Categories: Food Safety and Production Incident Management Risks Associated with Food Safety Outbreaks TASA ID: 1926 On Wednesday, February 13, 2013, at 2 p.m. ET, The TASA Group, Inc., in conjunction with food safety expert Dr. Darrel Suderman, presented a free, one-hour interactive webinar, Incident Management Risks Associated with Food Safety Outbreaks, for all legal professionals.With food recalls seemingly becoming more frequent with each passing month, it is increasingly important for food and beverage companies to have trained, competent incident management response teams ready to respond at a moment’s notice. How a food company chooses to respond to food safety risks, incident responses, or a consumer crisis goes a long way in determining its business and individual executive liabilities.Unfortunately, incident management and crisis management mean different things to different people. As a result, this webinar was designed to define the differences between risk management, incident management, and crisis management. Properly executed incident management can go a long way toward preventing a crisis from developing – and save a company’s brand value and financial impact. On the other hand, a poor incident management policy and response process can create significant consumer health and safety risks, some life-threatening.. It is understood that the implementation of a risk management program does not always prevent an incident or crisis, but the goal should always be zero tolerance.A food company has broad legal vulnerability when plaintiff attorneys can demonstrate absentee or poorly developed incident management business processes. Food safety incidents can be caused by food-related issues like contaminated food, chemical residues, foreign objects, etc. Safety can also be compromised by the effects of natural disasters, power plant accidents, war, and resource depletion. And with increased foreign trade and imports into the U.S., the federal government is holding food companies accountable for incident management at foreign supplier locations.However, a food company can defend itself through the detailed governance of a Risk Management Policy that defines incident management team roles, responsibilities, and response priorities. It can also demonstrate team response training to what-if scenarios, internal and external communication pathways, alert systems, team briefings, team response activity documentation, etc. So whether you work as a defense or plaintiff attorney, this webinar was constructed to equip you with valuable insight and food safety response steps to help your clients win their cases. About the ExpertDr. Darrel Suderman, President of Food Technical Consulting, has worked for food manufacturing and leading restaurant chains for over 20 years.For the last seven years, Dr. Suderman has served as an expert witness/consultant for both plaintiff and defense attorneys throughout the United States. Dr. Suderman received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural education and his Ph.D. in Food Science from Kansas State University. He holds two U.S. patents, co-authored a food processing book, and has written over 40 peer-reviewed and trade magazine articles and white papers. He has worked in Research & Development, Quality Assurance, and Food Safety for many of the leading restaurant chains, including KFC, Boston Market, Church’s Chicken, Quiznos, Captain D’s, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy’s International.In addition, Dr. Suderman co-founded Business IQ LLC as a business intelligence IT consulting company, which has been accepted as an official partner of SAP software company. A few of his clients have included Foster Farms, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Gold’n Plump Poultry, Johnsonville Sausage, E & J Gallo Winery, Tyson Foods, Organic Valley, and Givaudan Roure Flavors. Previous Article Avoiding Unnecessary Lawsuits in Schools Next Article New Requirements for Fall Protection Print Tasa ID1926