Ep. 22. Jorge Hernandez: Transportation: The driving force behind food safety

03/27/18 • 57 min

Jorge Hernandez is the chief food safety and compliance officer for Wholesome International, a restaurant company with different concepts and brands in the quick and fast casual foodservice markets in the U.S. He is responsible for food safety, quality, regulatory compliance, and sustainability for the organization. This includes developing structure and reporting lines for the staff, risk-based policies and procedures that meet or exceed FDA, USDA, and/or state regulations, as well as the department leadership and oversight over the company’s suppliers, restaurants, processing facilities, and distribution.

Previously, Hernandez worked for 12 years as the senior vice president for food safety and quality assurance at US Foods where he developed the food safety, quality, and food regulatory program for a corporation that included more than 80 distribution centers, 14 processing facilities, and over 550 private label co-packers with 1,600 facilities across all segments of the food industry.

Earlier, Jorge was the vice president of food safety and risk management at the National Restaurant Association where he led the development of the award-winning ServSafe food safety training program for the restaurant industry.

Jorge started his career as a regulator and held positions at the state and the Winnebago County health departments in Illinois, U.S. He has earned degrees in biology from Rockford University, microbiology from the Centro de Estudios Medico-Biologicos in Mexico City Mexico, and languages and literature from la Universite de la Sorbonne, Paris, France.

Jorge is the board member of several industry organizations, including STOP Foodborne, the International Food Protection Institute, and GFSI, where he co-leads the development of the International Standards for the Food Warehouse and Distribution and is currently the co-chair of the GFSI U.S./Canada Group.

Hernandez has published many articles and is a recognized consultant in the areas of food safety, food safety management systems, food safety accreditation, food safety training, and food safety operations.

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

The art of balancing food safety science with common sense and making decisions based on both
Food safety culture and how it allows employees to speak up when food safety is at risk
Challenges of temperature control, contamination, and traceability while distributing food
The importance of working with supply chain partners who are knowledgeable about food safety and take it seriously
Why having the most sophisticated, up-to-date technology is not always enough to ensure the safety of food
Challenges faced by large food transporters that are not always problematic for smaller, local, or regional operators
The importance of using technology properly to ensure the best data and integrity possible
Best practices for transporting mixed loads
Why documentation and record-keeping are so important for times when technology may fail
His thoughts on why food distribution is not a huge target for intentional contamination
How the introduction of FSMA has helped make it safer to transport both raw product and ready-to-eat product on the same truck without cross-contamination issues
Common transportation issues and the use of trucks that are not fit to safely transport food
Working with GFSI to create international standards for transportation and warehousing
How GFSI standards compare to the FSMA Sanitary Transportation rule
Positive trends he sees with technology, big data, analytics, epidemiology, DNA, traceability, blockchain, and more.

Related Content: FSMA's Final Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food http://bit.ly/2ubc21M The Supply Chain and Food Safety Culture: Distribution (June/July 2017) http://bit.ly/food-distribution The State of Food Safety: Regulation, Collaboration and the Advancement of a Globally Safe Food Supply (August/September 2012) http://bit.ly/2DLVey0 Foodservice Distribution: Maintaining the Cold Chain (August/September 2009) http://bit.ly/2ucQGBo

News Mentioned in This Episode South African Poultry Plant Closes Amid Deadly Listeria Outbreak Investigation http://bit.ly/2Gebkpj A Spoor-Marler Team Plans Class Action for South African Listeria Victims http://bit.ly/2pz3WdY Family of 5-Year-Old Awarded $6.5 Million in Salmonella Chicken Case

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

The art of balancing food safety science with common sense and making decisions based on both
Food safety culture and how it allows employees to speak up when food safety is at risk
Challenges of temperature control, contamination, and traceability while distributing food
The importance of working with supply chain partners who are knowledgeable about food safety and take it seriously
Why having the most sophisticated, up-to-date technology is not always enough to ensure the safety of food
Challenges faced by large food transporters that are not always problematic for smaller, local, or regional operators
The importance of using technology properly to ensure the best data and integrity possible
Best practices for transporting mixed loads
Why documentation and record-keeping are so important for times when technology may fail
His thoughts on why food distribution is not a huge target for intentional contamination
How the introduction of FSMA has helped make it safer to transport both raw product and ready-to-eat product on the same truck without cross-contamination issues
Common transportation issues and the use of trucks that are not fit to safely transport food
Working with GFSI to create international standards for transportation and warehousing
How GFSI standards compare to the FSMA Sanitary Transportation rule
Positive trends he sees with technology, big data, analytics, epidemiology, DNA, traceability, blockchain, and more.

Previous Episode

Metagenomics: 16S Challenge

In this BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters, we will focus on next-generation sequencing and the advantages of using 16S Metagenomics to identify spoilage organisms in your facility thereby reducing the possibility of spoiled products reaching your consumers. You will learn about a 16S Metagenomics service and how to join the 16S Challenge that gives you a chance to take advantage of the Advanced Microbial Mapping Program and get your facility biomapped at no charge. To help us explore this new technology and service, our editorial director Barbara Van Renterghem will be speaking with Joe Heinzelmann, who specializes in food safety genomics at Neogen. Joe began his career as a nanotechnology chemist after graduating from Albion College with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and with an MBA from Northwood University. Joe tells us more about the practical applications of metagenomics in eliminating spoilage organisms in a food processing facility. In this episode, we speak to Neogen's Joe Heinzelmann about:

What is 16S Metagenomics and how it's different from Whole Genome Sequencing
What type of facilities benefit most from biomapping
How 16S Metagenomics is different from other technologies currently being used in the market
Partnering with the Alliance for Advanced Sanitation on research to understand how bacteria communities are affected by sanitation
What is the 16S Metagenomics Challenge?
Opportunites presented by using 16S Metagenomics for biomapping

Resources

16S Metagenomics Overview http://bit.ly/MetagenomicsOverview

Metagenomics for Food Safety and Quality: Webinar Series http://bit.ly/16SWebinarSeries

Join the 16S Challenge http://bit.ly/16SChallenge

Presenting Sponsor

Neogen Corp http://bit.ly/16SChallenge

Next Episode

Ep. 23. Food Safety Talk on Food Safety Matters

Don Schaffner is distinguished professor and Extension Specialist in food science at Rutgers University. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers on a variety of topics including handwashing, cross-contamination, quantitative microbial risk assessment, and predictive food microbiology. Dr. Schaffner is active in several scientific associations, including the International Association for Food Protection where he is a past-president. Ben Chapman is associate professor and food safety Extension Specialist at North Carolina State University. There, with the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Ben is also a contributor to the very popular Barfblog http://www.barfblog.com. Together, Don and Ben are co-hosts of the Food Safety Talk http://foodsafetytalk.com podcast.

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

Current research involving berry harvesting and norovirus
The impact that social media may or may not have on consumers' food safety behaviors
Blockchain and other innovative technologies
Inspiring and worthwhile published works about food safety and related research
The benefits of industry tradeshows like IAFP