VM 834 Current Issues in Food Safety

Course Description: Students will discover a new perspective of food safety and develop a deeper understanding of the ‘Why’ of food safety through root cause analysis of historic foodborne illness outbreaks. Approaching the events that led to outbreaks, the responses or reactions, and the stories of individuals that were impacted presents new context to the case studies. Additional viewpoints by manufacturers, suppliers and retailers provide a comprehensive understanding of the system - and, sometimes, its failures. Interviews with Bill Marler, Mike Taylor and others are included to gain deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues and differing perspectives.

Objectives: 

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Define food safety failure
2. Illustrate the impact of food safety failures on the lives of the consumers and the food industry 
3. Identification of both industrial and consumer setting failures that led to outbreaks
4. Examine perspectives from consumer, retailer, and industry focused on how future food safety failures can be avoided
5. Propose preventive risk-mitigation strategies to eliminate recurring tragedies
6. Focus on the "why" of food safety and showcase food safety as a continuous process to protect public health

Topics:

• Jack-in-the-Box and its Implications with Bill Marler
• Spinach Outbreak 2006 and its impact on individuals 
• Romaine Outbreaks (LGMA perspective)
• Evaluate the cause of the ongoing 2017 Canadian Chicken Nugget Outbreak
• Review the Blue Bell 2015 Listeria outbreak

Course Materials: All materials will be made available in the D2L course. Lectures will be provided by industry professionals. There is no textbook requirement - readings will be assigned from regulatory, industry, and research sources.

1 Credits