audits/reviews.

Ray Haddad loves talking food protection! Since 2007, Ray has specialized in food safety, food defense, and food fraud prevention. He has worked in quality roles, auditing, training, and consulting with varied organizations, from small family-owned to multinational food businesses, intergovernmental organizations, and regulators in New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. As the principal trainer and managing director at Food Surety Limited, Ray is committed to developing and delivering fully tailored training and advice supporting food professionals to do what is right with confidence, so they are successful and fulfilled protecting consumers everywhere.

When back in 2009 FSSC 22000 was first published it was clear to the food safety community the main problem it was aiming to solve. Since then so many things have changed but still there is an umbilical relationship between ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000. During this presentation we will go through FSSC and ISO 22000 differences and similarities.

Nuno F. Soares, Ph.D., is the founder of “The Why of Food Safety—Become the SLO” initiative and the author of several books and articles on food safety, namely FSSC 22000 V5 and ISO 22000:2018 Blueprint and Food Safety in the Seafood Industry (Wiley). He is an author, consultant, and trainer in food safety with more than 21 years as a food safety/quality and plant manager. You can reach him at www.nunofsoares.com.

This presentation explains how food and beverage companies can quickly and easily implement a remote audit program to help protect business during (and after) this uncertain time. The presenter will share best practices and provide a complete strategy to help get your remote audit plan in place quickly and effectively, including:

• The critical steps your remote audit process must include

• Helpful requirements lists and questionnaires to get you up-and-running quickly

• Preparations that will ensure your remote audits run smoothly

• Tips for working with auditors, suppliers, and certification bodies remotely

Shamonique Schrick is solutions architect at SafetyChain. With degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology, and more than 10 years of experience as an auditor, food safety expert, and quality specialist, she has a wealth of knowledge to share. Shamonique supports customers in everything from reporting and analysis of data, standardization across processes and facilities, identifying best practices, and the blueprint process. Besides her work at SafetyChain, Shamonique has also worked as a food safety specialist and supplier quality specialist at Cargill, supplier quality auditor for TreeHouse Foods, and microbiologist at MillerCoors.

When developing food safety systems, we need to understand what is a “system” as defined from its source—the ISO vocabulary. Then, we need to understand what is a “requirement,” and how to develop programs, procedures, or any needed written documents looking to achieve consistency on what is being processed or manufactured. Integrating all requirements into one system in compliance with all applicable legal, regulatory, and voluntary requirements is the topic discussed in this session.

Jose Sabal is a consultant, internal auditor and trainer for the food and beverage industry worldwide, providing solutions on improving process efficiency, effective training, verification, and validation of food safety and quality systems for more than 25 years. He is the president and director of Sabal Food Safety Consulting, a company dedicated to supporting companies worldwide on compliance with legal and regulatory requirements as well as compliance with the requirements of voluntary food safety standards like those benchmarked against GFSI (SQF, BRC, FSSC 22000) and other schemes focused on the preservation of the identity of certain food ingredients, such as gluten-free, non-GMO, organic or sustainable seafood (MSC and ASC).

As food safety becomes a daily issue in many global markets, those responsible for its management and control (e.g., processors, retailers and regulatory authorities) are increasingly turning to auditing to effectively ensure both compliance and improvement in standards. Third-party audits and certification have numerous merits in constructing a food safety regulatory framework based on supply chain control and prevention, but they also face serious challenges that may undermine overall effectiveness. For auditing principles to be a benefit for sites, this process must be underpinned by the efficient use of simple yet powerful tools that highlight areas to a company that need improvement and will also help to avoid surprises likely to surface at critical times. These tools when used correctly will support the implementation and maintenance of food safety.

Richa Bedi-Navik is the technical expert and standards manager for global standards for food safety and START! at BRCGS, where she is responsible for developing and maintaining the value and growth of both programs globally. BRCGS is a leading brand and consumer protection organization, used by more than 29,000 certified suppliers in more than 130 countries, with certification issued through a global network of accredited certification bodies. She completed her bachelor’s degree in food technology at Guru Nanak Dev University, and also holds a master’s degree in food technology–quality assurance from the University of Reading. During her career, Richa has worked in a variety of roles associated with food safety and quality management including food manufacturing, food service, and retail, as well as within the logistics industry working for DHL. She is passionate about finding ways to successfully make sector issues tangible for a wide variety of standard users, facilitating better understanding and developing guidance on related themes to support the industry.

