Dr. Robert (Bob) Powitz is the principal and technical director of R.W.Powitz & Associates. There, he specializes in forensic sanitation services to industry, law firms, insurance companies, and government agencies. Bob has dedicated his career to food safety having worked for over 54 years to study, develop, and implement the most effective sanitation practices.

Bob has served as director of environmental health and safety and biological safety officer at Wayne State University where he also held the title of Adjunct Associate Professor in the College of Engineering. He also served as director of biological safety and environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as health director for five different towns in Connecticut. 

He is currently the public health consultant for the Bucks County, PA, Department of Corrections.

Bob received his undergraduate education in agronomy and plant pathology from the State University of New York and the University of Georgia. He holds a M.Sc. in Public Health with a specialty in institutional environmental health and a Ph.D. in environmental health, with specialties in environmental microbiology and epidemiology from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He also has a very long list of honors including, most impressively, a spot on the Food Safety Magazine Editorial Advisory Board.

​In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Bob [35:25] about:

• The overuse of chemicals and sanitizers and why relying too much on them is a problem
• Faulty ventilation systems, condensation, and leaks—how these problems can lead to the active growth of biofilm
• His plan of action when he sees chemicals being used incorrectly in a food plant
• Integrated cleaning and measurement
• New clean-in-place methods, steam, dry ice, carbon dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, and other green ways to clean
• Why the regulatory community needs to buy into green cleaning methods
• Assessing a cleaning and sanitizing methodologies
• Why more cleaning products need to be evaluated to a standard like NSF International
• Innovating cleaning technologies that have originated in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and elsewhere.
• An example of a time he could not find the source of confirmed Listeria contamination in a ready-to-eat processing facility
• His advice to future sanitarians

Bob Powitz's Articles in Food Safety Magazine
Checking Field Thermometer Accuracy 
Chemical-Free Cleaning: Revisited 
Non-EPA Registered Cleaners and Sanitizers for Use in Food Production Facilities and Retail Food Establishments

Want more from Bob Powitz? Find more of his articles on Food Safety Magazine.

Bob Ferguson's Food Safety Insights [25:19]
Bob joins us to discuss FDA's comments regarding survey results that appeared in the April/May article:
What Industry and FDA are Thinking about FSMA Implementation—Part II

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

​News Mentioned in This Episode
VIDEO: Burger King Employee Caught Cleaning Table with Floor Mop [4:50]
FDA Holds First-Ever Public Hearing on Regulating CBD Products ​[9:41]
Kroger and Costco Frozen Berries Recalled a Month After FDA Announces Surprise Testing [21:28]

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.