Navigating Food Safety Challenges: Bruce Ferree’s 40-Year Career in Food Science

Bruce Ferree, a food safety consultant, unpacks the world of food safety and quality management. Bruce's career spans over four decades, encompassing meats, poultry, dairy, and aseptic processing roles. He’s a distinguished member of the Institute of Food Technologists and a former US Marine and cancer survivor. Bruce shares valuable insights from his vast experience in the food industry, the evolution of food safety culture, and the significance of consistency, continuous improvement, and prevention.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

The key changes in the culture of food safety and quality over Bruce’s career
The importance of CCP (Consistency, Continuous Improvement, and Prevention)
Military discipline transferred to food science
How surviving cancer influenced Bruce’s perspective on life and work
Some key strategies that professional organizations like IFT can adopt to effectively convey scientific information to consumers

Jump to:

(05:03) Workers who take ownership of quality and safety.

(07:14) Integration of quality teams for efficient collaboration.

(12:39) Challenges in food safety mirror cancer survival.

(17:09) Diverse food scientists unite in global organization.

(19:13) Pesticides, heavy metals and public awareness.

(25:00) Featured artist and song

(25:57) This episode’s Mantra

Featured Artist and Song:

QUEMA by NASTY CAT

Links mentioned in this episode:

Institute of Food Technologists

Bang the Drum All Day by Todd Rundgren, music was chosen by Bruce Ferree.

Connect with the show

AQUALAB

Zachary Cartwright, PhD