This special BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters focuses on Allergens. Concerns about food allergens have been around now for quite some time, and the food industry has done a respectable job of proactively guarding against unintended food allergens in their products. However, with the introduction of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), continued globalization of the food supply and increased regulatory activities, food manufacturers will need to keep diligent in their food allergen control plans.

To explore how the food industry can improve their odds of avoiding allergen risks, Food Safety Magazine’s Editorial Director, Barbara VanRenterghem, speaks with Tim Hendra from Neogen. Tim has been with Neogen for 21 years, specializing in diagnostic applications such as rapid testing and allergens. He has been a very active member of technical committees at various food industry associations, such as the Food Allergen Research and Resource Program (FARRP) and International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), and has co-authored several food allergen handbooks.

In this episode, we speak to Neogen’s Tim Headra about:

• Why allergens continue to be such an important issue for food manufacturers.
• Food allergen trends and recalls
• Risks to consumers and the business in the food industry
• How manufacturers and retailers can work together when allergen recalls occur
• Importance of transparency (for manufacturers)
• Reasons for allergen recalls other than mislabeling
• What the “Big 8” allergens mean on a global scale, and what allergens in other countries mean for the U.S.
• Efforts to harmonize allergen lists and threshold levels between countries
• Detecting allergens vs. proteins, and the relationship between the two
• FSMA and food allergen control programs, types of allergen testing kits and methods
• Limitations with PCR tests and LC-MS methods vs. ELISA tests
• What food manufacturers can do when they are faced with allergen issues

Resources

Visit Neogen’s Allergen website for information on Neogen’s complete line of allergen solutions. 
Food Allergen Monitoring Handbook
Validation and Verification Handbook

To speak to a Neogen representative call 1-800-234-5333

Sponsored by:

Miguel Ramirez is a seasoned food manufacturing executive with more than three decades of operational leadership experience in the food industry. He currently serves as Vice President of Operations at Fresca Foods Inc. in Louisville, Colorado, where he has held progressive leadership roles over the past 13 years including Plant Manager, Director of Operations, and his current VP role. Prior to Fresca Foods, Miguel spent over 24 years with Butterball LLC, where he managed more than 12 production lines across a two-shift operation with a workforce of 350 employees.

Madisen Hodgson, M.S. is a food safety and quality assurance professional with nearly a decade of progressive experience spanning food manufacturing, retail bakery, beverage, and airline catering environments. She currently serves as a Quality Assurance Manager for a protein and nutritional bar manufacturer in Denver, Colorado, where she oversees the full food safety management system and leads a multi-shift quality assurance team across multiple production lines.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to WHO’s Dr. Elaine Borghi about the new global foodborne disease burden estimates, updates to the methodology, key insights from the data, and the importance of using data to target food safety interventions, aligning with the WFSD theme “From Burden to Solutions—Safe Food Everywhere.”

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.