IFCoN 2018

I had the pleasure to be invited and to present at the 8th International Food Convention (IFCoN) in Mysore, India. This successful event was attended by more than 2500 delegates and organised by AFSTI, the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India) in association with CFTRI, the Central Food Technology Research Institute. 

The 8th IFCoN took place December 12-15 and had about 25 technical sessions spread over the four days of the conference. It involved more than 100 internationally recognised speakers from research and academic institutes, industry, government and autonomous bodies, and students from food science and technology institutes across the globe.

My talk’s title was: Does your investment in food safety learning and development programs work?

Developing people’s capabilities, skills and competencies in food safety is essential for securing the brands and reputation of a company and ensuring its growth. Many times food safety issues occur when employees are not properly trained or training is neglected. Developing people in food safety raises performance standards and assists in the production of safe food. It also supports companies in becoming trusted, more efficient, competitive and profitable.

Employee development is central to the successful implementation of food safety programs and it is widely held in the industry that there is a strong correlation between an organisation’s food safety performance and the knowledge of individuals within these organisations. People within the supply chain ultimately drive the success of the value chain but food safety learning and development programs sometimes fail to meet organisational objectives and participant expectations.

Experience and results of several studies have shown that key criteria need to be met for implementing successful food safety learning and development programs. 

The talk focused on these characteristics and illustrated through examples how guiding principles can be implemented in designing and deploying programs for people development towards excellence in food safety.

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