ABOUT FOODSAFEPAL
Food Safety Training That Inspires Self-Directed Safe Food Handling Practices.
Registered dietitian nutritionist, Gavin Van De Walle, created FoodSafePal in 2022 after he identified a need for online food safety learning experiences that not only increase knowledge about food safety but also inspire self-directed safe food handling practices while on the job.
See, other popular food safety certification programs improve knowledge but they fail to translate that knowledge into safe food handling practices and behaviors in real life (1, 2).
The result? An abundance of new and exciting knowledge without the motivation or know-how to put it into action.
We’re here to change that.
Welcome to the new standard for food safety training. We’re glad you’re here.
Gavin Van De Walle, MS, RDN
Gavin Van De Walle is the owner of FoodSafePal. He is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and holds a bachelor’s degree in human nutrition and food science.
Gavin would continue his academic training and obtain a master’s degree in human nutrition. He completed part of his training to become an RDN in a large school district where he found a passion for food safety.
Since this time, Gavin has worked as an RDN in various healthcare settings, including long-term care facilities and acute care hospitals, where he would juggle management roles with food planning, recipe analysis, and food safety.
In these roles, Gavin has completed various food safety training and manager certification programs while helping dozens of others complete their training. But there was an issue.
His staff were not translating what they learned from these courses into good food safety practices on the job. This would be a concern for anyone but that concern was significantly elevated given the susceptible population his staff were serving in nursing homes and hospitals.
At first, he thought his staff were just careless but he later realized the training wasn’t preparing them well enough. That’s when he decided to create his own food safety training materials with a focus on behavior change.
It was a huge success with his staff — they now had confidence. He later realized that he could use this same training to help thousands of others. That’s when he created FoodSafePal with the goal to convert knowledge learned to safe food handling practices on the job.