Sheri Nielson is an award winning instructor for the B.C. FOODSAFE Program. A former print and television journalist, she is also co-author of Running Your Restaurant: An Operations Manual, which was published in 1988 by the Restaurant and Foodservices Association of B.C.
She has certified over 8,000 people in FOODSAFE training since 1988, through her company, Quanta Restaurant Systems Ltd. She is working with the food industry as a training consultant to restaurants.
She is also a licenced EMA 1 paramedic working for the British Columbia Ambulance Service in her home community and an authorized provider of Canadian Red Cross first-aid courses. She is a former auxiliary police officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Her first questions about food safety surfaced as young mother and homemaker. As with many people of the time, she moved back to the “country” and discovered that she had only common sense and some old recipe books to fall back on. It was not until she became involved in the FOODSAFE program, that she started to find the answers to the questions that had been concerning her about food safety.
Sheri lives on Salt Spring Island, midway between Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
About the Editors:
Wm (Bill) Hines, C.P.H.I.(c) R.E.H.O. Food Safety Consultant and Public Health Inspector, Community and Environmental Health Protection, Capital Regional District Health Department in Victoria, British Columbia.
Bill began his career as a Public Health Inspector in 1972 in Northern Saskatchewan. He is the founder of the FOODSAFE Sanitation Training Program For Foodhandlers, published in 1987. He was responsible for the conception and then the development and implementation of the FOODSAFE Program as a member of the FOODSAFE Steering Committee.
In 1992 he was appointed as Food Safety Consultant for the Capital Regional District. In 1994, he was responsible for food safety at the Commonwealth Games, held that year in Victoria. Bill is a World Health Organization Consultant who helped to design the food safety plan for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.
Bill continues to work at a grassroots level as a Public Health Inspector and Food Safety Consultant in Victoria, British Columbia.
Gerry Penner, C.P.H.I.(c), GWP Productions Inc. Gerry began his career as a Public Health Inspector with the British Columbia Ministry of Health in 1964. In 1981, he became a consultant for the Ministry of Health in environmental health programs with a special interest in food sanitation programs.
In 1985, Gerry was designated as the Ministry of Health representative on the Steering Committee established to develop the FOODSAFE Sanitation Training program for foodhandlers, and he was responsible for the implementation and promotion of FOODSAFE education and certification programs.
He developed a national-award winning self-monitoring certification program for food service operators called “Achieving FOODSAFE Excellence” implemented in 1992.
Gerry continues his interest in promoting food sanitation education and industry self-inspection systems.