Food Safety Matters

Sarah Gallo is Vice President of Product Policy at the Consumer Brands Association (CBA). In her role, Sarah holistically oversees Consumer Brands' policy leadership on smart regulation issues, from advocacy through education to marketplace solutions. Prior to joining CBA, she served as Vice President of Agriculture and Environment for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, where she led the o...

Steven A. Lyon, Ph. D. , is the Director of Food Safety–Field Operations at Chick-Fil-A Inc. He has been with Chick-fil-A since 2009, leading various food safety and animal welfare initiatives. His current role is centered on control of foodborne and respiratory diseases within the enterprise. He has held several roles encompassing supply chain food safety; product safety; restaurant procedure; ki...

Tracy Fink is the Director of Scientific Programs and Science and Policy Initiatives at IFT. She has more than 25 years of experience in leading food safety and logistics initiatives for the food industry, including with Schwan Food Co. and NSF International. In this episode of Food Safety Matters , we speak with Tracy [29:49] about: Tracy's work overseeing IFT's food safety programs, which focus...

Angela Fernandez is the Vice President of Community Engagement at GS1 U.S., where she is responsible for driving broader adoption of GS1 Standards to help industry achieve their goals for improved product traceability, product information transparency, and data quality. Since joining GS1 U.S. more than 15 years ago, Angela has collaborated with a diverse range of industry stakeholders to identify...

Christopher Waldrop, M.P.H., is a Senior Health Scientist in the Division of Public Health Informatics and Analytics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA's CFSAN). In this role, he leads cross-agency workgroups to advance FDA priorities on nutrition, food safety, and biotechnology issues. He also helps identify and assess emerging consumer re...

Bill Potter, Ph. D. is a Technical Advisor at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Potter received his Ph. D. and M.S. degrees in Poultry Science from the University of Arkansas, as well as a B.S. degree in Animal Science and an M.B.A. from Texas A&M University. His areas of expertise include food safety, food quality, and pathogen intervention technologies. Nikki Shariat, Ph. D. is an Assistant Profes...

To get a taste of the discussions that were happening at the 2023 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Deb Kane , Vice President of Food Safety, Quality, EHSS, and Regulatory at J&J Snack Foods Corp; Sandra Eskin , Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and Ann Marie McNamara , Vice President of Food Safety and Quality for Supply Chain, Manuf...

To get a taste of the discussions happening at the 2022 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Michael (Mike) Taylor, J.D. , Board Member Emeritus at Stop Foodborne Illness and the 2023 Recipient of Food Safety Magazine 's Distinguished Service Award; Steve Ardaugh, CEO and Founder of Eagle Protect; Mindy Brashears, Ph. D. , Professor of Food Safety and Public Health at Texas Tech Universi...

Angela Anandappa, Ph. D. is the Founding Director for the Alliance for Advanced Sanitation. She has researched and worked in food safety and genomics for over 20 years, having established the Food Systems Innovation Center at the University of Kentucky with the goal of providing resources for local food businesses. She is also a board member of the Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative. Dr....

Sally Powell Price is MilliporeSigma's Regulatory and Public Health Expert for Food and Beverage Safety Testing in North America. Previously, she served as Director of Lab Operations at a biotech startup in Boston and was the Food Lab Supervisor at the New York City Department of Health Public Health Laboratory. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Hamilton College, a M.S. in Microbiology and Immunolo...

Frank Yiannas is a food safety culture expert, a food safety executive at global brands, an author, and an adjunct professor. He served as the Deputy Commissioner of Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2018–February 2023. While at FDA, he was instrumental in creating the New Era for Smarter Food Safety blueprint and many other initiatives related to the imp...

Andre C. Pierce, M.P.A., REHS joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2022, serving as the Retail Food Protection Division Director in the Office of State Cooperative Programs (OSCP). He came to the position with 34 years of experience at a local health department in building relationships, sharing knowledge, and promoting quality improvement through the Voluntary Retail Prog...

Donald A. Prater, D.V.M. is Acting Director of the Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Since 2019, he has also served as Associate Commissioner for Imported Food Safety in OFPR, providing direction to and management of imported food safety programs. In addition, he served as a senior scientific advisor and technical expert on matters related to human...

Keya Mukherjee, Ph. D. , is a Food Safety Specialist with the Food Systems and Food Safety Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Dr. Mukherjee coordinates the division's work on food safety foresight, where she uses "futures thinking" to identify and evaluate new trends and drivers with varying impacts on the global food safety landscape. She has authored a...

Carl Joslyn is the Industrial Market Product Manager for industrial scales at the OHAUS Corporation. He has 30 years of experience in industrial marketing and has been with OHAUS for 23 years, primarily in his current role covering a wide range of scales and balances .   Dan Montone is the Industrial Market Product Manager for lab weighing and moisture analysis products at the OHAUS Corporation. D...

Martin Wiedmann, Ph. D., D.V.M , is the Gellert Family Professor of Food Safety at Cornell University. He received a veterinary degree and a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, and a Ph. D. in Food Science from Cornell University. His research interests focus on farm-to-table microbial food safety and quality and the application of molecular tools to s...

Susan Mayne, Ph. D. , is the Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Mayne leads CFSAN in developing and implementing policies, programs, and initiatives to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe and healthy for consumers, and that food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics sold in the U.S. are safe and properly labeled. U...

Norma Dawkins, Ph. D. is a professor, a research scientist, and the Department Chair of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. She has been actively involved in teaching and research in academic institutions at the national and international levels. She also worked as a senior scientist in the food industry. Her most recent work involves basic and applied resear...

Lone Jespersen, Ph. D. , Founder and Principal of food safety culture consultancy Cultivate, has dedicated the last 15 years of her life to bettering food manufacturing operations and studying how culture affects food safety performance. She holds a Ph. D. in Culture Enabled Food Safety and has created a network of worldwide collaborators within the food supply chain. After 11 years with Maple Lea...

Adam Friedlander is a Policy Analyst in FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network, where he helps lead the agency's efforts to advance strategic, tech-enabled traceability initiatives under the New Era of Smarter Food Safety. Through collaboration and by leveraging the power of data, he hopes to help transform the food system to become more digital, transparent, and safe fo...

Trevor Craig is the Corporate Director of Technical Training and Consulting at Microbac Laboratories. He is responsible for the direction of Microbac's food testing, consulting with food manufacturers across the country to help decision-makers optimize their businesses from lab to production to sale. He has been working in the food industry for more than 15 years. He previously worked at other lar...

John Gurrisi, R.E.H.S. , is Vice President of Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) at Fresh Express. He has broad food safety responsibility for growing, manufacturing, new product assessment, customer collaboration, supplier management, and regulatory compliance. He leads a multidisciplinary food safety and quality team covering the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and directs a multimillion-dollar implementat...

Jovana Kovacevic, Ph. D. is an Associate Professor and Food Safety Extension Specialist at Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center (OSU's FIC) in Portland, Oregon. In her current role, Dr. Kovacevic directs the food safety program at FIC and the Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Her research uses molecular methods...

In this episode of Food Safety Matters , we review the top food safety stories of 2022 and their impacts, the lessons learned, and what the future may hold for 2023 and beyond. Specifically, we discuss: COVID-19 and the resulting supply chain disruptions The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Agricultural Water Proposed Rule, also known as Subpart E of the Produce Safety Rule under the Fo...

Sandra Eskin was appointed Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in March 2021. In this role, Sandra leads the Office of Food Safety, overseeing the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which has regulatory oversight for ensuring that meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, wholesome, and accurately labeled. Prior to joining USDA, Sandra was th...