Letter From The Editor: Can ‘food safety culture’ live with DOJ?

– OPiNION –

ROSEMONT, IL — This year’s keynote at the 24th Annual Food Safety Summit was about “food safety culture.”  FDA officials Conrad Choiniere and Donald Prater did a stand-up act, reminding the audience of about 800 that “food safety culture” is already on their radar screen.  FDA’s “New Era” acknowledges the importance of a “food safety culture”

Further, the Department of Justice’s Consumer Affairs Branch Assistant Director Mathew Lash explained that if a company’s food safety culture includes cooperation during an investigation, it could make a difference in how DOJ processes the case.

Michael Roberson, the director of corporate quality assurance for the South’s Publix Super Markets, provided a case study for a company that makes “food safety culture” part of its daily existence for the 298,000 employee-owners of Publix.

There is a bit of “you’ll know it when you see it” when food safety culture is discussed. But in both the session about getting to know your regulators and the food safety culture keynote presentations, questions were raised about companies that are cooperative during severe investigations and those that are not.

Maybe it’s just “large law firms” as one questioner suggested, or maybe some just “lawyer up.”

But these discussions trigger something in the back of my mind.  Then I remembered it was the infamous “Yates Memo.” It addressed “Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing.” Then Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates was the author of the 2015 policy memo, which was addressed to all federal government attorneys.

“Fighting corporate fraud and other misconduct is a top priority of the Department of Justice. Our nation’s economy depends on effective enforcement of the civil and criminal laws that protect our financial system and, by extension, all our citizens” begins the Yates memo, which in revised form remains in effect.

The Yates memo went on to discuss how DOJ  should pursue corporate wrongdoing. At the time many large law firms sent out client advisory memos, including those representing the food industry.  Here were the six major topic areas of the Yates memo: