Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

DEP E140 REAL
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[00:00:00]

Matt Regusci: Francine sent me a text message last night, and we're number one right now in iHeartRadio for Food Safety podcasts and Natural Sciences. And so, I started then going down the rabbit hole of, what does Gemini say about us? What does ChatGPT say about us? Have you done that, Francine? I, I guess I'm a jerk. So I.

Francine L Shaw: I do, I've done that. I'm not sending you what it says.

Matt Regusci: If you go do that, it will say that Matt is a jerk and I make Francine feel uncomfortable.

intro: Everybody's gotta eat, and nobody likes getting sick. That's why heroes toil in the shadows, keeping your food safe at all points. From the supply chain, to the point of sale. Join industry veterans Francine L. Shaw and Matt Ragushi for a deep dive into food safety. It all boils down to one golden rule.

Don't. [00:01:00] Eat. Poop. Don't eat poop.

Matt Regusci: Hello, hello, Francine.

Francine L Shaw: Hey, Matt.

Matt Regusci: What a day.

Francine L Shaw: Crazy day. Crazy couple days, really.

Matt Regusci: Crazy.

Francine L Shaw: Nothing that, you know, we can really discuss right now, but crazy couple days.

Matt Regusci: Yeah.

We were at the Food Safety Consortium last week and that was awesome, right?

Francine L Shaw: It was. We had a phenomenal time. We had a really good time.

Matt Regusci: And then from that. One of the great things about Food Safety Consortium, I think the best in terms of It has to be the best conference in terms of networking. Like, some of the other conferences we go to, just because we know a lot of people, it's great for networking. But this, I think, is the best.

Because so much stuff in our career has literally happened for the networking at Food Safety Consortium. And we have, we made a lot of great interviews. But there is, [00:02:00] there's stuff that Francine and I are going to be able to announce shortly. Like probably within the month that we have been working on with somebody that everybody knows really well in the industry, probably over the last couple of years, but things just synced, I would say, at the Food Safety Consortium, which led to a bunch of more conversations over this last week. And it's things like that, Francine, that you literally cannot recreate.

We talk multiple times with a lot of different people, like through our podcast, through so many different mediums, but just being able to sit down and like work things out at a conference is unreplicatable.

Francine L Shaw: We go to a lot of conferences, a lot of conferences.

And many conferences are just, they're big. They're very big. There's a lot of people in attendance, which is great because you [00:03:00] see a lot of people that you can connect with, say hi to, that you don't get to see on a normal basis. But you don't really have the time to talk and have real conversations because everybody's busy trying to see people that they want to see, say hi. And just have those brief interactions that you don't get to normally have in a conference.

At the Food Safety Consortium, it's a smaller event, which is great because you have those opportunities and the space to have, they're like more intimate conversations for the networking and to actually, if you have business conversations that you want to have, or more in depth conversations about other things that you've been trying to talk about for a period of time, there's the [00:04:00] time and the space to do that.

And that's the one thing that comes through time and time again when we're talking to people about what they enjoy about the Food Safety Consortium, and us included. Even though we're working while we're there, we still have the opportunity to do that, and it's just something that everybody loves about the Food Safety Consortium.

Matt Regusci: The interviews that we have had over the last three years of interviewing at Food Safety Consortium, because we've been attending that for longer, but since we started our podcast, actually since we started our podcast, we've been at Food Safety Consortium and Rick and the team from Food Safety Tech that put on Food Safety Consortium are amazing.

They are such great people, and very gracious, and every year invite us back. And I think that, I think we've just gotten better at interviewing people, but the interviews that we did at this [00:05:00] last conference, which last week was one of them that rolled out, and that was such a great interview, and she was just at our booth talking to us, and then Yeah, no, we need to film you.

We need to record you because you've forgotten more about food safety than most people have started learning about food safety over the last, I don't know, 40 years of doing it, like we have to record you and Francine was like, you know, the conversation we're having right now, that is literally our podcast.

So can we please record with you? So she sat down and we recorded her. Would we have ever found her? Any other time? No, the answer would be 100 percent no, but.

