🔒 Food safety isn’t one-size-fits-all, and DeVere Chemical gets that. Their team of food safety specialists brings real-world experience and even offers customized training for your plant.

From tough soils to pathogen control, DeVere’s cleaners, sanitizers, and support keep your facility safe, efficient, and always audit-ready.

Learn more here: DeVere Chemical

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Monica Pancare, CP-FS. a veteran environmental health food inspector, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025.

She brings a unique perspective, having been around food safety from its inception and having been involved on both sides of the industry, first in operations and now as an inspector.

Joined by Francine, they commiserate about how things were in the late 1970s and 1980s, what has changed, and the trials and tribulations of being the one who watches the kitchen.

In this episode:

💩 [01:15] Meet Monica Pancare, a veteran of the food safety industry

💩 [02:31] Gloves, questionable 1970s practices, and the origin of ServSafe

💩 [05:27] What we didn't know in the 1980s and Marriott Hotels' food safety

💩 [08:51] Monica's pivot to an environmental health food inspector role

💩 [10:14] The benefits for an inspector of starting out in operations

💩 [12:39] Defining which establishments are high risk or low risk

💩 [15:46] The craziest violation Monica's ever seen

💩 [18:09] Francine and Monica's experiences with pests, upsets, and threats

💩 [21:24] What happens when Monica finds big problems in an establishment

💩 [24:42] If the bathrooms are clean, is the rest of the establishment clean?

💩 [25:54] The difference between a training issue and a procedural one

💩 [28:59] What to look for in a restaurant as a consumer

💩 [31:23] Why Monica chose to attend the Food Safety Consortium

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

For a whole retelling of Francine's craziest stories from her time as a health inspector, check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Knowledge is power. Knowledge is key. I believe that you always need to keep your finger on the pulse and really have a good, strong knowledge of what's out there in the industry as it changes.” – Monica Pancare

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

🔒 Food safety isn’t one-size-fits-all, and DeVere Chemical gets that. Their team of food safety specialists brings real-world experience and even offers customized training for your plant.

From tough soils to pathogen control, DeVere’s cleaners, sanitizers, and support keep your facility safe, efficient, and always audit-ready.

Learn more here: DeVere Chemical

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Ryan Dunn, the Vice President of Sales at DeVere Chemical, our official sponsor.

They talk about how sanitizing is key when it comes to ensuring food safety, but having the best sanitizers in the market or the best training around will never be enough if there isn't a strong culture of safety in place.

Because they know that cultural change starts at the top, they share practical advice that food safety leaders can start implementing right away to turn the existing culture around, making safety the number one priority from upper management to the plant floor.

In this episode:

💩 [01:42] Get to know Ryan Dunn and his serendipitous journey to DeVere

💩 [05:52] How each training is 100% unique to the client at DeVere

💩 [08:24] Real results: from multiple violations to a culture of safety

💩 [12:38] How to convince leadership to invest in food safety

💩 [16:09] When a whole shift quit instead of taking the training

💩 [17:07] Resistance to change starts at the top

💩 [20:10] A simple mindset shift that can change the way we lead

💩 [23:35] 4 leadership lessons to build a strong food safety culture

💩 [31:00] A tool to find out what your crew needs and wants

💩 [32:07] The power of managing each individual as their own person

💩 [33:50] Make sure to meet Ryan at the next industry conference

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Learn more about how DeVere Chemical can take your operation's food safety to the next level at deverechemical.com.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

" We've taken the personality out of management. I think people just feel disconnected. I hear it all the time. They're disconnected from their relationships with their leaders, and their leaders are disconnected with their crew." – Ryan Dunn

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Ryan, Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

🔒 Food safety isn’t one-size-fits-all, and DeVere Chemical gets that. Their team of food safety specialists brings real-world experience and even offers customized training for your plant.

From tough soils to pathogen control, DeVere’s cleaners, sanitizers, and support keep your facility safe, efficient, and always audit-ready.

Learn more here: DeVere Chemical

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Alex O'Brien, the Dairy Safety & Quality Coordinator at the Center for Dairy Research, also known as the Wisconsin cheese food safety guy.

Milk safety has been a recurring topic on the podcast, especially given the growing demand for raw milk, but this is the first time the focus has been on cheese itself.

So, tune in to discover how to make cheese safe. You'll learn how the cheese-making process affects its safety, important lessons about environmental monitoring, and how to make raw milk and cheese a little safer.

In this episode:

💩 [01:27] Alex O'Brien's many hats as the Wisconsin cheese food safety guy

💩 [04:46] The factors that make cheese safe, even unrefrigerated

💩 [10:06] How to get high-quality milk even through a crappy milking process

💩 [13:27] What's behind cheese outbreaks post-pasteurization

💩 [16:52] It doesn't take much unpasteurized cheese to make you sick

💩 [18:53] How to ensure cheese plants are safe and some cautionary tales

💩 [25:40] The four different types of food safety people

💩 [28:45] The difference between cleaning and sanitizing

💩 [30:14] When food safety people have a foodborne illness

💩 [32:58] Thermal pasteurization versus UV pasteurization and raw milk

💩 [37:59] How to make raw milk and cheese a little safer and save lives

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Catch up with the episode where we talked to Bob Comstock about his UV-based pasteurization process, Episode 131 | How a Little Sunlight in Your Milk is Going to Profoundly Change the Dairy Industry.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ If you're finding [Listeria] in your environment more than 10% of the time, you have a problem, right? So, I like to emphasize that you want to find it, but if it's so prevalent and you keep finding it in the same spot and you can't figure it out, then it's a problem.” – Alex O'Brien

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Alex, Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms