Practical conversations about food safety, quality systems, and making compliance work in the real world.
Quality Intelligence: Food Safety explores the intersection of food safety, data, and day-to-day operations. Through candid conversations with experienced professionals, we examine what it really takes to build food safety programs that hold up under change, scrutiny, and real production environments.
Episode 1: Back to Basics
In this inaugural episode of Quality Intelligence: Food Safety, host Coleen Thornton speaks with food safety consultant Carolyn Yu about practical takeaways from the 2025 North American Food Safety Summit.
The conversation focuses on revisiting food safety fundamentals, conducting meaningful plan reviews, and using data and technology in ways that actually support day-to-day operations.
Guest: Carolyn Yu
Episode 2: Why Your Food Safety System Feels Overwhelming
Episode 2 is part 1 of a 3 part series on AI dives into the reality most food safety teams face—too much paperwork, not enough time, and a disconnect between the desk and the production floor.
Jacob from Skidmore Sales shares how they built a more efficient, real-time system using tools like Smartsheet and QR codes—without adding complexity or cost.
Guest: Jacob Minnich
Episode 3: Why Most Food Safety Programs Fail (And How to Fix Them)
Part 2 of the series explores the role of AI in modern food safety systems—what’s real, what’s hype, and what actually works in practice.
We break down how AI can support quality teams by reducing administrative workload, organizing data, and improving visibility—while also addressing the risks, limitations, and importance of verification.
This episode provides a practical foundation for teams looking to explore AI without overcomplicating their systems.
Guest: Jacob Minnich
Episode 4: How to Use AI + Data in Food Safety Systems
The final episode of this series focuses on the human, cultural, and risk-based side of food safety systems.
We explore what drives real engagement, why traditional training and metrics often fall short, and how organizations can better measure competency and culture.
The episode also addresses the risks of AI, including data security and misuse, and highlights ongoing challenges in supplier approval and traceability.
Guest: Jacob Minnich
Episode 5: How to Stop Mice and Harborage
Don’t let mice and other pests plague your facility. This episode dives deep into how mice infestations happen, prepping through the seasons, and other strategies for cleaning your food producing facility pest-free.
You’ll learn to think like a mouse and attack potential harborage opportunities from the ground up.
Guest: Chris Del Rossi, Food and Drug and the Bug LLC
Episode 6: Intro to Food Safety Pest Control
Pest control is a major point of emphasis for food producers, and it’s important to catch mice and other pests before they show up as non-comformances on your next audits.
In this episode, Coleen sits down with Chris Del Rossi, to learn more about how he approaches pest control with special consideration for food producing sites, complete with real-life examples from the field.
Guest: Chris Del Rossi, Founder and President, Food and Drug and The Bug
Episode 7: Food Production Equipment and Maintenance
Food production has a lot of heavy machinery, but is all your equipment on the factory floor up to snuff?
In this episode of Quality Intelligence: Food Safety, Coleen Thornton sat down with Dr. Tim Bowser of Oklahoma State University to discuss processes for selecting manufacturing equipment, automation risks, supply chains, and the importance of consistent maintenance. Dr. Bowser, Ph.D, is an expert in food process engineering and provides the industry with valuable research.
Guest: Dr. Tim Bowser
Episode 8: Safe Food Production
Food safety is all about the details. In this episode of Quality Intelligence: Food Safety, we’re diving into many little factors that can make or break an audit.
Join host Coleen Thornton and special guest Dr. Tim Bowser of Oklahoma State University for a in-depth discussion including coatings, contact surfaces, pasteurization, site selection, and overall sanitation.
Guest: Dr. Tim Bowser
Episode 9: How Food Safety is Changing in 2026
In this special episode, Coleen Thornton provides expert insights into how shifting regulations, standards, and technology are changing the food safety landscape — and what you can actually do about it.
In this talk, Coleen covers topics ranging from to GFSI standards to recent recalls and AI tooling. Food producers have many divergent demands, and this discussion touches on many of them.