Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued 37 recalls on food or nutraceutical products meant for human consumption. That represents an enormous price for the companies involved – about $10 million for the average recall, according to a 2011 industry survey by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a figure that represents only direct costs associated with the consequences of a recall, such as lost product and interruption to business, but not the damage to a brand’s reputation, which is harder to quantify and more challenging to overcome, companies surveyed by the GMA said. Unfortunately, the economics of the food industry – namely razor-thin margins and fierce competition – leave many small food processors that would be most devastated by a recall unable to afford the help they need to prevent one. Recognizing this dilemma, Rosemarie Christopher, chief executive of Glendale life sciences staffing firm MEIRxRS, has established a foundation that provides small and mid-sized businesses with quality control apprentices. Christopher reasoned that in order to solve the recall problem, she needed to lower the costs associated with training or hiring quality control workers. In order to do so, she has allotted some funds from the for-profit operations of her business to establish the Rx Research Services Foundation, and applied for state and federal grants to put toward training programs and mentorship programs for apprentices. “I didn’t want to hear, ‘We don’t have money for training,’” Christopher said. “So we found a way to take that out of the equation.” The stakes involved in food quality are higher now that the FDA has begun enforcing the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA, enacted in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama. The law was designed to focus on preventing recalls by applying to the food industry the same science-based approach the FDA takes to regulating pharmaceuticals. “Food for years just felt like a consumer good, because you don’t need a prescription for a snack,” said Lewie Casey, recruitment and retention manager at MEIRxRS. “But we’ve had instances where people were hospitalized or died from doing nothing riskier than opening up a box of ice cream, so the FDA said enough is enough.” Regulatory opportunity Christopher immediately recognized how her business could help the food industry when FSMA was signed in 2011. Now that small grocery businesses would be regulated similarly to large drug makers, they would need workers with skills similar to those she had been placing in quality control positions for the last 28 years. “Our whole thing, up to about four years ago, was quality, regulatory affairs, clinical research and medical affairs,” Christopher said. But unlike Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. or Medtronic, the average food business had limited resources to put toward training workers to obtain the certifications required to meet the FDA’s new standards. Furthermore, a readily-available pool of workers possessing the necessary qualifications did not yet exist, explained MEIRxRS business liaison Paul Dionne. “(These companies) are really in a bind because they need this help, but none of these people exist, because there hasn’t been this need in the past,” he said. To fill the gap, Christopher leveraged her longtime membership with the American Society for Quality, of which she previously served as chair of its food, drug and cosmetics division, to become a distributor of its educational materials, which can be used to obtain professional certificates. The courses can be taken online through a growing number of community colleges; two in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles Mission College and Los Angeles Valley Colleges, will begin offering the certificate programs in coming semesters. MEIRxRS is the only firm of its kind that is working with the American Society for Quality to bring professionals into the food industry. For the companies that have hosted the foundation’s apprentices, the results have been profound; six of the eight apprentices who obtained their accreditation last June were absorbed by the companies as full-time employees as soon as they graduated from the program. “These regulations have been in place in the drug and medical device industry for decades, whereas for food it’s all new,” Dionne said. “So the apprentice is really the expert and can make a huge difference.” An apprentice at Catalina Offshore Products in San Diego, for example, was hired as manager of quality after eliminating cross-contamination between fish and shellfish and stopping theft of the company’s product. Another helped an international importer pass a third-party audit and win a contract with a major grocery chain. “Our apprentices are really great,” Christopher said. “They can really turn these companies around.” But, despite anecdotes attesting to the benefits of quality control apprentices, many small food companies are still hesitant to take them on, Christopher said. Those that do sometimes fail to offer substantial work hours; as the apprentices’ employer of record, the firm pays for their benefits and liability insurance, while state and federal funds cover the education costs. “It can be difficult to get even 20 hours (a week) out of these companies,” Christopher said. In order to justify the foundation’s expenses, the apprenticeship program is designed so that participants graduate with at least two certificates, which they are required to obtain within 18 months of matriculation. Working in the food industry has added liability, too. MEIRxRS’s previous insurer cancelled the company’s coverage after learning that its foundation’s apprentices were working with seafood companies and industrial kitchens. “We were too high risk,” Christopher said. “Our broker had to go out and find someone else, and the rates went through the roof.” The premium for seven apprentices is around $57,000 a year, she said. Running part of the business as a nonprofit comes with its own unique challenges. Christopher relies closely on her staff to help her keep the many facets of her company moving. “We have been self-funding, and it’s not easy,” she said. “It’s an incredible amount of work.” Next-gen professionals The frustrations are worthwhile for several reasons, Christopher explained. In addition to promoting the survival of small businesses in a way that also protects public health, the apprenticeship program is a conduit for building the next generation of quality professionals. “We’re all about the workforce here,” Christopher said. “That’s our long-term goal and our short-term goal – to make the workforce robust.” Small and mid-sized companies that feel overwhelmed by the FSMA still have time to take advantage of programs like those offered by the MEIRxRS foundation. Those with less than $1 million in annual sales of human food have until September 2018 to bring their operations in compliance with the new laws, according to the FDA. In the meantime, Christopher will be busy pushing her program to other organizations and food businesses around the nation in hopes that they will adopt her approach. Earlier this month, she led a roundtable on quality control apprenticeships at the North American Food Safety Conference in Chicago, where she discussed the initiative’s value with some of the biggest players in the industry. “This is important on so many levels,” Christopher said. “I’m not retiring until this is the way we do it across the country.”