Francine L Shaw: No.

Matt Regusci: She was there and she came to our booth and she was like, what is this? Don't eat poop.

Francine L Shaw: What are you talking about? She was phenomenal. This woman was phenomenal and she just came out of just the crowd.

It was just a great conversation. A couple things that happened.

Yes, we've gotten better at interviewing people because we never intended to be an [00:06:00] interview podcast. We never, we didn't know we had that skill set. We did never intended for it to be that way. People have also started listening to the podcast and discovered, I think, that we really aren't intimidating.

It's conversational. And while some people start out being nervous when we start recording, and I think it's not speaking to us is the recording aspect of the conversation. Very quickly they get over that and forget they're even being recorded.

Matt Regusci: Yes.

Francine L Shaw: So I think that is part of it as well because it just becomes very just casual conversation and it's not scripted.

It's not, well, you have to answer this question or you have to answer that question. It's very organic. And so I think that makes people comfortable. It's There, it's done in the open, and it just looks like [00:07:00] a few people sitting there having normal conversation. And that's what it is. And we're actually recording podcast episodes, which is really fun. I enjoy it.

And there are, there are, there were years where we've done 15 or 16 interviews. This year we didn't do quite as many, but the interviews that we did were phenomenal. They were just really good interviews.

Matt Regusci: Yeah, and I think it's, you made a really good point. Like we were, we didn't set out to be an interview show and it was really Rick who turned us into an interview show.

It was Food Safety Consortium. I see Rick, by the way, is the guy who runs Food Safety Consortium in Food Safety Tech. I think he turned us into a show that has interviews. Like we, we have a show like this and then the other format is interviews. If it wasn't for that first year recording something like, yeah, like you said, like almost 20 interviews.

When you do so many in a day or like over the course of three days, you get better over the [00:08:00] period of time. Those first interviews that we did, remember Francine, they were like 15 25 minutes long. The reason why we did less this year was because each interview was something like 30 minutes to an hour long.

Francine L Shaw: Some of them were longer.

Matt Regusci: We're like going deep, we're deep into these people's experiences of food safety and what their past was, how their career has evolved, what their future is.

What they've seen over the years in food safety. Cuz' food safety has changed a lot from the last decade, but it's definitely changed a lot over the last two decades, and it is completely different than it was when you started Francine and when other people that we talked to were, I mean, they were figuring it out.

They are figuring food safety out.

Francine L Shaw: And if they haven't had a chance, Monica's episode already aired, if they have not had a chance to listen to that episode, they really need to go back and listen to that because it's just [00:09:00] so fascinating to hear from the time that she started several decades ago to what is happening now.

Very honest, and it's not bad, she wasn't beating up on people, it's just the change, it's like talking to Bill and Darin, Bill Marler and Darin Detwiler, the changes that have happened over the last, since then. The last several decades since 1993 are phenomenal and she has worked and helped implement many of those changes over that time.

So yeah.

Matt Regusci: Yes. And then the one with Darin Detwiler and his wife Gennette, that has landed as well. So, we have the one with Monica and the interview with Confessions of a Food Safety A**hole, their new podcast. Really learning about their relationship and their personalities and how they started their podcast and what that's about.

And that was so much fun sitting with [00:10:00] them. And that was at the end of the night, Francine and I had recorded something like five interviews before that. Francine and I are people people, and we love these interviews, but five in a row, it's exhausting. It's, it really is exhausting, but they, once we get in it with them and have those conversations, I forget how tired I am and just really enjoy and love the experience there.

So what were some of your favorite things at Food Safety Consortium this year, Francine?

Francine L Shaw: Besides poor Darin, when you insulted him, that wasn't a favorite thing, but that was hysterical. Darin's so good.

Matt Regusci: I know. It's so funny too, because Francine sent me a text message last night. So before Francine, you answered this question.

Francine sent me a text message last night and we're number one right now in iHeartRadio for food safety podcasts and natural sciences. And so, [00:11:00] I started then going down the rabbit hole of, what does Gemini say about us? What does ChatGPT say about us? Have you done that, Francine? I guess I'm a jerk. So

Francine L Shaw: I I do.

