SSQA-D Academy Conversations

This boot camp is designed to engage participants in: Critical, Analytical, Innovative, Strategic, Systems- thinking approach to Risk Analyses and the Deployment of Agile Responses in a continuous improvement environment. Yes, a mouthful that will no longer be so upon completing the boot camp session. The inspiration for this January boot camp came from the series of polls conducted to to show the extent of the POP-culture in the food industry. The results of the poll series revealed a serious lack of CORRECT UNDERSTANDING in the industry regarding the matters of ensuring the safety and quality of food. Instead, it was shown by voters that POPULARIZED ASSUMPTIONS have gained predominance in the minds of safe food guardians.

As such, CAISS-thinking and the confirmation of systems efficacy have been been identified as strategies that the food industry has yet to adequately develop and deploy. CAISS-thinking includes an ongoing Value, Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Efficiency (VEEE) monitoring…

Too much looseness around this idea has been detected within the ranks of industry "experts". What exactly does "risk-based" mean? A frivolous or loose treatment of this idea must not be known among no-nonsense ninjas.

Perhaps this differentiation exercise could help us with the proper alignment of our perspectives when we talk about a risk-based approaches in connection with anything. As denoted, risk-based has 2 parts that must be properly understood: Part 1 -the risk and part 2 - the risk as the basis for determining the matching action. First, we must ask: "Risk to whom?"

👉 Whatever poses a risk to the end-users or consumers of products or services offered by a business automatically poses a risk to that business.

👉However, what poses a risk to a business does not automatically pose a risk to the end-users of the products or services offered by that business.

Once the subject of the risk consideration…

The global food supply system faces a menacing monster of food safety, food fraud, quality assurance, food waste, food security, nutrition, sustainability, and equitable distribution challenges. Does celebrating #worldfoodsafetyday on June 7th every year lead to significant progress against these challenges? How could and should a food business and its managers prepare for the unexpected moves by this monster? What could and should you contribute to subduing it?

This unpredictable monster is no respecter of persons. Its bite can be fatal to anyone. It does not yield to large or small corporations, international organizations, industry associations or institutions. The monster roams in all regions and its ferocious hydra heads feast on the culture of endemic superficiality with pervasive prevarications, obfuscations, and paltering (the POP-culture).

All stakeholders, professionals, leaders, and industry personnel must adopt a no-nonsense #ninja vigilance and the flawless execution of necessary actions. One slip-up in the fight against this monster results…

A person with an educational background in one field may temporarily find employment in an unrelated industry or sector. For example, a person with food science or food technology background may temporarily find work in a textile industry or in a clothing store sales position. Typically, this kind of employment serves as a stop-gap. A stop-gap employment could also be within the industry or sector that matches this person's background, but in an unrelated aspect. For example, the person with food engineering background working temporarily in food distribution or sales.

Like all employment situations, a stop-gap employment has the tendency to take up the entire working hours in the day as well as the full mental focus of the employee that could even go beyond the working hours. This leaves the employee

For anyone in a stop-gap employment situation, who wishes to find full time career employment that matches their…