FMI Appoints Director, Food Safety Programs

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI), based in Arlington, Va., has named Josh Katz its new director of food safety programs. Reporting to Hilary Thesmar, FMI’s VP of food safety programs, Katz will play a major role in the development and implementation of critical food safety initiatives.

“Josh brings to FMI more than 13 years of robust academic and professional experience, including in-depth knowledge of designing food safety and quality systems,” noted Thesmar. “Food safety is of upmost importance to our members, and Josh’s farm-to-fork experience will become a valuable asset to our retailers.”

Katz recently earned his doctorate at University of California-Davis in nutritional biology, specializing in human health risk assessment. During his studies, he wrote or co-wrote five publications probing the effect of diet on such consumer issues as food safety (pesticides, acrylamide, cyanide) and nutrition. Before earning his degree, Katz spent eight years in the food safety assessment industry, first with The Steritech Group and then with Davis Fresh Technologies.