It has been reported that as of this week, Chipotle Mexican Grill has welcomed Kerry Bridges as the company’s new vice president of food safety. 

According to her LinkedIn profile, Bridges has held multiple food safety roles, most recently as Walmart’s senior director of supplier food safety—a position she held for nearly 5 years. There, her responsibilities included food safety oversight of tens of thousands of Walmart’s, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Clubs food suppliers. She was also charged with researching and assessing new and emerging issues, food safety specifications for Walmart Private Brand food items, and a number of critical regulatory compliance issues also come under her purview.

Besides consulting and a couple of other roles, Bridges worked in laboratory and quality assurance for Jack in the Box between 2004 and 2007. Bridges earned her bachelor's degree in food science and technology in 2003 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Bridges is a past president of the International Association for the Southern California Affiliate of Food Protection, and a past board member of the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Bridges will be assuming the role formerly held by James Marsden, who joined the company in 2016 to help the restaurant recover from a food safety crisis, a problem that Chipotle has encountered again and again over the past few years. Marsden's retirement was announced in October.

Related article:
Chipotle's Head of Food Safety to Exit in 2019

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