Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Northbrook, Ill., launched UL Food Safety, a new program dedicated to addressing the growing needs of the global food industry by promoting standards-based safety solutions.

UL Food Safety will help mitigate risk by employing science-based processes to help address industry concerns, new government regulations and heightened consumer awareness of food safety issues. The new offering builds on UL’s 117-year track record of advancing public safety through the creation of actionable solutions beginning with an innovative training curriculum through UL University. The training program is the foundation for a larger portfolio of services under development, including traceability, validation and testing services.

“As safety evolves, so does UL,” says Hank Lambert, general manager of UL’s global food and water businesses. “UL Food Safety is a natural extension of our commitment to help protect people, products and places from new risks in new and important ways.”

UL Food Safety’s initial training platform consists of “Food Safety Culture,” which is designed to guide food industry executives through the process of creating an organizational culture to ensure that food products are safe and meet consumer and regulatory requirements. It also establishes a framework for corporate management responsibility, communication of food safety objectives to all company employees and continuous improvement in Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) and overall food safety systems.  

“HACCP is a step in the right direction, but it is not the final destination. It is up to the leadership in the food industry to create a culture of food safety as well as to keep up with the science,” says Frank Yiannas, vice chair of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and author of Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-based Food Safety Management System.

Developed by UL and food industry experts, this first-of-its kind food safety culture curriculum integrates behavioral science with food science across organizations within the food supply chain to help assure that food professionals – from senior management to line workers – are empowered to work toward the production and supply of safe food products in a healthy and sanitary work environment.

The UL Food Safety training program will include succeeding courses on “Food Safety Awareness,” which provides actionable information to empower and equip food industry workers to the “first line of defense” in food safety and “Evaluation of HACCP & Food Safety Preventative Control Programs,” which provides mid-level management and auditors the practical knowledge to make effective decisions in critical situations. Both programs will be available this fall.  

For more information on UL’s Food Safety services and to register for the “Food Safety Culture” course, go to www.ul.com/foodsafety.