In this BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters, hygiene expert Paul Barnhill tells us all about Meritech's innovative Employee Hygiene Toolbox created in partnership with Food Safety Magazine.

In this BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Paul Barnhill, chief technology officer and head engineer at Meritech, the leader in automated employee hygiene. He has over 28 years of experience working with professionals in food manufacturing, healthcare, and foodservice. He understands the challenges these industries face when creating hygiene programs and how to overcome these obstacles through education and automated technologies.

Paul often speaks on best practices in hand hygiene, footwear sanitation, and the science behind pathogen removal. Helping food processing and packaging facilities produce safe and healthy products through hygiene excellence is a passion for him.

Prior to joining Meritech, Paul worked at Medtronic, Inc. a leader in cardiovascular equipment and implantable devices, in their hemostasis division as a mechanical designer within the R&D department. Paul earned his accreditation degree from the American Institute for Design & Drafting. 

In this BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Paul about:

• The most prevalent challenges with traditional handwashing and instant sanitizers
• The advantages of automated handwashing
• Meritech's CleanTech automated handwashing system
• Often overlooked steps in handwashing
• The Meritech Employee Hygiene Toolbox--what's included and who it's for
• Common problems with hygienic zoning and why it matters for handwashing
• Why creating a food safety culture goes beyond basic regulatory requirements and why that matters
• How foodservice is experimenting with new handwashing concepts

Resources
Employee Hygiene Toolbox
How to Wash Your Hands Properly: A Step by Step Handwashing Guide with Hygiene Expert Paul Barnhill
Meritech.com 

Sponsored by:

Brittney Miller is President of Manchester Farms, America's first quail farm. What started over 40 years ago as a backyard hobby has grown into a nationally recognized, family-owned business that produces more than 80,000 quail weekly, raising them responsibly, without antibiotics or hormones, and shipping premium products to chefs, retailers, and home cooks across the country. Brittney's story is about more than farming: it is about stewardship, innovation, and family values. She combines her passion for sustainable agriculture with modern food safety standards. Her SQF Level 2 certified, HACCP-compliant farm sets the benchmark for quality in specialty poultry.

Mindy Brashears, Ph.D. is the USDA's Under Secretary for Food Safety. Dr. Brashears previously served as Under Secretary for Food Safety from 2020–2021, and Deputy Under Secretary in 2019. Dr. Brashears returns to USDA from Texas Tech University, where she was a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Public Health, the Roth and Letch Family Endowed Chair for Food Safety, and the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence.

Justin Ransom, Ph.D. is Administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), where he oversees FSIS' mission to ensure the safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling of America's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and processed egg products. He leads the agency's modernization efforts, streamlining inspection systems, strengthening public health protections, and advancing science-based policies. 

Elena Medo, M.B.A. is an entrepreneur, researcher, and inventor who has spent nearly 40 years transforming neonatal care through leadership and innovation. She has secured numerous patents, raised over $40 million across four companies, and built a legacy of firsts, including the first commercially available shelf-stable donor breast milk product; the first milk bank owned exclusively by nursing mothers; and the first medical device designed to analyze human milk. Today, as CEO and co-founder of Leonie Health PBC, established in 2023 with her daughter, Adrianne Weir, Elena is developing a revolutionary product that replicates the immune properties of colostrum to protect preterm infants against the three deadliest neonatal infections—necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAC), and sepsis—which together claim the lives of more than 30,000 hospitalized infants per year.

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as 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 meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM).

Lyle Probst is the CEO of NomadX and an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in operations, product development, engineering, biodefense, and advanced technology commercialization.

Alex LeBeau, Ph.D., M.P.H., CIH is the owner of Exposure Assessment Consulting LLC in Orlando, Florida, where he offers toxicology, industrial hygiene, risk assessment, and public health consulting services. Over his 13-year career, he has evaluated environmental and occupational exposures and has performed toxicological evaluations of chemicals and biological agents. He has also performed human health risk assessments of contaminated sites using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulatory guidelines and has monitored remediation activities at those sites. To evaluate the exposure impacts on building occupants, he has performed indoor environmental quality assessments, including Legionella and water quality assessments, at healthcare, residential, and industrial facilities.