Lone Jespersen is a principal at Cultivate, an organization dedicated to helping food manufacturers globally make safe, great tasting food through cultural effectiveness. Lone has significant experience with food manufacturing, having previously spent 11 years with Maple Leaf Foods. Following the tragic event in 2008 when Maple Leaf products claimed 23 Canadian lives, Lone lead the execution of the Maple Leaf Foods, food safety strategy and its operations learning strategy.

Prior to that, Lone worked for Woodbridge Foam as the engineering and operations manager responsible for the safety and quality of automobile safety products. Lone holds a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from Syd Dansk University, Denmark, a Master of food science from the University of Guelph, Canada and is presently pursuing her Ph.D. on Culture Enabled Food Safety with Dr. Mansel Griffiths at the University of Guelph, Canada.

Lone currently serves as chair of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) technical working group on Food Safety Culture, a group dedicated to characterizing and quantifying food safety culture across the global food industry from farm to fork. 

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Lone Jespersen about:

• Her time at Maple Leaf Foods when a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak claimed the lives of 23 Canadians.
• Moving forward and how Maple Leaf Foods transformed their entire food safety approach.
• The elaborate 4-tier food safety program implemented at Maple Leaf Foods.
• Elevating the importance of food safety culture within a business.
• How trade associations can help to enforce the impact that food safety really has.
• Her involvement with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
• The Food Safety Magazine 2017 series on food safety culture and how every sector within the food industry can benefit from reading the series.
• Food safety maturity of culture
• Balancing food safety with other business goals.

Related Content:
The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Distribution (June/July 2017)
The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Primary Production (April/May 2017)
Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture (Feb/March 2017)

News Mentioned in This Episode
CDC: Raw Milk, Cheese Cause Almost All Dairy Foodborne Illnesses
No More Appeals for Former Egg Executives
Study: Effective Handwashing Does Not Require Hot Water
FSMA's Foreign Supplier Verification Program Rule Now Final

Sponsored by:

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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.