Annual Food Safety Symposium Zooms In on H1N1 Preparedness, Best Practices Compliance

Ecolab Inc. said it has continued its commitment to proactively help improve global food safety by co-sponsoring the fourth annual Nation's Restaurant News' Food Safety Symposium.

Held earlier this September at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., the annual Food Safety Symposium provides a platform for sharing best practices, proactive and preventative approaches, and personal experiences surrounding food safety issues.

Quality Assurance executives representing some of today's most popular quick service (convenience) and full service restaurant chains attended the event. A "Special Report" highlighting the Symposium will appear in the October 10 issue of Nation's Restaurant News.

Katherine Swanson, Ph.D., Vice President of Food Safety for Ecolab, was the keynote speaker. Her address, entitled "H1N1: Are You Prepared?," focused on the steps restaurants and other foodservice operations should take immediately to prepare for the H1N1 pandemic that is spreading across the Northern Hemisphere.

"Plan, prepare and prevent: those are the key steps to dealing with the H1N1 pandemic, as well as any food safety or public health issue," Swanson told attendees. "Washing your hands properly, cleaning and disinfecting your equipment and facility properly, these should already be part of your everyday operation. With the emergence of H1N1, you'll just have to do those things more often and more consistently to prevent the spread of the virus."

Other event topics included best practices in supply chain/traceability, food safety compliance, hiring and training of employees in food safety at the unit level, as well as legal advice on crisis management.

"This year's NRN/Ecolab Food Safety Symposium once again provided an excellent forum for industry leaders to come together and build on our collective experiences regarding food safety," said Ana Hooper, vice president of Total Quality for Darden Restaurants. "By sharing our experiences, we collaborate to build a joint platform that is focused not only on the prevention of issues, but also on ensuring that swift, effective intervention steps are implemented for corrective actions as necessary."

Ecolab Inc. is a company focusing on cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services.

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