Mike Taylor is a senior fellow at the Meridian Institute and an advisor to the Food and Society Program at the Aspen Institute. His primary interests are food safety globally and food security in Africa and other developing regions.
 
Until June 1, 2016, Mr. Taylor was Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He led the comprehensive overhaul of FDA’s food safety program Congress mandated in the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 and oversaw all of FDA’s food-related activities, including its nutrition, labeling, food additive, dietary supplement and animal drug programs. 
 
Mr. Taylor served previously at FDA as a staff attorney and as Deputy Commissioner for Policy (1991–1994) and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety (1994–1996). Prior to joining FDA in July 2009, he spent nearly a decade in academia conducting food safety, food security and public health policy research, most recently at George Washington University’s School of Public Health. He also served during that time as a Senior Fellow at the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, where he conducted research on U.S. policies affecting agricultural development and food security in Africa.  
 
In the private sector, Mr. Taylor founded the food and drug practice and was a partner in the law firm of King & Spalding. He also was vice president for public policy at Monsanto Company and served on the boards of the Alliance to End Hunger and RESOLVE, Inc. He is currently a board member of STOP Foodborne Illness and Clear Labs, Inc. He is a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Virginia School of Law.

In this episode, we speak to Mike Taylor about:

• His role at the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service following Jack-In-the-Box, when he advocated for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) for meat and poultry and Escherichia coli O157:H7 being labeled an adulterant.
• His tour of the country in support of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation and how comments effected rulemaking
• How after a 10-year break, academic kibitzing about implementing a modern risk-based system led to his tenure at FDA. 
• His advocacy for a single food agency and HACCP for all foods. 
• How he believes we’ve turned the corner from reaction to prevention in the age of FSMA. 
• His work on food safety and security issues in Africa. 
• His role at the Aspen Institute and oversight of the next wave of gene technology. 
• How the conversation has changed from what we should do to how we are going to do it. 
• His thoughts about the important role of food safety culture. 

 
Also in the Episode:
Checking in with Adriene Cooper, senior event manager for the Food Safety Summit on their Food Safety Theater programming at this years’ Process Expo. 

Sponsored by:

SafetyChain suite of food safety and quality management solutions - Supplier Compliance, Food Safety, Food Quality, CIP Optimization & Material Loss - provide the program visibility, data intelligence, and tools needed to more effectively manage your food safety and quality operations.

With SafetyChain, companies throughout the food supply chain are more effectively reducing risks, controlling costs, and ensuring everyday compliance

Learn How SafetyChain Can Help Your FSQA Operations Achieve Better Results
Watch this video for a quick intro to SafetyChain’s FSQA solutions 
Access SafetyChain Overview datasheet 

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, a master's degree in poultry science, and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Arkansas. Her area of expertise is in meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM). 

Brady Carter, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer at Carter Scientific Solutions. He specializes in water activity, moisture sorption, shelf-life stability, plant science, and wheat production and quality. He has 23 years of experience in research and development and previously was a Research Professor at Washington State University focusing on wheat end-use quality. Dr. Carter has pioneered work in using dynamic isotherms to investigate product stability and establish critical water activities for optimal shelf life. He also specializes in shelf-life loss and effective utilization of instrumentation to address product safety and quality issues. Dr. Carter holds a Ph.D. in Crop Science and Food Engineering and an M.S degree in Cereal Chemistry and Crop Science from Washington State University, as well as a B.A. degree in Botany from Weber State University.

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.