ARLINGTON, Va. — Josh Katz, PhD, has joined the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) as director of food safety programs. Dr. Katz will help develop and implement food safety initiatives critical to the retail community. He will report to Hilary Thesmar, PhD, RD, vice-president of food safety programs.

“Josh brings to FMI more than 13 years of robust academic and professional experience, including in-depth knowledge of designing food safety and quality systems,” Dr. Thesmar said. “Food safety is of upmost importance to our members, and Josh’s farm-to-fork experience will become a valuable asset to our retailers.”

Dr. Katz’s most recent work includes earning his doctorate at the Univ. of California Davis in nutritional biology, specializing in human health risk assessment. During this time, he produced five publications, three as first author and two as co-author, investigating the impact of diet on consumer issues, such as food safety (pesticides, acrylamide, cyanide) and nutrition. Prior to earning his degree, he spent eight years in the food safety assessment industry, first with The Steritech Group and then with Davis Fresh Technologies.

Dr. Katz received a bachelor’s degree in food science from California Polytechnic State Univ. and a doctorate in nutritional biology from UC-Davis.