FTCC & Cumberland County host 7th Annual Food Safety Forum

By Faith Hatton, posted Aug 15, 2025 on BizFayetteville.com

The FSF featured a game of Kahoot! hosted by Thomas Jumalon from the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services. The questions “What is sushi?" caused a stir.

On Wednesday, Aug. 13, the Environmental Health Division of Cumberland County Department of Public Health and the Culinary Art’s Department of Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) partnered to host the 7th Annual Food Safety Forum.

Held in the FTCC Culinary Dining Room, the event invited guests from a wide range of industries including food manufacturing, restaurants & catering, agriculture & farming, government agencies, education & research and retail food service.

This year’s theme was “Bringing Safety to the Table: Advancing Best Practices in Food Handling, Production and Policy.” The event focused on highlighting the urgent need for a comprehensive and collaborative approach to safe guarding every step of the food chain.

“I am incredibly proud of our Environmental Health team for successfully facilitating the 7th Annual Food Safety Forum (FSF) . This event brought together experts, industry partners and community members to share knowledge, strengthen partnerships and advance our shared mission to protect public health,” said Deputy Health Director for Cumberland County Tamra Morris. “The dedication, collaboration and passion demonstrated by our staff and stakeholders truly reflect our mission to ensure the highest standards of food safety for our community.”

The Forum featured 10 comprehensive education courses taught by state and local health leadership including:

“High Risk Foods” taught by Daniel Gains, food administrator for the NCDA and Consumer Services Food and Drug Protection Division.
“Allergens” taught by Darcy Mundell, clinical nutrition manager for Cape Fear Valley Health System.
“Handling Food related Complaints” taught by Melissa G. Ham, REHS an environmental senior consultant for the FDA and a retail programs standards coordinator for the Hoke County Environmental Health Department and more.

“Every year, there’s different trends that come up. But there's always those basic factors. You have food safety, you have hand washing, cross contamination, and we're always hitting those major risk factors that always affect our restaurants, and those are the things that are ongoing training. We cannot emphasize enough how food borne illnesses can be stopped by the simplest things like washing your hands correctly, cooking foods to the right temperature and controlling cross contamination,” shared Daniel Ortiz, environmental health director at Cumberland County Health Department.

As part of the partnership to bring this event to Fayetteville, FTCC was able to bring out local talent, as well as their own hospitality students and staff to showcase their skills in three education courses offered to attendees.

Shrimp & Grits. Chef Judy Cage cooks in Chef Judy was able to whip up a southern classic, shrimp and grits, providing a step by step tutorial, tips and tricks and answer questions from watchers.

Course 1: Judy’s Shrimp & Grits - A quick cooking segment featuring local Chef and Restauranteur Judy Cage (Chef Judy), owner of The Ville Wings & Bar and Uptown’s Chicken & Waffles. During the segment Chef Judy was able to whip up a southern classic, shrimp and grits, providing a step by step tutorial, tips and tricks and answer questions from watchers.

Course 2: Botanical Infusions with Truffles taught by Owner of Ellie’s LLC, and FTCC Culinary Arts Instructor Chef Linsie Locklear. This herbology course highlighted the way to utilize edible botanicals to add flavor to dishes.

Course 3: Mixology taught by FTCC Culinary Arts Instructor Chef Alex Fochi. This course focused on some of the fun chemical reactions achievable in the art of bartending. Offering two signature mocktails for the event, a Cherry Blossom mocktail and Butterfly Pea Tea mocktail, Chef Fochi was able to demonstrate the edible science that goes into bartending.

“We chefs were asked to make a proposal, prepare the demo, the recipes, the menu, the whole demo flow. We were given the parameters of how many people we would have and how much time we would have. This is one of those events where it's all hands on deck. I pulled two of my students that have been involved in mixology from the beginning, so I figured it would be a good way for them to start the semester and they have fun,” shared Chef Fochi.

The day wrapped with a tour of FTCC’s mobile food truck used by their catering class which is the capstone for culinary students.

The FTCC food truck is active primarily on the FTCC campus and at key events and locations around the community during the spring semester. Students are responsible for the menu, prepping, cooking and running the truck to serve customers.

Led by FTCC Culinary Arts Instructor Ja’ Maul Johnson, the fully functional food truck includes a hot box, sandwich station, four-burner stove, oven, grill, griddle, deep fryer and fry station. The food truck also has a two-well system, a hot air system for keeping food warm, and a large prep area with multiple refrigerators and freezers.

The food truck is active primarily on the FTCC campus and at key events and locations around the community during the spring semester. Students are responsible for the menu, prepping, cooking and running the truck to serve customers.

“Right now we are trying to work on starting the new class so that students can work [on the food truck] in the fall, but it is only in service when we're in classes,” shared Johnson. “Currently in the catering class there are about 18 [students], but I think we’re going to move it down to about 16, so that there will be about eight on the food truck, eight to 10 per rotation. We'll be somewhere for about two and a half hours, and we'll rotate them so that they get a chance to be in different areas on the food truck.”

FTCC Culinary Arts Instructor Ja’ Maul Johnson pictured inside of the the fully functional food truck which includes a hot box, sandwich station, four-burner stove, oven, grill, griddle, deep fryer and fry station. The food truck also has a two-well system, a hot air system for keeping food warm, and a large prep area with multiple refrigerators and freezers.

Johnson shared that for now, getting the food truck out serving the community as often as possible is a priority to help provide students hands-on training so they can pursue their own business goals.

“We want to, because we want to be able to get the certificate for food trucks in our culinary department. Right now, we only use it in the spring, when I use it for catering, but I want to be able to use it in the fall, so that we are on campus, so that students can have food trucks here four days a week. We would like to be in that rotation, because this is what students are trying to do,” shared Johnson.

Johnson shared that the FTCC food truck team is working on appearing in some staple Fayetteville events in the near future. Learn more about the FTCC Culinary Arts department here.

You can also learn more about how Cumberland County is supporting food safety through the Environmental Health Division of Cumberland County here.

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