Ep. 8. Ben Chapman: "We have to take a risk communication approach"

Dr. Ben Chapman is an associate professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. He received a Ph.D. in plant agriculture in 2009 from the University of Guelph. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers and organizational decision-makers; the gatekeepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a bi-weekly podcast called Food Safety Talk (http://foodsafetytalk.com/)and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman (https://twitter.com/benjaminchapman) His research interests include consumer, retail and food safety culture, home food preservation and communicating food safety risk reduction messages. He is a member of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Food Law professional development group and Outreach Education professional development group and the Carolinas Association for Food Protection. He currently co-chairs the North Carolina Fresh Produce Safety Task Force and is a member of the editorial boards of Food Protection Trends and the British Food Journal. He is the chair of the Risk Communication subgroup for the North Carolina Governor's Task Force on Food.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Ben Chapman about:

• Supporting local retail, foodservice and consumer food safety through NC State Extension
• Co-founding Barfblog with Doug Powell and how it supports food safety efforts
• Emerging of niche markets like petting zoos and agritourism
• Developing NC State's Master Food Volunteer program
• Working in food safety as a career
• Researching cookbooks for food safety instructions made Ben famous for two days
• Translating and communicating risk to consumers and businesses
• Using social media to arm the right people with the right messages
• Starting the Food Safety Talk podcast with Don Schaffner
• Using reality-based research
• Developing social media projects to engage citizen scientists

Ben Chapman's articles published in Food Safety Magazine:

Crisis Management: How to Handle Outbreak Events (June-July 2012) http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/junejuly-2012/crisis-management-how-to-handle-outbreak-events/

Food Safety for Food Handlers (December 2010-January 2011) http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/december-2010january-2011/food-safety-for-food-handlers/

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

FDA Issues New FSMA Guidance for Exempt Canned Foods, Juice and Seafood http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/fda-issues-new-fsma-guidance-for-exempt-canned-foods-juice-and-seafood/

New FDA Guidance Document Clarifies FSMA's Sanitary Transportation Rule http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/new-fda-guidance-document-clarifies-fsmae28099s-sanitary-transportation-rule/

FAO to consider World Food Safety Day http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/fao-urges-united-nations-to-establish-world-food-safety-day/

New Data Ranks Food Safety at America's Baseball Stadiums
http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/new-data-ranks-food-safety-at-americae28099s-baseball-stadiums/

Seven Filthy Food Habits and How Dirty They Really Are
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/10/health/science-dirty-food-habits-study/index.html