[Darin Detwiler] Welcome, everyone. This is Spoiler Alert!. We are coming from Nashville, Tennessee. SmartSense LIVE 2025. I'm Dr. Darin Detwiler.
[Callin Godson-Green] I'm Callan Godson-Green.
[Darin Detwiler] And we are here with a special guest.
[Zoli Stahl] Hi, I'm Zoli Stahl. I work for Sprouts Farmers Market and I'm a food safety specialist.
[Darin Detwiler] How long have you been working with Sprouts?
[Zoli Stahl] Sprouts actually three years next month.
[Darin Detwiler] I mean, I have to admit, I shop at Sprouts. It is a store that is kind of known for the value that they recognize and put into their products. And that really is seen in terms of food safety. But we have to acknowledge technology. How are you using technology and your capacity?
[Zoli Stahl] So being, you know, we started off as a small company. We're still growing. We're in kind of a hyper-growth mode right now. So we're using technology. We're kind of, you know, baby steps right now. Currently, really in the world of food safety, we're using it for digital checklists. So we're using that at the moment. What's really exciting to me now is we're starting to use, we have a new LMS program for training. So we started that at the end of last year, which really focuses on the microlearnings, what's really important for especially the younger crowd right now. They seem to be, there's little games and little questions when they log in. It's very app-based too. So we want to incorporate more food safety trainings and learnings within that platform. So that's really exciting for us at the moment.
[Darin Detwiler] Are you perhaps exploring like micro-certifications or badges?
[Zoli Stahl] Oh yeah, Again, we're, it's an open platform right now. So we're, it's really new. and we're just exploring what we can do. We're getting feedback from the field on, again, what, interests, that our team members have. And again, little gains and stuff in there that can, incorporate how to wash your hands, for instance. So those are the kind of the cool things that we're looking forward in the future.
[Callin Godson-Green] You mentioned that specifically you've noticed an uptick in it or an interest from your younger employees. Do you find that the older ones have apps that interest? Does it kind of go both ways?
[Zoli Stahl] Yeah, it definitely does. But I think it's more, it's starting to lean more in that way where, you know, 10 years ago, older folks with the technology were really kind of dead set against it. But now we're at that point where we almost can't live without it. So, you know, we try to make it super easy. not very, intensive as far as, okay, you have to go into 18 different menus to figure out what's going on. It's, you log into the app, you know, you're clocking in for the day, you have to answer a question, you play a little game, you know, and, you know, you learn something.
[Darin Detwiler] Well, time definitely changes. I mean, it's no longer the novelty, ooh, I have an e-mail now. It's almost like, who doesn't have an e-mail? And even you're talking about gaming, your younger employees, How many of them are not engaged in some sort of this challenge, this learning, this certification, this engagement activity, and to see that connected to, it almost would be like if they didn't see that, there would be something significantly wrong and missing in the workplace. Let's bridge then technology. Let's look at the idea of compliance. And I'd like you to talk about compliance, but also commitment.
[Zoli Stahl] So compliance is kind of the floor, the bare minimum of what we need to do. It's like checking a box, whether it's for an audit, whether it's for, to pass the health inspection. We want to get it done and then kind of be done with it. So it's very reactive, whereas commitment, commitment is getting more people-based and that's the ceiling. So we want to make sure that, we're promoting, that commitment piece of it. And it involves everybody. It needs to be, from the top down. Commitment comes when, again, your leadership believes in, what you're talking about. And obviously with food safety, it's super, super important. But, going down all the way to the team member level, it needs to be important to your boss to be important to you. So again, flowing from the top down, we want that commitment from the bottom all the way up, all the way up.
[Darin Detwiler] Before we were recording, You were talking about a scenario in which I could see how clarity on that commitment has a significant impact in terms of investing and even the financial side of food safety.
[Zoli Stahl] Yeah, I mean, it's, again, using the technologies that, we do have, it's definitely one of those things where we can, use that technology, use the data that's there and show, again, the leadership, using the training, using all the, what's out there, what's available for us. And, again, that's going to foster the commitment.
[Callin Godson-Green] I think the idea of compliance versus commitment has become very prevalent in the last year or so when, there's changes being made to food safety systems that are beyond our control. And something that I hear everyone saying is that, consumer confidence in food safety in the US is falling. And it's such a pity because the food safety professionals in the US are working so hard. If you work in food safety, you care and you're going above and beyond every single day. It'd be very easy. You know, companies can exist that are compliant and not have a food safety team. If you work in food safety, you want to go above and beyond. You don't want anything with your name, your company's name or your company's association that is not food safe. So like understanding that difference, you know, any food business that exists is compliant. They wouldn't be here if they weren't compliant. But those that are thriving and exist and have these great perceptions like Sprouts, it's the commitment. And I think you hit the nail on the head. It has to come from the top down. Food safety team is always going to be shouting because they're committed to food safety. If your leaders, your CEOs, COOs don't care about food safety, it's not going to kind of permeate the culture throughout. So definitely.
[Zoli Stahl] And you know, we want to teach the whys behind things. And it's not that people don't want to do the right thing. It's that they don't know what the right thing is and why they're doing it. What's the reason?
