Hal King, Ph.D., is a recognized leader in public health. He's worked in government, industry, and education. Currently, Hal is the managing partner at Active Food Safety, a new advisory services and digital products company. He is also the founder and CEO of Public Health Innovations, a public health strategy and design company. In addition, Hal serves as an associate professor of public health at the University of Georgia.

As a public health professional, Hal has investigated foodborne and other disease outbreaks at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, he's performed federally funded research on the causation and prevention of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. Hal also worked in the prevention of intentional adulteration of foods and food defense for the Army Force Health Protection. Another one of his prior roles was as the director of food and product safety at Chick-fil-A. There, he designed and led the company's food safety management program for 11 years.

Hal is the author and co-author of several books, articles, and chapters on public health interventions, including safe food manufacturing and food allergen controls in foodservice. His newest book, Food Safety Management Systems, is published as part of the International Association for Food Protection's Food Microbiology Series by Springer.

Hal was the recipient of the 2018 NSF International Food Safety Leadership and Innovation Award. He was our featured guest in Ep. 14. Also, Hal penned the cover story in our August/September 2020 issue: Breaking the Chain of Infectious Disease Transmission in a Retail Foodservice Business. Finally, Hal is a member of the Food Safety Magazine editorial advisory board.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Hal [21:34] about:

• What compelled him to write a new book about foodborne illnesses and outbreaks in the foodservice industry
• Why the content of his book did not change as the pandemic emerged
• What food safety management systems are...and what they are not
• Whether COVID has really changed the process of food safety
• The value and purpose of third-party audits and health inspections
• Foodborne illness risk factors that cause outbreaks
• Making the change from in-person training to digital
• How demographics play in role in the future success of restaurants
• Air recirculation and air disinfection
• Common staff mistakes being made at the retail and foodservice level
• The future of food safety management systems in restaurants

Bob Ferguson's Food Safety Insights [13:40]
Bob joins us to discuss his article featured in our August/September 2020 issue.

Want more from Bob Ferguson? Find more of his articles and podcast segments.

News Mentioned in This Episode
OSHA and FDA Develop Checklist to Protect Food Industry Employees Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic [4:45]  
NAMI and OSHA Team Up to Fight COVID-19 in Meatpacking and Processing Plants [5:59]
USDA Announces Public Meeting on Salmonella: State of Science [10:36] 

American Frozen Food Institutes (AFFI)'s response to China's claims of detecting coronavirus on food, food surfaces, or packaging 
AFFI's FAQs 
Video response

To get a taste of the discussions that were happening at the 2026 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Roberta Wagner, M.Sc., Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA); Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and Sandra Eskin, J.D., CEO of STOP Foodborne Illness; Jacob Nelson, Asset Protection Sales Manager at the Sherwin-Williams Company and Feraas Aiameh, Food and Beverage Marketing Manager at the Sherwin-Williams Company; Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of  the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA's) Office of Microbiological Food Safety, Vanessa Coffman, Ph.D., Director of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness, and Lone Jespersen, Ph.D., Founder and Principal of Cultivate SA; and Cindy Jiang, Senior Director, Global Food Safety Risk Management, Global Supply Chain at McDonald's (retired).

To get a taste of the discussions that were happening at the 2026 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Jeremy Zenlea, M.B.A., Vice President and Head of Health and Safety for EG America and Laurie Farmer, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Office of Retail Food Protection; David Clifford, M.B.A., Director of Food Safety at Nestlé USA and Sara Mortimore, M.Sc., Founder of Sara Mortimore LLC and formerly Vice President for Food Safety at Walmart; Frank Curto, Ph.D., Vice President of Operations at Ecowize North America; and Drew McDonald, Senior Vice President of Quality, Food Safety, and Regulatory Affairs for Taylor Fresh Foods and Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of FDA’s Office of Microbiological Food Safety.

Larry Keener, CFS, PA is President and CEO of International Product Safety Consultants Inc. and an internationally regarded microbiologist and process authority in the food industry. His areas of expertise range from applied food microbiology to the development and application of novel preservation technologies.

In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Jenny Du, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Apeel Sciences, about Apeel—a clean alternative to traditional post-harvest produce coatings and treatments—its transparent approach to disrupting an $11 billion industry.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Sandro Tarchini of the Cardano Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the blockchain ecosystem, about the applications for blockchain throughout the food supply chain and how it can improve farm-to-retail traceability and transparency.

Suzette Stalker is Director of FSQA Program Compliance at FreshRealm Inc. Formerly, she served as Director of Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory compliance at Target Corporation. At Target, Suzette was responsible for food safety standards and programs, covering nearly 2,000 stores and more than 60 supply chain facilities. Her work encompassed owned brand supplier manufacturing facilities, product labeling, produce farms, supply chain facilities, retail stores, and managing food recalls. Previously, Suzette led teams to develop and execute comprehensive internal audits of food safety and operational risks across Target. 

Sabrina Terada is the Manager for Food Safety Risk Management and Measurement at Yum! Brands. She is a seasoned professional in food safety and quality assurance with extensive experience at Yum! Brands, where her roles have included Manager of Global Food Safety Risk Management and Measurement and Manager of Global FSQA. In these positions, Sabrina held responsibilities supporting the Food Safety Governance Framework, coaching, and assisting business units with crisis management.