Global public health and safety organization NSF International presented its Food Safety Leadership Awards for 2017 at the Food Safety Summit in Rosemont, Illinois.
The awards recognize individuals and organizations for real and lasting food safety improvements. Established in 2004, the Food Safety Leadership Awards encourage the development of educational programs, processes, and technologies to advance food safety.
To select the recipients, each year an independent panel of food safety experts from academia, industry, and the regulatory community review nominations from around the world. Nominations are evaluated on the basis of innovation, impact, and contribution to the advancement of food safety.
The winners for 2017 are as follows:
2017 NSF Food Safety Leadership Lifetime Achievement Awards
- Jack J. Guzewich, MPH—Consultant and trainer in foodborne disease epidemiology and food emergency response.
Over his 46-year career, Guzewich has been a national leader in food safety regulation and the epidemiology of foodborne disease. Guzewich is a proponent of environmental assessment including root cause analysis to investigate the causes of foodborne disease outbreaks and food contamination events. Most of his career was spent investigating to understand how food becomes contaminated with foodborne pathogens and the ecology of pathogens in various environments.
- David M. Theno, Ph.D.—CEO/CBIO, Gray Dog Partners, Inc.
Throughout his 40-year career, Theno’s work set new standards for food-safety leadership and management in food production and in the foodservice industry. Theno has been instrumental in demonstrating how the scientific community and the meat/food industry can work together to solve food safety challenges.
2017 NSF Food Safety Leadership Award for Innovation
- Lee-Ann Jaykus, Ph.D.—William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Food Science, North Carolina State University.
Dr. Jaykus has over 30 years’ experience advancing the science of food safety through applied infection prevention and control science—especially regarding norovirus. Jaykus has collaborated on many large, multi-institutional projects on foodborne pathogens and food virology, including developing methods to detect human enteric virus contamination in foods and environmental samples, and better understanding the dynamics of virus transmission through the food chain. Jaykus serves as the Scientific Director of the USDA-NIFA Food Virology Collaborative—a team of 30-plus scientists representing 18 academic and government institutions working to develop improved tools, skills, and capacity to understand and control foodborne virus disease risks.