Florida State College serves up new food safety program

“Another day, another food recall,” may sound like an exaggeration, but we checked the data and discovered that in the last five years there have been 2,549 food recalls by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).That amounts to more than one recall per day! Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every year in the United States there are 76 million cases of food borne illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths. These statistics make you wonder if the food in your fridge is safe to eat.

“There are stories in the media about seafood and general food safety issues every week, sometimes every day,” says President Steven Wallace, Florida State College at Jacksonville. “This should compel the FDA and USDA to react. In fact, there are bills in Congress right now that are poised for immediate passage that will start to bring in a higher level regulatory environment,” says Wallace.

“There is an absolute shortage of food safety professionals. The industry, retailers, and commercial lab entities, such as Eurofins, are all desperately in need of trained, qualified quality assurance technicians,” says Patricia Wester, Director of Food Safety Systems, Eurofins US.

Florida State College at Jacksonville is offering a new track in its biotechnology program to educate and train students to work in the field of food safety, specifically focusing on seafood. The College is partnering with Eurofins, an international food testing company, to provide students with unparalleled professional training in a professional and teaching laboratory on the downtown campus. This state-of-the-art facility will allow students to utilize the equipment they’ll use on the job as well as learn from industry leaders and leading professors.

“We’re going to create a career path for students that will ultimately pair the practical skills and the sciences leading to professionals equipped to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation eliminating the need for eight years of education to acquire a PhD,” says Wester.

“This takes us up into a new and higher league,” says Professor R. Kevin Pegg, Florida State College at Jacksonville.

And this is just phase one. With a grant from the National Science Foundation as well as support from major players in the food industry, the College plans to create an Institute for Food Safety.

“It will give us a place to develop and offer continuing education for seafood industry and seafood testing professionals. It will also allow the College to finally reach the level of an academic and research center, perhaps with a national presence, that works with the FDA, USDA, and the seafood industry and eventually broader food areas. The institute will also serve to provide resources for the further development of seafood safety technology,” says Wallace.

“The plan is to have a 20,000 square foot building in two years,” says Harry Frisch, CEO, Beaver Street Fisheries Inc.

Harry Frisch is the CEO of Jacksonville-based Beaver Street Fisheries, one of the nation’s largest importers of frozen seafood. Frisch says his business has thrived for more than 60 years because of its commitment to food safety and quality.

“If something is not perfect, I do not want to take it home to my family. If I don’t want to take it to my family, I don’t want you to go into the store and buy something and get sick, whatever it is,” says Frisch.

To maintain that level of perfection, Beaver Street currently has to arrange for its food to be tested in out-of-state laboratories. Having the Institute for Food Safety just miles from the Jacksonville warehouse facility will save the company time and money. Frisch believes the facility will also bring new business into the city.

“There is nothing but growth in front of us. We will have a presence on the Jacksonville map, like it or not,” says Frisch.