ARLINGTON, Va. — The Meat Institute recently announced that it is now a member of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness, expanding its access to food safety best practices and other efforts to prevent foodborne illness on behalf of meat and poultry companies.
The Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness is a nonprofit program of Stop Foodborne Illness. The alliance is committed to bringing together consumer advocates, leading companies, and like-minded organizations dedicated to the goal of preventing foodborne diseases, according to the organization’s website.
The Alliance consists of more than 20 members from around the globe working together to advance food safety culture.
“Our members heard from Christopher George, a Stop Foodborne Illness constituent, at our recent Food Safety Conference in Kansas City,” Julie Anna Potts, Meat Institute president and CEO, said in a statement. “His personal testimony about his son nearly dying from contracting E. coli O157:H7 was a powerful reminder of the life-or-death consequences of all we do to protect against foodborne illness.”
Personal stories, like George’s, allow Stop Foodborne Illness to show the real-life impact of foodborne illnesses to motivate people at all levels to do the right thing every day to make food safe.
The Meat Institute’s membership in the Alliance will help them collaborate and share best practices which then helps Meat Institute members with continuous improvement and to further establish a culture of food safety at their companies, the institute explained in a statement.
Joining the Alliance is the latest in a series of initiatives led by the Meat Institute to re-emphasize food safety as a top priority for its members, the institute noted.
Earlier this year, a taskforce was formed to build a set of tools and templates for top company executives to use in governing and promoting a food safety culture. The institute will offer programming and training on these tools for senior executives at the “Protein PACT Solutions Summit” in October, the institute added.
Continuing the conversation from the Food Safety Conference, the Meat Institute is offering a Food Safety Exchange Series designed to provide ongoing education and insight on the critical issues shaping food safety.
