Dr. Ben Chapman is an associate professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. He received a Ph.D. in plant agriculture in 2009 from the University of Guelph. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman. His research interests include consumer, retail and food safety culture, home food preservation and communicating food safety risk reduction messages. He is a member of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Food Law professional development group and Outreach Education professional development group and the Carolinas Association for Food Protection. He currently co-chairs the North Carolina Fresh Produce Safety Task Force and is a member of the editorial boards of Food Protection Trends and the British Food Journal. He is the chair of the Risk Communication subgroup for the North Carolina Governor’s Task Force on Food.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Ben Chapman about:

• Supporting local retail, foodservice and consumer food safety through NC State Extension
• Co-founding Barfblog with Doug Powell and how it supports food safety efforts
• Emerging of niche markets like petting zoos and agritourism
• Developing NC State’s Master Food Volunteer program
• Working in food safety as a career
• Researching cookbooks for food safety instructions made Ben famous for two days
• Translating and communicating risk to consumers and businesses
• Using social media to arm the right people with the right messages
• Starting the Food Safety Talk podcast with Don Schaffner
• Using reality-based research
• Developing social media projects to engage citizen scientists

Ben Chapman's articles published in Food Safety Magazine
Crisis Management: How to Handle Outbreak Events (June-July 2012)
Food Safety for Food Handlers (December 2010-January 2011)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode
FDA Issues New FSMA Guidance for Exempt Canned Foods, Juice and Seafood
New FDA Guidance Document Clarifies FSMA’s Sanitary Transportation Rule
FAO to consider World Food Safety Day
New Data Ranks Food Safety  at America’s Baseball Stadiums 
Seven Filthy Food Habits and How Dirty They Really Are

Beth Panko Briczinski, Ph.D. is the Senior Science Advisor for Milk Safety in the Office of Food Safety at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

Casey McCue is the Conference Chair for the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) and the Director of the Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a position he has held since 2000. 

Megin Nichols, D.V.M. serves as the Deputy Division Director for the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

Brandon Carter, D.V.M. is a Food Safety Technical Advisor for Elanco Animal Health. Dr. Carter received his B.S. degree in Animal Science and his D.V.M. from Mississippi State University. He also holds an M.S. degree in Veterinary Epidemiology from West Texas A&M University. His areas of expertise are disease prevention and control for poultry, with specialized expertise in epidemiology and data analysis.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, J.D. is Senior Manager at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She also serves as Deputy Chief of Party of EatSafe—Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food—which is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded, five-year program running through June 2024.

Richard Pluke, Ph.D. is the Food Safety Lead and Chief of Party for GAIN's EatSafe and an international rural development professional specializing in agricultural enterprises and value chains, with over 15 years of applied development experience in South America, Asia, and Africa. 

Kathleen (Kathy) Glass, Ph.D. joined the Food Research Institute (FRI) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a food safety researcher in 1985, where she currently serves as Associate Director. Her primary duties are to assist the food industry in assessing and developing formulation-safe foods. In addition, she trains and oversees undergraduate and graduate student independent study research, and is a regular instructor at workshops on food microbiology, preventive controls, Listeria control methods, processed meat and processed cheese safety, and dairy Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). 

Mark (Mick) Micklos, CP-FS, is an executive dedicated to food safety education and advocacy. His 27-year career includes 16 years in restaurant operations, training, and food safety, the majority of which was spent holding Director- or Vice President-level positions at Waffle House Inc.; seven years at the National Restaurant Association working on behalf of industry, culminating as Director of Food Safety and QA Programming; and most recently, as a Partner-Advisor with Active Food Safety LLC, where his work with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) has led to breakthrough discoveries in Food Safety Management System and food safety culture behavior in foodservice establishments. Mick has served on 19 professional advisory boards and committees. He has published six articles and three book chapters, and has contributed to two guidance documents. He has earned ten awards for his work and is a frequently requested speaker on a wide variety of topics.

Barbara Kowalcyk, Ph.D., M.A., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and the Director of the Food Policy Institute at George Washington University's (GW's) Milken Institute School of Public Health. She also has an appointment in the U.S. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and is a fellow with the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness.