MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO — Maple Leaf Foods Inc. recently held its 13th Food Safety Symposium to share food safety information and knowledge throughout the food industry.

Curtis Frank, president and chief executive officer for Maple Leaf Foods, and Randy Huffman, chief food safety and sustainability officer, proceeded over introductions of the event, including the theme: Bridging the Gap: A Symposium on Food Safety and Sustainability.

The keynote speaker for the symposium was Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. During his presentation, Fraser led a discussion on the current and future state of food production, emphasizing the importance of food safety while the industry moves forward with innovative food ideas.

“Feeding the future is one of the defining challenges of humanity,” Fraser said. “While this challenge is huge, we have new ways of producing food that can boost the environment and health of people.”

Fraser also noted three predictions for the next 10 years of food.  

“I think we’re about to go through a confusing period of disruption,” he said. “As we look forward into the next 50 years, we must be asking tough questions like what the impact on farmers and communities will be — do we have the wisdom and humility and compassion to stay ahead in this transition and to help communities and families as these changes happen?”

In another part of the symposium, Steven Tsuyuki, senior director of corporate sanitation for Maple Leaf discussed the importance of sanitation when addressing sustainability.

“How do we eliminate the damage that’s caused by sanitation?” asked Tsuyuki, who shared the actions Maple Leaf Foods took to mitigate the environmental impacts of its sanitation programs, without compromising food safety. 

Faye Cooper, vice president of sustainability execution, asset reliability and industrial engineering for the company, explained the viewpoint of distributing information on these topics.

“What we’re really hoping to do is share some of our best practices with the rest of world,” Cooper said. “When it comes to food safety and sustainability, there is no advantage to ‘holding cards close to our chest’ — it is a global effort.”

On a second panel, industry members addressed the possibility of innovation in sustainable packaging without compromising food safety.

Moderated by Spir Marinakis, vice president of food safety, quality, technical services and sanitation at Maple Leaf, the panel included Crystal Howe, director of sustainability at Ice River Sustainable Solutions, Naeem H. Mady, vice president of regulatory market access at Intertek Assuris, Beth Mielbrecht, associate director at Intertek Assuris, and Nicole Tucker, senior director of quality and sustainability at Loblaw Companies Limited.

Tucker explained Loblaw’s plastic waste reduction commitment and the company’s Golden Design Rules.

“Packaging is key to maintaining quality and food safety,” he said. “We need to ensure we are empowering the food safety teams at our facilities to meet the needs of our customers.”

Another panelist also discussed sustainable food packaging along with the process of recycling plastic sustainably. 

“Plastic is not going to disappear,” Mady said. “But we do have to mitigate the amount of plastic in the environment.”

At the closing panel, Leaya Amey, manager of sustainability at Maple Leaf Foods, led a talk with Scott Grant, senior director of programs at My Green Lab and Diane Wood, director of technical services at Maple Leaf Foods, on the topic of building sustainability in the laboratory. 

“Our mission is to provide the highest quality of laboratory testing through technical expertise, leading technologies, and continuous improvements,” Wood said.

Maple Leaf Foods' Corporate Central Laboratory in Puslinch, Ontario, was the first laboratory in Canada to receive “Green” status in the My Green Lab (MGL) certification program.