I've done that. I'm not sending you what it says.

Matt Regusci: If you go do that, it will say that Matt is a jerk and I make Francine feel uncomfortable.

Francine L Shaw: Do you know what? That came from one comment that you made one time, a long time ago. And it was a misunderstood comment and somebody thought that you offended me.

You did not offend me. People, it was somebody that does not know us. Like, you're like a brother to me. We've known each other for a really long time, and I can't even remember what you said to me. And whatever you said, I'm gonna guess what happened here. [00:12:00] I'm gonna guess you said something to me.

Matt Regusci: Sarcastic, most likely.

Francine L Shaw: Sarcastically. Oh, 100 percent was sarcasm. 100%. I wanted to say something back that was, is equally inappropriate and I hesitated and didn't say anything and that came across without people seeing us as I was offended and that you were a jerk and you offended me and made me uncomfortable. Now, I'm certain that whatever you said was not super inappropriate because you're not that type of person, especially towards women.

You just are not that person, but somebody misunderstood it or took it that way.

Matt Regusci: Oh, yeah.

Francine L Shaw: So, but every time you.

Matt Regusci: I wasn't offended. I actually showed my kids. Love it was like a year ago. This goes to show you how much we [00:13:00] actually have, like.

Francine L Shaw: Two years ago, but it's every time that you Google the podcast, this is like the only really negative rating that we have that every time you Google the podcast, this whole thing bashing Matt comes up.

He's a real jerk.

Matt Regusci: I mean, so you say be bad mouthing Darin Detwiler. Oh, that was funny though. That was funny. And.

Francine L Shaw: Yeah, you were kidding.

Matt Regusci: Yeah, we rip each other all the time. But by the way, if I made Francine feel uncomfortable and if that, if our relationship was not the way it was. Our podcast would not be filming and landing every single week for three years.

I, I guarantee you that. Francine puts up with no BS, by the way. Do not think that she is some sweet little nice innocent little child. She puts me in my place.

Francine L Shaw: If you ever offended me, everybody listening [00:14:00] would know.

Matt Regusci: And I definitely do not want to tick Francine off. I've seen her ticked off at people.

It's scary.

Francine L Shaw: Yeah, you've never, you have never offended me, so.

Matt Regusci: So funny. But yeah, okay, so yes, I made fun of Darin Detwiler. I made fun of Bill Marler.

Francine L Shaw: His reaction, his reaction was hysterical. So that was probably, because Darin is so good natured and so funny, and we talked about this in that episode, is that side of us that a lot of people just don't get to see.

Now that we have a podcast, people get to see that side of us. But recently, because of Darin's podcast and Darin has started speaking a little bit differently than he used to, they get to see that side of him more now. And it's something that as a group, personally, we have all started to talk about, but that was hysterical.

So that is, that was fun.

But my favorite part of the Consortium, again, is just the interaction and seeing [00:15:00] all the different people. They have a very good track of sessions. I guess I should say it's a little bit different than some of the other conferences.

Matt Regusci: Yes. So this is the cool thing about them being in DC now.

Multiple people, we ask every interview that we do, Food Safety Consortium, what is your favorite thing about Food Safety Consortium and what would you like to see more of? We changed it. Last year was like, what is your least favorite thing? And this year we changed it to what would you like to see more of?

Because they would say things like the location, because it was in New Jersey and in DC, like the escalator didn't work. That's not helpful for Rick's, Rick and Charray and stuff. We asked, what would they like to see more of? The two things that they said consistently, and we asked other people too that we didn't interview.

The two things that they said consistently that they liked the most was one, the networking. Because again, Food Safety Consortium is the best networking event [00:16:00] there is. Bar none. And we've been to a lot of conferences, Francine and I, it is the best. Number two, which I also agree with, which is different, is because it's in DC now, there's a lot more policy talked and people from DC, some of those policy peeps are actually there talking about what's going on. And that is unique. That really is unique.

Francine L Shaw: And it gives you, it gives the attendees an opportunity to speak to those people as well.

