Meet the Food Safety Leadership Team

Meet FoodHandler’s Food Safety Leadership Team:

Jeannie Sneed, PhD, RD

Dr. Sneed has been an educator and researcher in foodservice operations and food safety for over 30 years. She retired as a professor and administrator from Kansas State University where she also served as a research professor for the Center of Excellence for Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition Programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. NSF International awarded her the Lifetime Achievement Award for Food Safety Education and Research in 2007. She holds a PhD in foodservice management with a minor in organizational behavior from The Ohio State University.

Catherine Strohbehn, PhD, RD, CP-FS

Dr. Strohbehn has been an educator and researcher in the areas of foodservice management and food safety since 1986. She is certified by the National Environmental Health Association as a professional in food safety. She is professor emeritus (August 2018) and extension specialist at Iowa State University where she also oversees the Food Safety Project website. She has developed many extension programs and materials in areas such as general food safety, buying local produce, and school nutrition operations. In 2010, she was recognized by NSF International with the Educator Award in 2010. She holds a PhD from Iowa State University.

Both Dr. Sneed and Dr. Strohbehn are registered dietitians with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and are registered ServSafe® instructors with the National Restaurant Association. They have received nearly $10 million in Federal, state, and private sources for research and education projects, with the majority focused on improving food safety in retail settings. They worked together at Iowa State University on several research and education projects focusing on food safety in schools, assisted living facilities, restaurants, and child care.

Contact them with any questions or comments at foodsafety@foodhandler.com

Meat Color and Doneness: Persistent Pinking

Late in June, my family and I were able to visit the Black Hills, an area of the country in which I have not had the opportunity to spend much time.  One evening, as we dined at a local restaurant, I observed a table across the dining room sending back a dinner.  While I couldn’t hear the entire conversation and I certainly wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, it was apparent that the customer was unhappy with the cooking of their hamburger and was sending it back because it was too pink in the middle.  That immediately brought to my mind the phenomenon known as persistent pinking.  A term I became familiar with because of work done by some colleagues here at Kansas State, which they present each summer to a group of foodservice operators who join us on-campus for an in-depth week-long look at all things food safety.

Quat Binding – Why this Can Have a Disastrous Impact on Your Sanitation Program.

In June, I had the opportunity to represent FoodHandler and speak on food safety behavior for customers of Martin Bros. Distributing in Waterloo, Iowa.  One of the questions that was asked caught me a little off guard. The question was about quat binding.  It caught me off guard not because it was a bad question, but only because it was not something I had previously been asked nor had not yet been exposed to the phenomenon. However, I soon learned that in certain jurisdictions, it is resulting in changes to how sanitizing cloths are to be stored in sanitizing buckets (or not) in the foodservice industry. When I returned home from the trip, I had to dig into it to learn about what quat binding is and how it might impact foodservice operations.

Are Grades for Foodservice Inspections a Good Idea?

I generally try to stay away from controversial topics in my blog, but this is one I thought it might be interesting to discuss. Occasionally on my travels, I will come across a state or a local jurisdiction that requires foodservice inspection scores be posted in the window of the establishment.  The idea is to allow would-be customers the ability to see how the foodservice operation in which they are about to eat scored on their latest health inspection.