[Callin Godson-Green] 100%, even the impact of a small decision. And I know from speaking with some of the customers here, they talk about those young employees that you mentioned that are taught, yeah, wash your hands. They've been taught that since they were a child. They don't know why or what the correlation is. And sometimes it does unfortunately take a bad food safety incident to actually educate of how that may have happened. Something from not washing your hands after preparing food or going to the bathroom, how that can actually lead to someone being hospitalized or worse. And then just that simple understanding. No one wakes up and wants to do a bad thing or hurt somebody. That's like an ethos, I think, that we all believe people want to go to work and do the right thing. But if they don't know what the right thing is, as you said, how can they change their behaviors?
[Darin Detwiler] You know, on that note, I would also venture to say that when you have a leadership failure somewhere at the top, someone who is far from the epicenter of the problem in most cases, It impacts the entire workforce. People don't want to work for a company whose name is being dragged through the news because of something that took place over at their regional distribution center, or something that took place with their suppliers, and somehow it was never caught. And now it's unfolding in this very impacting a community, but also in the headlines in the 24-hour news cycle.
[Callin Godson-Green] Supplier is a great example of that as well, because we've seen many instances of that. in the last year, but also in the previous years where we associate some sort of outbreak with a specific chain or a restaurant, something that is beyond their control. It could be in a ready to eat leaf that no matter what they do, they're never going to be cooking it and killing the bacteria. They're getting it in. And if, you know, it doesn't matter what farm or wherever that came from, it's the brand that we associate it with. We say, oh, that outbreak out, whatever, even if it was nothing to do with them. So definitely like that understanding and being able to communicate that with the teams, like how do you explain that to a 15-year-old of like, this is what's going on, this is this. If they don't have that background or understanding to begin with, they're just going to say, oh, something's going down at work today.
[Darin Detwiler] Sure. Well, I want to ask you then, based on that, you know, the idea of externalities. Here you are at a retail establishment and something takes place that's so far earlier and far from, you know, where you are in the foods journey and yet in the news, well, it was bought at Sprouts, but it has nothing to do with you. So there's got to be that that commitment in terms of your relationship with your stakeholders as well, because you want to trust them, they want to trust you, the consumer wants to trust everyone that plays a part in what ends up on their plate.
[Zoli Stahl] Yeah, and again, we can use utilize technology for this. So like, we've had recent outbreaks. And we've been part of those and getting the information to the stores in the form of a recall, using platforms such as Smart Sense to get information out about that recall. And this way that our customers, when they come into our stores, that product's already pulled off the shelf. That team member's already informed of the recall and knows about it because a lot of times they walk through our doors and, hey, are you selling this? Are you still selling this? this product and they can, say, nope, it was pulled off the minute we found out about it, it's off of our shelves. and if you have any of that product, feel free to return it.
[Darin Detwiler] At Spoiler Alert, we talk about the idea of things that might be on the horizon or things that might be uncomfortable to say, hey, we have this issue we need to deal with. What is something that you look at in terms of This is something I have to prepare for, this is something I have to look out for, and it's something on your mind.
[Zoli Stahl] So one thing we've been dealing with recently is kind of the rise of misinformation in food safety. So I can go out and pay money, go online and get myself a doctorate, call myself a doctor, and On my TikTok channel, I can spout out whatever I want. I might have 1000 followers, I might have a million followers. Customers are going to sometimes believe the people they follow, not the people that spent their entire lives or entire career researching a subject and studying a subject and are the expert at, you know, about the subject. but they tend to believe that one versus the thousands of scientists that put their life's work into proving something different. So how are you going to stand out? Are you going to stand out in 1,000 people that you have the same view as them, or are you going to be that outlier that says something 180 degree different? they're the ones that are going to stand out. And some people, that's what they gravitate towards. So even though we might have, like all the evidence saying one thing, people are going to believe the opposite. And it's hard on our end because we have all the information. Again, we are the subject matter experts at this. Trying to convince that to somebody who, you know, is not going to take your advice. So, sometimes you just have to nod and, hey, this is the information that I have. Do with it what you will. And, we also seeing, unfortunately, again, food safety being politicized. And that's kind of scary, too. I'm not going to agree with your view about food safety because I don't agree with you on other views. And food safety should not be political at all.
[Darin Detwiler] I recently was speaking at an event and I was making the argument that too many times we say farm to fork or even seed to table, the same kind of idea, but so much about food safety is driven by, when you're talking about outbreaks and recalls, data that comes from beyond the table, the public health data. And we have to get away from the purely marketing and or political conceptualization of the world of food when we start talking about food in terms of food safety because of the public health impact. And it is a battle. And I have to tell you, there are times where a journalist asks me a question and I'll say, here's the research. And I'll be like, oh, I just wanted a sound bite. I don't want the actual research.
[Callin Godson-Green] Facts are.
[Zoli Stahl] I want to click. I just want, you know. Like and subscribe. That's what it's about.
[Darin Detwiler] Or they'll be like, I need the top seven reasons why. I'm like, well, I can only give you 3, but do you have four more? I'm like, what are we going to make something up?
[Callin Godson-Green] 30 seconds to fill here.
[Darin Detwiler] Yeah, Or your agenda game, quite honestly. I just want to give you the facts. Well, I want to thank you for what you do in terms of food safety. And thank you for coming and spending some time with us here on Spoiler Alert. And I want to thank everyone watching this also for what you do and encourage you to ask experts and use information wisely, right?
[Zoli Stahl] All right. Thank you so much.
