Publix Wins NSF Food Safety Award

April 19, 2011

Publix Super Markets is the only retailer being recognized in this year’s NSF Food Safety Leadership Awards, which will be presented tomorrow during the Food Safety Summit in Washington, D.C.

Publix store front Specifically, Publix is receiving the NSF Food Safety Leadership Training Award because it “is committed to implementing successful food safety initiatives and education programs at the retail level,” NSF said in a statement. “The organization distinguished itself as a leader in retail food safety more than a decade ago when it implemented a food safety initiative requiring all staff -- including those directly and indirectly involved with food handling -- to earn Food Manager Certification.”

NSF also noted that Publix also partnered with the Food and Drug Administration on the FDA Oral Food Safety project, and its retail-focused food safety behavior program, “which gave the FDA greater understanding of the program’s impact,” according to NSF. Publix also partnered with the Food Marketing Institute to develop FMI’s SafeMark training program for all supermarket employees and a food safety behavior program called Prevention Plus, the NSF notes.

“These training programs resulted in a 32 percent decrease in cleaning and sanitation observations and a 26 percent decrease in violations for personal hygiene over the last year in all 1,035 Publix Super Markets, the NSF said. “Publix also has educated 3,500 associates who received Food Manager Certification and 48,000 new associates on proper food safety handling techniques.”

The Food Ma NSF logo rketing Institute’s Dr. Jill Hollingsworth will also be recognized with the NSF Food Safety Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award. As senior vice president, food safety programs for FMI, Hollingsworth “has dedicated her career to food safety” and “has been a key driver of food safety programs in Europe, North and South America, as well as Asia.” Hollingsworth was one of the original developers of the global food safety and quality certification and management system known as the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), the NSF noted.

NSF, a global public health and safety organization, created the awards program in 2004 to encourage the development of educational programs, processes or technologies that help advance global food safety. Each year, NSF International seeks nominations from leaders throughout the food safety community and convenes an independent panel of food safety experts from academia, industry and the regulatory community to select the winners. Nominations are evaluated based on creativity, innovation, design and the contributions made to the advancement of food safety.

Other organizations receiving awards include the U.S. Deparmtent of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, the Arizona Environmental Services Department for Maricopa County, National Pasteurized Eggs Inc., the International Food Protection Training Institute, Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) and the United States Public Health Service.

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Keywords: food safety, food safety awards

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