<p>By: Sarah Malenich, Director, Marketing &amp; Sales, Safe Quality Food Institute, and Ashley Eisenbeiser, Director, Food and Product Safety Programs, Food Marketing Institute&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/pfseworldfoodtitle-1.tmb-large-350-.png?sfvrsn=27e7576e_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="PFSEWorldFoodtitle-1" title="PFSEWorldFoodtitle-1" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" />With&nbsp;<a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/index.shtml" target="_blank">World Food Safety Day on June 7, 2019</a>, quickly approaching, we&rsquo;re reminded that in a world where the food supply chain has become more complex, any adverse food safety incident may have global negative effects on public health, trade and the economy.&nbsp; FMI and SQFI support World Food Safety Day because it promotes awareness of the importance of food safety and inspires actions for safer food.&nbsp;</p> <p>With the passing of the Food Safety Modernization Act, progressing technology, and more people developing food allergies, staying informed and trained on the latest trends and studies is essential in the food safety industry.&nbsp; When management is committed to creating a food safety culture, recalls and market withdraws are reduced, efficiencies are increased, and costs are lowered. As food safety professionals, we can take advantage of training and conferences/industry meetings that provide solutions to food safety problems.&nbsp;</p> <p>SQF offers many in-person and&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/2LOJxQx" target="_blank">online training</a>&nbsp;options for their stakeholders, and the&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/2M1yvYn" target="_blank">SQF Conference</a>&nbsp;is an excellent event to collaborate and receive practical solutions to food safety and quality questions.</p> <p>To keep food safe, we need a well-trained workforce. A critical issue for accredited third-party auditing in North America is sourcing the next generation of well-trained auditors. As a way to help fill that gap, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/foundation/food-safety/">FMI Foundation sponsors scholarships</a>&nbsp;for students currently enrolled in food and agricultural science majors at a North American accredited university/college. The scholarship includes a $3,000 scholarship award, an all-expenses paid trip to the SQF Conference, along with global recognition from FMI and SQFI.</p> <p>The FMI Foundation provides further support for food safety initiatives as a founding partner of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fightbac.org/">the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE)</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;PFSE develops and promotes consumer food safety education programs to ensure food safety continues once food leaves the grocery store and is in the hands of the consumer. PFSE offers a variety of food safety resources, including the newly released&nbsp;<a href="http://www.saferecipeguide.org/">Safe Recipe Style Guide.</a>This guide provides specific, concise recipe text to address the four major areas of most food safety violations in home kitchens: temperature, handwashing, cross contamination and produce handling. The guide was inspired by a study in the&nbsp;<em>Journal of Food Protection</em>&nbsp;that shows significant improvement in food safety behavior in home kitchens when recipes contain food safety instructions written into the text.</p> <p>We encourage you to participate in World Food Safety Day raise awareness around food safety at all levels and around the world by joining the conversation <strong>#WorldFoodSafetyDay</strong> and following food safety guidelines every day. For more information and resources about World Food Safety Day, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.foodsafetyday.org/">www.foodsafetyday.org</a>.&nbsp;</p>