June 15, 2021
Food System Spotlight: A Holistic Approach to Food Safety
A conversation with Melanie Neumann, EVP & General Counsel, Matrix Sciences International, Inc.
With advanced degrees in both law and food safety, Melanie Neumann offers unique insight into changing global food safety regulations and the importance of managing a company’s risk from a legal, food safety, and brand reputation perspective. This dynamic combination of skills and expertise are invaluable in her role as an advisor for the Integrated Food Systems Leadership (IFSL) program.
At Matrix Sciences International, Inc., Melanie is the executive vice president, general counsel, and leads the Risk Management Solutions division of the company. Her primary focus is to help clients understand food regulations by breaking them down into pragmatic, operationally efficient policies and procedures that align with the clients’ enterprise risk management strategy and food safety culture. We sat down with Melanie to learn more about why she believes driving enterprise-wide collaboration, developing a strategic mindset and making data-driven decisions are the keys to success for food safety professionals.
What do you love most about your role at Matrix Sciences International?
As someone who advises companies on the many facets of risk facing the food industry, I get to wake up every day and help protect the world’s food supply. To me, there is no greater role – something beyond a paycheck – to get you out of bed and working hard every day.
I view my job as being a translator. The food industry speaks many languages, literally and figuratively. Food safety professionals speak in terms of hazards (e.g., Listeria monocytogenes). C-suite professionals speak in terms of risk to the business (e.g., financial risk to the balance sheet or company’s survival). In my role, I have the opportunity to help both groups translate food safety concerns in a way that both parties can understand.
We can appropriately fund food safety and mitigate risk when we make that translation happen – when all stakeholders understand the true risk to not only the company but to public health. Being part of that collaborative process and being that objective voice is something I really enjoy doing.
Why is it so important to speak the other person’s “language?”
Food safety needs to play in the same ballpark and on the same playing field as all the other enterprise risks. Imagine meeting with your CFO to request funding for a new piece of equipment because you have a difficult-to-clean equipment joint causing a pathogenic microorganism risk. The CFO is primarily hearing you talk about an expense at best, or a scientific topic they may not understand at worst, but they aren’t understanding the true risk to the organization. The hazard is listeria. The risks are a recall, consumer illness, litigation, regulatory enforcement and increased inspections, operational disruption (downtime, etc.,) and brand damage. Food safety professionals can learn how to quantify these risks by using their own data (e.g., EMP effectiveness rates) and publicly available data (e.g., average cost of recalls) to explain the likelihood and impact of hazards resulting in material risk to the organization should they occur.
What skills should future food system leaders focus on developing?
At the top of the list are critical thinking and data analysis skills. Being a lawyer who represents the food industry, I believe science is our best evidence. Science isn’t a slew of data points. It’s a plot, a data visualization, the story behind why something went wrong and how we can correct it, or the story behind why we believe we didn’t do anything wrong – all based on data. Understanding the data and then turning it into actionable information for your leaders is a primary key to success. When you go into that C-suite or board meeting to request funding, you need to know what data you are going to rely on and it should, as simply as possible, support the message you need leadership to hear. Every other department asking the CFO for funding can show the impact to the bottom-line. (You better believe your IT counterpart has this evidence to support their case.) Can you explain the scientific data to non-scientists? That is the million-dollar skill. If you have that skill, you will write your own ticket in this space.
How does the IFSL program build those skills?
The program gives professionals the strategic toolbox to build these important skills; it provides the opportunity to meet and work with others who may be one or two steps ahead of them in their career trajectories. What I really like about the IFSL program is that it is universally applicable. It’s not focused in just one silo, one facet of the food system. It takes a broad business approach to the issues the food industry is facing today and will be tomorrow.
What I really like about the IFSL program is that it is universally applicable. It’s not focused in just one silo, one facet of the food system. It takes a broad business approach to the issues the food industry is facing today and will be tomorrow.
Why did you choose to be an IFSL advisor?
Aside from the fact that I’m a native Minnesotan and I have a love for all things connected to Minnesota in general, I’m passionate about setting our industry up for success and succession – from making the transition from technical to strategic roles, translating hazards to risks, working across silos, and making food safety everyone’s job to ensuring we have generations of talent in the food safety pipeline. The IFSL program provides a foundation that can set participants up not only to rise through the ranks to that top food system position within their organization, but ultimately to be a future CEO or CFO of a company.
Integrated Food Systems Leadership (IFSL) Program
Designed for professionals interested in accelerating their careers, the IFSL program is a unique, online, graduate certificate program that fosters leadership, collaboration, and innovation across the food system.
Applications are being accepted through July 15, 2021 for the September cohort. Download a program brochure or schedule a consultation call for more information.