Matt Regusci: Yes.

Francine L Shaw: And I have to interview them when they're there. The shutdown impact, some of them didn't attend but when they are there, we have the opportunity to speak to.

Matt Regusci: Yes. Yeah. Okay.

So my favorite was obviously the people that we were able to talk to there. A lot of these people we know, but the unique thing about Food Safety Consortium [00:17:00] and the networking that we could do there is Francine and I are able to talk to a lot of people one on one, right? When I say one on one, I mean two on one.

Francine and I with who we want to talk to, who we want to interview, et cetera, et cetera. What's unique about the networking that people tend to leave out of what is powerful at a conference is while you are talking to one person, other people will come up and start talking as well. And so you're able to get insights into not just one person's opinion about something.

But multiple of those key players at the same time talking about the same thing, which is extremely unique. And the other thing that I love about this conference is you have the experts that have been around forever there that you can do that kind of group conversation with.

But also, which I think is equally more important is there's a lot of young people there early in their career, [00:18:00] and it's good to get insight from young people about why they're passionate about food safety, how they see the future is going to be, and then also for them to hear some of the backstories. But they don't have as much PTSD as we do. They haven't been beat up as hard in as long as we have going through this for multiple decades.

And so seeing them and where the world has come in food safety and having them have a fresh insight into what the future is going to be without that PTSD is really important. And it helps regenerate my faith in the industry when I listen to young people talk.

Francine L Shaw: You're right, and we did. We spoke to different people from in the early 20s to people approaching 70 for interviews.

And there's such a varying degree of opinions and experience, and it was great to [00:19:00] be able to do that. Those two very young women that we spoke to were, they were incredible. Everybody was, and it was just, it was fun to speak to them.

Women in food safety, they're always there. The breakfast that they had.

It's just, it's a great conference.

Matt Regusci: Me too. I identified as a woman that day. And no, I told Melody that I was going to, and she was like, do it. She's like, come on over. Uh, Uh, no, it's okay.

Francine L Shaw: Oh, there was a group photo. A man did come in and take the group photo.

Matt Regusci: But watching that Women In Food Safety grow, because I talked to Melody when she started it at GFSI conference right before COVID, right?

Like when I say right before, while we were at the GFSI conference in Seattle, was like the first death in an old folks home for COVID [00:20:00] was in Seattle while we were at the GFSI conference. Yeah, it was like one month after that, the whole world shut down and she started that. And now it is huge and it's powerful and it's amazing.

And it's. It was obviously needed and she was able just to be the right person at the right time to put everything together and listening to her story talk about that is, is, is awesome. And that podcast will be coming out, I don't know, within the next month or so, probably.

Francine L Shaw: They do webinars and they have a group session like once a month.

I'm not sure about the podcast. When that's coming out, but they hold a lot of events for women in food safety. They really are. I, um, did she, she told us they became a nonprofit, didn't she? They've officially become a nonprofit. They really are a good group.

Matt Regusci: Yes. The other thing that I really liked is I love [00:21:00] Charray.

Francine L Shaw: So do I.

Matt Regusci: Charray works with Rick at food safety for Food Safety Consortium. And I've known Charray for many years. I did consulting with ASI. Before she sold the company, well, did consulting with ASI while they were selling the company. And she is a hoot. She is, there's no other way of describing Charray as she is one of a kind.

You and Charray, listening to you two talk to each other is so funny. And that was also awesome, was just, Charray is a networker, and she went around and talked to everybody, and she's one of those people that like, if there's a group of people talking, she has no problem just joining the conversation, which I tell everybody, like, advice wise, just go join a conversation at Food Safety Consortium.

Like, when you see people you want to talk to, talking together, all at once, just walk [00:22:00] up and start listening and then join in because I. That happened so much at Food Safety Consortium. People were just coming in and joining different conversations and that is so powerful and so unique.

Francine L Shaw: For a very long time you would say, I wish you could meet Charray because you would love Charray.

You guys would get along so well and yeah, I do love Charray.

