Posted: June 10, 2005
City of
Plano Environmental Health Manager, Steve Berry, isn’t a cross-country
skier, a world-class curler or an expert on the bobsled or luge, but after
being part of a Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic “team,” Mr. Berry has now been
invited to participate on a 2008 Beijing Olympics “team,” implementing food
safety protocol for thousands of athletes and visitors to the games.
“I am very proud to announce that Steve has been
selected as one of fifteen international participants to serve on the Food
Safety Expert Board for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China,” said
Environmental Health Manager Brian Collins. “Steve will be traveling expense
paid to Beijing on three different occasions to provide guidance and
leadership on food safety for the Olympics. His official letter of
invitation is coming from Beijing shortly.”
Mr. Berry brings valuable experience with him to
Beijing. “What I learned about the importance of teamwork, uniformity and
data coordination alone from the Salt Lake experience I could never have
gained through any other experience. Salt Lake City was the largest mass
gathering to occur in the United States since the 1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta. The event was only four months removed from the September 11
terrorist attacks and our still fledgling Homeland Security initiatives were
being put to the test on a global scale at this international gathering. The
threat of bio-terrorism through water and food contamination was a bona fide
concern.”
Mr. Berry first connected with Olympics when he was
tapped as a speaker for a 2001 Arkansas Society of Professional Sanitarians
Conference. On the roster was a member of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics
food safety team. Learning of volunteer opportunities in food safety, he
submitted an application and was chosen to assist in their massive food
safety inspection efforts.
Working under the auspices of the United States Food
and Drug Administration, Mr. Berry was assigned as a member of the core food
safety inspection analysis team. The team analyzed health inspection data,
working as troubleshooters for the entire food inspection process through
identifying and resolving any food handling violations within a 24-hour
period.
“The Salt Lake experience was invaluable to me. I
carried home a renewed respect for the importance of coordinated regional
teamwork, standardizing regulatory data collection, analyzing data across
multiple jurisdictions, and augmenting local inspection efforts with
external resources. Mass gatherings such as this do not occur often enough
in any one region for any one public health agency to gain expertise in
supporting such an event.”
Another invaluable tool Mr. Berry brought home to
Plano was an increased understanding of cultural sensitivity. “Examining how
we communicate and how others communicate back to us takes on a new light
when we stop to explore our cultural diversities. It affects not only our
in-person communications, but how we may want to approach our print
educational and information formats as well.”
After learning of Mr. Berry’s work in Salt Lake City
and his extensive municipal experience, Mr. Yifen Wang, Assistant Professor
in Food Engineering, Auburn University, and a member of the Olympic
Selection Committee relating to Food Safety, contacted Mr. Berry and asked
him to be part of the team.
“I understand there are about 15 members on the team,
four being from the United States,” said Mr. Berry. We are charged with
writing the food safety protocol manual for the food safety program to be
implemented during the games. We are officially known as the Food Safety
Expert Board for the Beijing Municipal Office for Food Safety Supervision
and Coordination for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”
Mr. Berry’s initial meeting will be held the week of
July 4, 2005, with one meeting held annually until the 2008 Olympic Games
begin.