In this session, the presenter will consider which food safety system is most appropriate for an organization. This is generally decided by the organization itself based on the food safety management system suitability for the product, business type, product risk, and customer requirements. Some of the food safety systems available are HACCP, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRC, and SQF. The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a private organization that maintains a scheme to benchmark food safety standards for manufacturers as well as farm assurance standards. Generally, customers like to see a GFSI standard in place and will add their specific quality and food safety requirements. GFSI-approved standards, which include BRC, SQF and FSSC 22000, are ideal as they are internationally recognized and carry a lot more weight than non-GFSI recognized standards.

Dijana Green has worked in the food industry for 29 years and carries a reputable background in leading quality and food safety within the industry. She is a food technologist and holds positions such as executive member of the Australian Society Baking Committee and a manufacturing representative on the Siliker board. Green is also an international auditor, consultant, trainer, and recently became a contract auditor for JAS-ANZ. She started her food safety career in 1989 with George Weston Foods. Her responsibilities over the years have ranged from quality through to national quality assurance manager, Baking Division, for Goodman Fielder, managing 44 bakeries nationally. These roles were very hands-on both operationally and commercially. Green founded Elevating Food Safety Pty. Ltd. in March 2009. Elevating Food Safety is one of Australia’s most trusted companies in the food and beverage industry, serving as a one-stop technical service working with manufacturers, retailers, food service, hotels, quick service restaurants, event companies, restaurants, warehouse, and distribution networks. Elevating Food Safety works with hundreds of clients, ranging from low-, medium-, to high-risk facilities. Elevating Food Safety provides services including quality and food safety systems, including gap and benchmarking audits, nutritional services, process improvement, quality and food safety boutique training, and recruitment of quality, operational, and executive professionals within Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Asia.

The healthcare sector is a huge industry that encompasses settings like public and private hospitals, retirement villages, aged-care centers, and palliative care, just to name a few. Within this sector incorporates the hospitality or the so-called food service department that look after food delivery and service to vulnerable people. In this context, vulnerable people mean individuals who may be unable to look after themselves and require assistance, feeding, and/or food delivery, depending on their needs. When it comes to food delivery, there is an important aspect of food safety that must be considered to ensure that the health and well-being of the people are constantly maintained. In this session, the presenter will speak about the importance of food safety, the purpose of food auditing, and the future of food safety auditors within the fast-growing industry of healthcare, mainly in Australia.

Dr. Vasambal Manikkam has a profound interest in the science of food, nutrition, global population health, and food safety. She currently works within the healthcare sector and is also a food and nutrition consultant, working globally. Vasambal is often invited as a reviewer for research papers from internationally recognized scientific journals based on her expertise.

The world is living through the worst global pandemic in living memory, with a profound impact on the global food industry and the communities it serves. It had a severe effect on the ability to provide food safety certification. The approved use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has helped but raised questions about ability, efficacy, and security. In addition, the aging cohort of food safety auditors and the challenges of recruitment bring into question the future style, format, and structure of food safety audits. This presentation recognizes some of the valuable regulatory and industry initiatives currently underway to address the issues confronting food safety and management. However, it also suggests that technology is not the only answer, and that the food certification industry needs to reboot to address the increasing challenges of this decade.

Bill McBride is the principal of Foodlink Asia Pacific, based in Sydney, Australia. For the past ten years Bill has served as the Asia Pacific representative for the SQF Institute, supporting the growth of the SQF program in Australia, New Zealand, and Eastern Asia. He won the SQFI Distinguished Service Award in 2015 and is a key member of the SQF technical team. Bill is a 40-year veteran of the food industry with experience in food industry change management, food safety certification, quality assurance, international food standards, GFSI, training, consulting, and auditing. He is the former chair of the GFSI Working Group on Auditor Competence as well as the past chairman of the personnel certification body QSA International.

We often hear advice to ‘follow your passion’ which is great, if you have one. But what if you don’t have a passion? This presentation explores one example of how a career becomes a passion. From choices as to which university and course through a fortunate opportunity, a pathway emerges that, with hindsight, make it seem ‘meant to be.’ Which came first, the career or the passion?

Andrew Baines joined Exemplar Global as president and CEO in 2016 and served on the Board of Directors for seven years previously. Immediately prior to becoming CEO of Exemplar Global, Baines was managing director of the American Society for Quality’s global operations, managing ASQ’s operations outside of the U.S., including offices in India, China, the Middle East, and Mexico in addition to serving on the Exemplar Global board. He has more than 30 years of experience spanning the food industry, auditing and conformity assessment, and international business development in several parts of the world. Baines is originally from the U.K., where he worked in the food industry in quality control, quality assurance, and product R&D before emigrating to New Zealand, where he began a career auditing quality, environmental, and safety management systems. This led to business unit management and senior executive roles in a conformity assessment body, including establishing a New Zealand government-owned agency as one of the largest conformity assessment bodies in the Southern hemisphere. In that role, he was responsible for international business development. Baines has also served on advisory and standard-setting groups with government agencies.

SQF released edition 9 on October 23rd, 2020 with an implementation date of May 24th, 2021. To prepare you for you audit against the SQF Code, edition 9, in this session, you will learn:

• The key changes between the SQF Code edition 8.1 and edition 9

• Answers to the most frequently asked questions (so far)

• Tips to ensure a smooth transition between editions

LeAnn Chuboff has more than 30 years of foodservice experience specializing in supply chain food safety and quality assurance. She is currently the vice president of technical affairs for the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Institute responsible for the technical elements of the SQF program including the development, maintenance, and technical support of the SQF Code and supporting materials. Prior to working at the SQF Institute, LeAnn worked for the National Restaurant Association Solutions as the director of science and regulatory relations. In this role, she was responsible for the technical accuracy of the ServSafe food safety program and developed program and services on food safety and food defense to fit with all segments of the restaurant industry. LeAnn has also worked for Long John Silver’s and Boston Market in corporate quality assurance where she developed food safety and vendor approval program. LeAnn is active with many organizations including GFSI, AFDO, and the International Association for Food Protection.

The coronavirus has changed the way the world works and forced us into a new norm. Remote auditing has many pros and cons and can be done as either a partial or full or combined. More trust must be given to technology as well as people, and COVID has placed a larger emphasis on risk-based audits. Remote auditing cannot replace on-site audits; each case needs to be evaluated individually. Will you feel comfortable that the food produced in a facility that had a full remote audit complies to food safety standards?

Thea Laufs’ mission throughout the last 28 years has been to improve the food safety culture and assist with the food safety and quality standards trend setting in South Africa. Her experience and expertise include more than 25 years of auditing across all the industries including but not limited to food and packaging manufacturing, QSR, restaurants, hotels, abattoirs, and farms. In addition, she is an internationally certified lead auditor in food safety and quality. She participates on various industry committees (SANS, SAATCA, RMMA, FSSC, etc.) and is always keen to share her technical expertise and guidance to industry. In 2009 Thea acquired the agency for Africa for CPG Global and has grown her client base through her dedication, commitment, and passion for the industry. Her vast experience and knowledge base was the reason she was appointed technical director for food safety for CPG internationally back in 2015.

This presentation addresses the current trends in auditing food manufacturers with a consideration for the evolvement of practices during the pandemic and integration with HSE. In addition, it demonstrates how a positive safety culture supports the performance improvement cycle and compliance with standards. Some tips to enhance audits in action are given highlighting the strength of integrated systems and using cross-functional teams to design systems and perform auditing programs.

Nancy Nouaimeh is an accomplished chartered business excellence and total quality management professional with more than 18 years of experience and a proven record of significant achievements. She holds master’s degrees in TQM and agronomic sciences and bioengineering. In her current job as AVP–quality, safety, and performance excellence at a leading food services management company in Dubai, Nancy leads improvement projects through innovative and integrated approaches. She is an expert in ISO standards and auditing (ISO 22000, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001). She is also a subject matter expert, senior assessor, and judge for national excellence, innovation, and quality professional awards.

In this live roundtable session timed for the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere, we chat with Carina Dalager and Stephanie Lemaitre about food standards development and how you can make your voice heard in the process. The panelists will take your questions during this one-hour event, which will broadcast live on March 9 starting at 10 a.m. EST/4 p.m. CET and available on-demand afterward..

Stephanie Lemaitre is the founder of Leansafe, a consulting company for food business and supply chain quality and safety. She was previously technical director of the certification program owner IFS and the global market manager of food certification/audit programs with Bureau Veritas Group. Stephanie has been involved in GFSI working groups since 2005, including support of GFSI as a technical writer. She is a GFSI benchmark leader providing expertise and training for food safety auditors, governance of certification programs, and certification operating models.

Carina Dalager is senior consultant–food safety for Danish Standard, where she assists with the development of European and international standards on food safety, microbiology, food authenticity, methods of analysis, and more. She also manages ISO/TC 34/SC 17, the food safety management system secretariat responsible for development of the ISO 22000 family of standards. Carina was previously a food inspector for Fødevarestyrelsen.

In the second part of this live roundtable session timed for the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere, we chat with Marco Roffia, Colin Christmas, Anthony Auffray, and Andrew Baines about the benefits of cloud, mobile, and data-driven approaches and how they can help with off-site, multi-site and multi-scheme strategies. In addition, we’ll cover how transparency can be enhanced and compliance turned into continuous improvement and discuss the potential pitfalls of deploying digital strategies. The panelists will take your questions during this one-hour event, which will broadcast live on March 16 starting at 1 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CET and available on-demand afterward.

