[Darin Detwiler] Welcome everyone to Spoiler Alert!. We're coming to you from SmartSense LIVE 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. I am Dr. Darin Detwiler.
[Callin Godson-Green] I'm Callin Godson-Green.
[Darin Detwiler] But we are here with our special guest.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Hsing-Yi.
[Darin Detwiler] Thank you for joining us.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Absolutely.
[Darin Detwiler] And for those who have no idea who you are, can you tell us a little bit about what you do and who you work with?
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Absolutely. So my name is Hsing-Yi Hsieh and I am the Director of Food Protection and Regulatory Affairs for Festival Foods, which is an independent grocer of 42 stores in Wisconsin. And in my role, I lead a team of amazing food safety professionals that we kind of oversee and the execution of our food safety and regulatory compliance programs.
[Darin Detwiler] I know the people of Wisconsin truly appreciate what you do from food safety. I have family in Wisconsin, and so I want to make sure that they're as safe as I am where I live. But let's talk about, if it's okay with you, I want to jump to the idea of technology.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Sure.
[Darin Detwiler] How are you seeing technology in this world of food safety?
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] The food safety, it's getting, our food supply chain gets more and more complicated, right? So pencil and paper is not going to do it anymore. It really needs the technology to bring you that information, that data that it can use to make data-driven decisions. In addition to that, Food safety, we've been talking about how behavior affects food safety, right? So it's not just bringing food safety data. You know, if we have that big data that we can bring in to have maybe turnover information, sales data, time of sales, along with all our food safety KPIs, ma
ybe we can really do something deeper and really get to the root cause and make changes.
[Darin Detwiler] As you're saying this, I can't help but think about the idea of, there's a phrase I heard so many years ago, but being data rich, but information poor. Do you see at times that there are food safety leaders that can see that technology is a godsend, but there's others who could see it as a complete burden?
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Absolutely. It's not understanding what it can do for you, right? Technology is a tool. It's a resource to you. But how do you use that tool and how do you do that research, resource, use that resource? Then it's leadership. What do you do with that information? A lot of people use that information just to say, I have it, right? Compliance. But what does that mean to you?
[Callin Godson-Green] I think the difference, like food safety technology started just as temperature recording. It was numbers, that's data, that's easy to understand. You can get an average, you can get checklist completion percentages, but it's expanded to so much more. Like you mentioned, kind of those external factors. I think it ties in a bit with food safety culture and that whole idea that's coming now. You know, there's been a few studies done on how psychosocial factors impact food safety culture. So it's like not just those temperatures was your fridge in range or your food in range. It's so much more than that. Like if you have an employee that calls out three days of five a week, how are food safety performances when they are in then if they don't care if they have things going on at home, how important is that in the daily life? And like, even your records and digital logs of attendance or clock-ins, like how that contributes to food safety, not just your temperature logs. It's an interesting perspective, definitely.
[Darin Detwiler] Well, and I recently saw a scenario, and I was really surprised. I'm not going to name the company, but they had their temperature logs. It was just like, you know, pencil and paper. And I couldn't help but think of why are we not using technology to use? Because it's nothing that makes it easier or flashier. But there's probably a regional or district person who can now put their eyes on it and maybe even be like alerted, hey, we've fallen outside of a parameter.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] And our brain is only so big, right? So you're taking 5, 6, 7, 100 temperatures A day. How do you analyze that without the help of technology? It's almost impossible.
[Darin Detwiler] Well, and that idea of perhaps even using AI in terms of not to do the job for you, but to add to your job by doing trend analysis.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Yes, absolutely. You still have to understand it and apply it. And again, what are you going to do with the data, right? How do I now take that information and apply it to my company, to my organization, to change my training, to change my SOPs, to change whatever's that we do? that can move the needle forward for food safety.
[Darin Detwiler] Well, and perhaps moving that needle, but doing so as much as we can proactively instead of everything is so down the road reactive. Right. Let's talk about that idea of there is compliance, but there's also commitment. How do you kind of define that bridge or talk about that kind of bridge between compliance and commitment?
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Such a deep question, but to me, compliance is a snapshot in time, right? Do you have a policy? Do you have an SOP? Do you take temperatures? It's just that one thing. Now, commitment is how do you align your actions on a daily basis to go and really, you know, do all those things that you say you're going to do, right? And it's a grind. It's a day in and day out. But that's the only way, right, that you're going to get, how do you stay ahead of the curve? How do you stay right there with new technology? How do you use that information to your advantage? It's all that. So, commitment is truly that alignment of your SOPs and whatever documentation you have or plans you have with real action over time.
[Darin Detwiler] Looking at your role with technology and food safety leadership, do you see technology as a way to perhaps expedite compliance and validate compliance, but at the same time help you navigate your journey towards your commitment.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Yes, absolutely. I mean, compliance is there, right? Think of traceability. Think of recall verification. All those things, it's again, getting to a point where it's so complicated and it's so much information that you really need the technology to help you there, right? But then how does that help me take actions? It's a whole different story. Because again, it's not just science, it's behavior, it's community, it's society. And trying to get all that in together and going back to the basics, right? Let me use that information. I know the only way that I can build that food safety culture in my organization is to engage, to educate, and to empower. And that's what the data is going to get me. So I can look into it and say, how do I engage you? What are the things that are important to you? How do I educate you? Where do you need education? And then finally, with all that, you empower them to make that risk assessment and make those decisions. There's nothing that makes me happier when I get that e-mail or that phone call from an associate in the store and says, Hey, we found a foreign material. I have isolated all the food from that lot. What do I do next? Right? That's somebody who's engaged, who knows what to do because they're educated and felt empowered to take action.
[Darin Detwiler] That is an incredible viewpoint on that. And I love how you use that concept of empowering.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] That's commitment.
[Darin Detwiler] That is commitment. That's long-term commitment.
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Yeah, exactly.
[Darin Detwiler] Right.
[Callin Godson-Green] So it seems like you have your systems, your ideas, your flow of food safety within Festival, not down to a perfect T, but you know, you're working on it and it's something that has gotten exponentially better. If someone was starting new into the field today, bearing in mind where technology is now and what expectations are, Annie, advice or recommendations or thoughts you would have for someone brand new to food safety, maybe a recent graduate that's taking in a similar role?
[Hsing-Yi Hsieh] Yeah, we need new food safety professionals. We do, absolutely. So, you know, a few things I would say, stay involved. You know, stay involved. Our food chain is so complicated. there's one thing that I perspective that I've learned over the years in being different sectors of the food supply chain is how you apply the same concept of food safety. But each sector has very different challenges, unique challenges. And that is something that you need to always stay open, learning all the time. Stay involved. Don't get yourself isolated. Don't work in a silo. This can be a very lonely profession, right? There's not a whole team of you in a company. So create those shared groups, those groups where you can talk to people, learn from each other, and that food safety is not competitive, right? I love my shared groups with other grocers, and we truly openly talk about what are your challenges? This is what I do. Let's collaborate.
[Darin Detwiler] That is wonderful. Well, I want to thank you for everything you do in food safety. And I also want to thank you for joining us here on spoiler alert. And I want to thank everyone who is watching this for also taking some time out to learn a lot more about the behind the scenes of food safety.