Matt Regusci: She, again, is just one of a kind. She is such a hoot. She's so much like you in so many ways, Francine. Like, one of the ways is you would never know Charray owned, a company that was failing and over the course of five years, turned that company completely around, made it one of the powerhouses in food safety in the nation.

Simultaneously working with her son, who I absolutely [00:23:00] love. Tyler's one of my favorite people in the world. Helped him build a career that he has a standalone career as the CEO now of ASI. After Kiwa bought that company. And that's not what she leads with. Just like you, Francine, you don't lead with, yeah, I built one of the biggest retail food safety companies in the world.

You don't lead with that. And she doesn't either. But when people find out, like, wait, what? She did what? I love telling everybody how amazing these two women are, because they are my favorite people in the world. It's like, God, my wife. And like, Charray and Francine. I love them.

Francine L Shaw: We were having a conversation.

It was Charray, myself, and no, who the other person was. Like, I don't know who the other, I can't even remember if it was a male or female. We're having this conversation and they were talking about something and they were [00:24:00] asking Charray what she did and she was telling them, you know, that she's working with Rick and she's doing this and that and the conversation's going on and she said, you know, they were talking about ASI and oh, Tyler, Tyler came up and she said about, you know, Tyler was her son and oh, I didn't know Tyler was your son.

And she said, oh yeah, Tyler's my son. And then more is being said and hysterical. And she wasn't, you know what I mean? It just eventually comes to the point, some point, which you have to say, She's like, yeah, so I owned ASI. She said, yeah, I sold it to looking to say that, you know what I mean? She would have never said it.

She would have never said it because she didn't need to. It came to the point in the conversation that it was something that she needed to say. It's just, I don't [00:25:00] know. It was just funny. She doesn't care.

Matt Regusci: No.

Francine L Shaw: It's irrelevant.

Matt Regusci: Right? And that's the cool thing about conferences like Food Safety Consortium that you just don't get is you start talking to people.

And if Francine and I know some of these people for a really long time, and we don't even know all of their past, and then they start talking about stuff and you're like, wait, what you did, what now I need to know more about that. And a lot of these people there, they've done so much for food safety, but they're such quiet.

You know, just normal people and you get to learn so much from them, from their past. And like I said, with the young people getting to learn from them, from what they want their future to be. So I'm always so refreshed.

I love doing this episode right after Food Safety Consortium every year because it like rejuvenates me for the next year, like legit.

Francine L Shaw: And I'm looking forward to, I think we're going to do a [00:26:00] couple of things with Food Safety Tech this year. I'm looking forward to that as well. So.

Matt Regusci: Yeah, and Rick has big plans, but he doesn't plan on ruining the culture of Food Safety Consortium, so he's talking about where the location is, is, is great, the location is, is really, the hotel is perfect for a conference, and he's talking about expanding maybe 10, 20 more booths, and 100 more attendees over the next couple years, he doesn't want to have it be like, A thousand or thousands of people at this conference because he's afraid that it's going to ruin the culture and so We keep saying this every single year about the culture of Food Safety Consortium being unique, but you literally cannot, cannot understand it until you're there.

Yeah. Boy, there you go. I don't know when it pops up that you can go to the next conference, [00:27:00] maybe like for next year, maybe now you can, but when that happens, we definitely want to see you there next year.

Francine L Shaw: And we usually have a code.

Matt Regusci: Oh, yeah! Poop.

Francine L Shaw: You. Poop.

Matt Regusci: Oh, we need to talk to Rick and Charray about making sure that the second that they can do that, poop is there.

Because I think people get a discount by using poop.

Francine L Shaw: Not poop at the conference, poop is a code.

Matt Regusci: Poop is a code. Correct. But when you register, you can put poop as a code.

Francine L Shaw: And we had a poop balloon at our table that everybody loved.

Matt Regusci: We did have a poop balloon. Yeah, I think Francine.

Francine L Shaw: We had a poop balloon that everybody loved.

Matt Regusci: Yeah.

Francine L Shaw: Our poop balloon was a star.

Matt Regusci: Alright. Well, on that note, don't eat poop.