Marco Roffia is the chair of GLOBALG.A.P.s certification body committee (CBC). From this position he has oversight and feedback from a universe of some 150 certification bodies. He also heads up the GLOBALG.A.P.S team of auditors for Italy’s leading certification body, CCPB.

Anthony Auffray is director, global food safety and compliance at Amazon. Formerly director global quality assurance for Starbucks, Anthony also worked with SGS and Bureau Veritas earlier in his career. He has invaluable insight into how technology can be used in food safety and quality programs, to assess, quantify, and mitigate risk for millions of products, hundreds of thousands of suppliers, and thousands of recalls.

Colin Christmas joined EAGLE in 2019 as a managing director to support EAGLE’s international growth. He is an experienced professional with more than 20 years in the food industry working for Nestlé. Colin had the privilege to live and work in numerous countries around the world, which helped him develop an excellent understanding for process, systems, and standardization while working with different cultures. He has a bachelor’s degree in computing and business analytics from The University of Huddersfield, with specialization in quality control, quality management systems, and business process management. He also has program completion certificates from Wageningen University and Research for Food Safety Management and from the London Business School for an executive leadership program.

Andrew Baines joined Exemplar Global as president and CEO in 2016 and served on the Board of Directors for seven years previously. Immediately prior to becoming CEO of Exemplar Global, Baines was managing director of the American Society for Quality’s global operations, managing ASQ’s operations outside of the U.S., including offices in India, China, the Middle East, and Mexico in addition to serving on the Exemplar Global board. He has more than 30 years of experience spanning the food industry, auditing and conformity assessment, and international business development in several parts of the world. Baines is originally from the U.K., where he worked in the food industry in quality control, quality assurance, and product R&D before emigrating to New Zealand, where he began a career auditing quality, environmental, and safety management systems. This led to business unit management and senior executive roles in a conformity assessment body, including establishing a New Zealand government-owned agency as one of the largest conformity assessment bodies in the Southern hemisphere. In that role, he was responsible for international business development. Baines has also served on advisory and standard-setting groups with government agencies.

In the first part of this live roundtable session timed for Asia and Oceania, we chat with Graeme Munro, Philip Cryer, and Keith Phillips about the benefits of cloud, mobile, and data-driven approaches and how they can help with off-site, multi-site and multi-scheme strategies. In addition, we’ll cover how transparency can be enhanced and compliance turned into continuous improvement and discuss the potential pitfalls of deploying digital strategies. The panelists will take your questions during this one-hour event, which will broadcast live on March 16 starting at 3 p.m. AEDT/5 p.m. NZDT and available on-demand afterward.

Graeme Munro is head of the auditor team of the AVOCO grower group responsible for more than 60 percent of New Zealand’s avocado exports. Now in his third year of the digital journey, Graeme is able to audit the 800 farms in the co-operative across the multi schemes required by his customers and do it with a small, well-trained team.

Philip Cryer A former executive at Telco, Philip Cryer is the CEO of CB Telarc, who do more than half of the ISO certifications in New Zealand including more than 60 percent of the health and safety audits. He started his digital journey four years ago.

Keith Phillips is the CEO of assessment platform provider Quantum Leap Beyond Spreadsheets (QLBS). Their platform, QuantumLeap, has been used for audit and assessment of compliance, quality, and business excellence across the world. It was also the first platform approved by GLOBALG.A.P., as they recognized the need for change. Keith has been through a number of digital transformations from the time he launched the original Macintosh when working for Apple Computers in the United Kingdom. His experience with digital media as a director of Apple USA. He has been an angel investor, a venture capitalist, and owner of a number of disruptive companies. His investment in QLBS comes from a recognition that the compliance and quality audit is one of the next big sectors about to undergo a significant digital transformation.

Internal auditing is a systematic way of reviewing food safety systems, standards, processes, and procedures. The role of the internal auditor is to provide an objective source of information regarding the way the organization is operating in terms of food safety systems, controls, operational effectiveness, and compliance with reference to specific standards. In this session, the presenter will closely review the four parts of the internal audit process, from planning to conducting the audit to reporting to follow-up action.

Salendra Kumar has more than 22 years of experience within quality assurance and food safety. He is an Exemplar Global-certified principal food safety auditor and an SQF practitioner. He is also a consultant and trainer specializing in quality assurance systems, GMP training, HACCP training, HACCP audits, internal audits, external audits, food safety training, SQF, HACCP documentation, document review, food safety system validation, verification programs, micro validation, and scheduling.