Al Baroudi, Ph.D.
VP, Quality Assurance & Food Safety
The Cheesecake Factory Inc.
Dr. Al Baroudi is a premier food scientist who lectures around the globe on Food Safety in conferences and has been a keynote speaker at many meetings. He conducted workshops, published White Papers and introduced HACCP program to developing countries on behalf of the US government. He appeared on several TV/radio talk shows as a food safety expert. He authored many food safety articles in different food magazines.
In 2008, Dr. Baroudi joined The Cheesecake Factory, Calabasas, CA with broad experience in the food industry as their QA & Food Safety executive. An agricultural engineer with MS degree in Food Science and Technology/Microbiology from University of California at Davis, and a Ph.D. in Food Processing and Technology/Regulatory Affairs from The Ohio State University. He started his career in Columbus, OH, and became the head of QA/FS (Snacks & Dairy) at Borden Foods, before moving to California as the Corporate VP QA & Food Safety - Regulatory Affairs for the Vons/Safeway Supermarkets, in Arcadia. Dr. Baroudi then served as VP QA and Technical Services, for Harry & David Corporation, in Medford, OR., before becoming the Chief Scientific, Health and Regulatory Affairs Officer at Yum! Brands in Louisville, KY.
He later founded and served as President of the Food Safety Institute, International (FSI), where Remote Video Auditing (RVA) system was developed, introduced and implemented industry wide for food safety and animal welfare audits. RVA became one of the technologies of choice for 3rd party and Health Department audits during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Dr. Baroudi introduced the ozone technology as a pathogen kill step on produce for The Cheesecake Factory restaurants and their suppliers. He was instrumental in passing the Food Facilities Sanitization Bill “AB 1427” in California State Assembly that cleared the way for the ozone to be approved in California Cal Code (2012). His specialization has also given him the opportunity to train food safety inspectors in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and many federal, state and local health agencies.
Dr. Baroudi served on the E. coli O157:H7 government/industry Blue Ribbon Task Force Committee during the Jack-In-The-Box meat outbreak and then on the Board of Directors of the International HACCP Alliance representing The Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Dr. Baroudi also served on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) - University of Georgia, and on the Board of Directors of the Abound Food Care. He is a “Certified Food Scientist” CFS.
Dr. Baroudi was elected and served as the Chairman, of the Food Safety Advisory Council, LA County in California. He is a member of the Educational Advisory Board (EAB) of the Food Safety Summit Group. He served On GS1 Community Advisory Board (CAB). He is the Chairman at the NRA Food Safety & Quality Assurance Expert Exchange Steering Committee, and the Co-Chair for the NRF Food Safety Task Force Committee. He served on the Conference of Food Protection (CFP) as voting member on Council I, II, & III and on their several committees.
Dr. Baroudi was nominated twice for the Global IFT “Fellow Award” and he is the recipient of the Sani “Food Safety Champion Award”, the Southern California – Institute of Food Technologist (SC-IFT) “Distinguished Achievement Award” and the Sani “Outstanding Food Safety Program Innovation Award”. He Developed a new snack product line "Ketchip” that exceeded sales projections, rolled over to all manufacturing plants, heralded in the Wall Street Journal and resulted in receipt of Borden’s President Award (1983).
In 2022, Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) named, Dr. Baroudi as one of the top 50 most influential restaurant executives in the country. In the same year, The National Restaurant Association (NRA) presented Dr. Baroudi their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Leader in Food Safety.