Ep. 15. Will Daniels: "It was a game changer for the industry"

Will Daniels is president of the produce division at IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group. In this role, Will is responsible for lab and consulting services for the produce industry. Prior to joining IEH, Will was president and CEO of Fresh Integrity Group, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in operations and food safety consulting for the fresh produce and perishables industries. He was recently involved in the cold-pressed juice industry, working with two startups to develop their operations. Prior to his involvement with start-up companies, Will was with Earthbound Farm from 1999 until 2014. Having leadership roles in both quality assurance and operations, he helped the company grow from a small, regional salad producer to the nation’s largest grower, packer, and shipper of organic produce. As Earthbound Farm’s Chief Food Integrity Officer, Daniels was responsible for food safety, food quality, and the company’s organic integrity program. Before joining Earthbound Farm, Will worked for 15 years as a consultant in the foodservice sector; working in the back of the house designing menus, introducing food safety and, improving costs; he even had his own catering business. 

Will is a sought-after speaker and has addressed key issues in food safety in the produce industry at meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Restaurant Association, the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Association for Food Protection. He was the keynote speaker at the 2013 Food Safety Summit in Washington, DC, was one of the Packer 25 annual list of produce leaders for 2013 and was named one of the food industry’s top food safety leaders by Marler/Clark’s Food Safety News in 2013. He has also been featured in a variety of national news stories on food safety with media such as The New York Times and ABC News’s Good Morning America; he is the author of two book chapters, “Effectively Managing through a Crisis,” in Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce, published by Wiley in 2009 and “Pathogen Testing in Fresh Produce: Earthbound Farm,” in Global Safety of Fresh Produce; A Handbook of Best Practice, Innovative Commercial Collations and Case Studies, published by Woodhead Publishing in 2014. An active leader in the food industry, Will serves on a variety of boards and technical committees. 

 

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

• How Earthbound Farm responded to a deadly E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to fresh spinach
• The complexities and challenges of the supply chain
• Balancing food safety needs with marketing objectives
• The importance of education along every point of the supply chain
• Low product pricing and its effect on food safety
• Misconceptions about FSMA regulations
• Getting the C-suite to understand the value of investing in food safety 

Articles by Will Daniels in Food Safety Magazine
Nationwide Produce Outbreak: A Moment You Never Forget
http://bit.ly/2Abhxfo

Earthbound Farm: Balancing Food Safety From Seed to Shelf
http://bit.ly/2B23so5

Industry Perceptions of Proposed FSMA Rule on Preventive Controls
http://bit.ly/2kWn5rz

News Mentioned in This Episode
Study: Raw Flour Linked to E. coli Food Poisoning
http://bit.ly/2BSyH1O

Ells Departs as Chipotle CEO http://cnb.cx/2C4Eoe4

A Food Fight Has Broken Out Between the USDA and FDA
http://53eig.ht/2BOwULe
Editors Note: Our apologies to FiveThirtyEight for crediting the article to Politico in the episode.

Danone Welcomes Arbitration Award in Fonterra Case http://bit.ly/2AF130a
Joining us for this discussion is Larry Keener, CFS, PCQI, president and CEO of International Product Safety Consultants (http://www.foodsafetyprofessionals.com/). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine.

Other resources for Fonterra-Danone Story:
Danone Damages Anger Fonterra http://bit.ly/2A6pYc3

2013 Fonterra Recall (Wiki page) http://bit.ly/2nH2NmN

Download Incident Report from Government of New Zealand: 
The WPC80 Incident: Causes and Responses Government Inquiry into the Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident
http://bit.ly/2B1QQ0w

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