AIB Forms New Food Safety Services Innovation Group

AIB International’s newly-formed Food Safety Services Innovation (Innovation) group ended first quarter 2014 with several new product launches. The group was established based on AIB’s new vision to be a leading premier food safety service provider and, as a result, will be present on the front end of industry movements and advancements. With the creation of this new function, AIB aims to place even greater focus on tracking industry demands, staying abreast of emerging trends, and offering a full suite of learning and inspection solutions to meet those needs.

“One of the key functions of the Innovation group is to be on the leading edge of new trends, including regulatory changes, scientific breakthroughs, best practices, and consumer-driven developments,” said Andre Biane, AIB President and CEO. “Our aim is to identify areas where the food and beverage industry needs support, and develop products and services that help them meet their new challenges.”

Stephanie Lopez, Vice President Food Safety Services Innovation, leads the group and often represents AIB when technical conversations about food safety take place around the world. Lopez has more than 20 years of food industry experience, including roles as quality manager, sanitation manager, product development manager, food safety auditor, food safety instructor, HACCP coordinator, and most recently, Vice President of Food Safety Education at AIB.

Lopez will lead a team of five full-time innovation managers from around the world, who include Lance Reeve, Cornelius Hugo, Lakshmikantha Channaiah, Len Steed, and Elina Zerva. She will also draw heavily on the insight and expertise of AIB’s entire staff of Food Safety Services professionals and subject matter experts.  Lopez’s team also includes a small group of staff researchers and project managers.

“Our Food Safety Services Innovation group is taking a global approach for two reasons: to support the multi-national food and beverage companies around the globe and to assist the commercial food and beverage industry in developing markets,” Lopez said. “We have an opportunity to help define not only what AIB looks like, but what the food industry as a whole looks like in the next five to ten years, and we are working closely with our Food Safety Advisory Committee to shape our vision.”

The Innovation group ended the first quarter with its first two major product launches. On March 24, the Food Safety/Sanitation Distance Learning Course was released. This new offering is a major renovation to the Food Processing Sanitation/Hygiene Correspondence Course which has held AIB’s best-seller spot for more than 20 years. Existing chapters were updated to align with new regulatory requirements, industry trends, and best practices and 12 new chapters were added to make it a more comprehensive learning tool. In addition to the course materials and exams, reference cards and applied workshops were added to assess the learners’ ability to directly apply the course content back to their jobs.

“This is a comprehensive guide for any food facility lead, supervisor, or manager in the area of food safety or sanitation. It includes lessons on all areas of food safety, including sanitation, microbiology, allergens, recalls, and transportation,” Lopez said. “It’s the one tool in the industry that provides the opportunity for a huge career boost in a single course.”

Earlier in 2014, the group launched AIB’s new Inspection Only offering, which is an inspection without documentation review that measures the food safety conditions and practices within a food operation.

“Inspection Only is great for companies that are new to AIB audits, especially those in developing markets. It is also great for companies that have advanced food safety systems in place and have elected to maintain GFSI certification, but need a detailed inspection to complement it”, said Lopez.

Other Innovation achievements include adding International Featured Standard (IFS) audits to its certification audit offerings and adding several new seminars to the schedule, including those supporting food packaging and storage and distribution segments.

“The Innovation group is busy working to bring the global food industry the services they need and expect from AIB. We have many more offerings related to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) coming soon, including a focus on bringing FSMA education to foreign countries who export to the United States,” Lopez said. “We are also expanding our microbiological consulting services to include environmental monitoring and kill step validation and are increasing our focus on helping the animal feed category meet regulatory requirements.”

For more information about AIB International, visit www.aibonline.org or call 800-633-5137