Behaviour change focus for Consumer Food Safety Education Conference
The event, hosted by the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, is January 25-27, at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C
It will feature experts on the topic of behaviour change: Frank Yiannas, VP of Food Safety for Walmart and CFSEC co-chair; Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit; and Dr Lou Atkins, Centre for Behaviour Change, University College, London.
Yiannas said the conference will help create a food safety culture worldwide.
“To make dramatic improvements in reducing the burden of foodborne disease we need to get much better at influencing and changing human behaviour.”
The two-day conference will focus on behaviour change for improved food safety at home and work, strategies to affect the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of consumers and collaboration among federal agencies, non-profit organizations, higher education and the F&B industry.
One session will feature Stephen Ostroff, deputy commissioner for food and veterinary medicine, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Alfred Almanza, deputy Under Secretary for food safety, US Department of Agriculture and Robert Tauxe, deputy director, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kathy Means, VP of industry relations for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and a CSFE co-chair, said it has participated in the Partnership for Food Safety Education since 1997.
“They are the credible source for consumer food safety advice that is science-based and consumer-tested, and a natural leader to bring together industry, non-profit and government leaders to craft safe food handling messages and programming for consumers.”
The sixth series of the conference is supported with a grant from the FDA.
Other sponsors include Ecolab, Sealed Air/Diversey, Walmart, Cargill, General Mills, Hershey, NSF International, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, 3M Food Safety, the American Frozen Food Institute, the International Association for Food Protection and Land O Lakes.
