Review of the Methodology Proposed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service for Followup Surveillance of In-Commerce Businesses: A Letter Report (2009)

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APPENDIX H Committee Biographies John N. Sofos, Chair, is University Distinguished Professor, director of the Center for Meat Safety and Quality, and leader of the Food Safety Cluster of the Colorado State University Infectious Diseases SuperCluster. Dr. Sofos also serves as a scientific editor of the Journal of Food Protection. His current research interests are related to sources, ecology, and extent of bacterial pathogen contamination of foods; procedures to reduce contamination and to inactivate or inhibit bacterial pathogens; stress adaptation of pathogenic bacteria; resistance of microorganisms to preservation procedures; and methods of sampling and detection of bacteria in foods. He has served on numerous national and international committees, task forces, and food-safety advisory boards, including the U.S. National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods, the Institute of Medicine Committee on Review of the USDA E. coli O157:H7 Farm-to-Table Process Risk Assessment, a task force on natural antimicrobials for the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (as chair), and the World Health Organization Salmonella in Poultry Risk Assessment (as a reviewer). He has received Distinguished Research Awards from the American Meat Science Association and the American Society of Animal Science. In 2001, he received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the USDA Secretary’s Honor Award for Superior Service. Dr. Sofos received his BS in agriculture from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and his MS in animal science and PhD in food science from the University of Minnesota. LeAnn B. Chuboff is the technical director at the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), a food- safety initiative of the Food Marketing Institute. The Food Marketing Institute develops and promotes policies, programs, and forums supporting its members in government relations, food safety and defense, public and consumer information, research and education, and industry cooperation. The SQFI is one of the four approved food-safety standards through the Global Food Safety Initiative. As technical director, Ms. Chuboff reviews the standard and supplemental material to ensure technical accuracy and reflection of current industry issues. Ms. Chuboff is the former director of science and regulatory relations for the National Restaurant Association Solutions and an active member of the International Association for Food Protection’s Food Law Professional Development Group. Ms. Chuboff is a former auditor, having worked for several years for a consulting firm that provided audit services for Boston Market and other food-service and food-manufacturing companies. She also has experience at Long John Silver's, where she served as an auditor for the company's nonseafood division. Ms. Chuboff received a BS in consumer food science from Iowa State University. 35 

36 REVIEW OF IN-COMMERCE SURVEILLANCE Margaret D. Hardin is an associate professor of food microbiology in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University. She conducts a research program in food microbiology that includes research on product safety, security, and quality encompassing deterioration, spoilage, and public-health hazards caused by bacterial growth and survival in foods of animal origin. Previously, Dr. Hardin was employed in the meat industry as director of food safety with Sara Lee Foods, director of food safety with Smithfield, and director of food safety and quality assurance with Boar’s Head Brand. She also worked as director of pork safety with the National Pork Producers Council and as a research scientist and instructor in hazard analysis and critical control points with the National Food Processors Association. Dr. Hardin’s professional memberships include the American Society for Microbiology, the International Association for Food Protection, the Institute for Food Science, the Society for Applied Microbiology, and the American Meat Science Association. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Food Microbiology and of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine. Dr. Hardin has served as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee for Meat and Poultry Inspection. She received her PhD in food microbiology from Texas A&M University. Juliana M. Ruzante is the risk-analysis program manager for the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, MD. She worked for the University of Guelph and the Public Health Agency of Canada in developing and operationalizing a multifactorial framework to rank foodborne risks by using multicriteria decision analysis and at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security in developing training material on animal health and food safety. She also worked as a quality-assurance specialist for one of the largest pork and poultry processing companies in Brazil. She was a member of the Food Safety Research Consortium and has served as an expert at the meeting organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Heath Organization on the risks associated with Enterobacter sakazakii in followup formula. Dr. Ruzante received her DVM from the University of São Paulo and her MS in preventive veterinary medicine and PhD in comparative pathology from the University of California, Davis. William H. Sperber serves as global ambassador for food protection on a postretirement basis for Cargill. During his employment with major food companies, he became one of the world’s experts in designing and controlling the microbiological safety and quality of foods. Hired in 1972 to conduct the first hazard analyses for consumer food products in Pillsbury’s novel hazard analysis and critical control points system, Dr. Sperber led Pillsbury’s microbiology and food- safety programs until he joined Cargill in 1995. A former chair of the Institute of Food Technologists Division of Food Microbiology and of the Food Microbiology Research Conference, he was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods five times by the U.S. secretary of agriculture. He was also appointed in 2000 to the FAO–WHO roster of experts for microbiological risk assessments. In 2001, the International Association for Food Protection presented Dr. Sperber with the Harold Barnum Industry Award; and in 2002, the American Meat Institute Foundation presented him with its inaugural Scientific Achievement Award. Sperber received his BS in zoology and chemistry and his MS and PhD in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. 

LETTER REPORT 37 Ewen C. D. Todd is a professor of advertising, public relations, and retailing at Michigan State University. In that role, he conducts research with faculty in different disciplines for understanding consumer food-safety preferences, better food-recall strategies, improved hygiene in child-care centers, labeling and communication issues, risk assessment and management, and organizing conferences on harmonization of Listeria regulations and discussing issues surrounding consumption of raw milk and raw milk cheese. Dr. Todd has served as the director of the Food Safety Policy Center and the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center at Michigan State University, and he is adjunct professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. In those positions, Dr. Todd directed policy initiatives in food safety and coordinated research in microbiology, toxicology, epidemiology, risk assessment, and social science. He was formerly in the Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, where he was a research scientist for 33 years, working on methods development related to pathogens in foods, foodborne-disease investigation and reporting, costs and surveillance of disease, illnesses caused by seafood toxins, and risk assessment of foodborne pathogens, such as E. coli O157 in hamburgers, Salmonella enteritidis in eggs, E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce, Listeria monocytogenes in cabbage, and Vibrio vulnificus in oysters. He served on the FAO–WHO expert consultation for producing a risk assessment for L. monocytogenes in ready- to-eat foods. He is a recipient of the Government of Canada Distinctive Service Award for Extraordinary Teamwork and support to the Science and Technology Community, the Excellence in Science Award for 1998 by Health Canada, the Deputy Minister's Award of Team Excellence, and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada Gold Medal for Pure and Applied Science. He is also a Fellow of the International Association for Food Protection and a University Outreach and Engagement Senior Fellow at Michigan State University. Dr. Todd received his BSc in bacteriology and his PhD in bacterial systematics from Glasgow University, Scotland. Christopher A. Waldrop is director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. From 1999 to 2001, he worked as a health-education volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in a rural village in Ghana, where he performed health education in water and sanitation issues. In his current position, he has advocated for alcohol-facts labeling on alcoholic beverages, a traceability system for fresh produce, and other consumer-related food-safety issues. He has a degree in advertising from Texas Tech University and a MPH from Johns Hopkins University. Richard A. Williams is the managing director of the Regulatory Studies Program and the Government Accountability Project at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. Before joining the Mercatus Center, he served as the director for social sciences at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in the Food and Drug Administration for 27 years. He also served as an adviser to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and taught economics at Washington and Lee University. Dr. Williams is an expert in benefit–cost analysis and risk analysis, particularly associated with food safety and nutrition. He has published in Risk Analysis and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and has addressed numerous international governments, including those of the United Kingdom, South Korea, Yugoslavia, and Australia. Dr. Williams received his BS in business administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and his MA and PhD in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.