J. David Legan, PhD
Director of Science
David earned his Ph.D. in Food Technology from the University of Reading in the UK by modeling the ecology of mixed microbial populations, and then moved to Campden BRI in a variety of microbiological food safety research and client service roles. During that time, he was project lead for the Bacillus component of the UK’s pathogen modeling program. He moved again to Nabisco Research in New Jersey where he ran the corporate microbiology lab and developed a program of preservation technology development and microbial modeling. After the Kraft Foods acquisition, he moved to Chicago to work on Food Safety and Preservation research, and through modeling and validation studies:
- Optimized Oscar Mayer’s use of lactate and diacetate and their naturally cultured alternatives as Listeria-control agents in Ready to Eat meats
- Specified process conditions central to Oscar Mayer’s commercial launch of High Pressure Pasteurization of naturally cured RTE meats
David had responsibility for the Kraft cultures R&D group, developed a partnership to explore microwave sterilization leading to several patents, and led a program that developed an internal proprietary natural antimicrobial commercialized in several Kraft products. Technologies from his group supported approximately $4 billion in annual sales.
After years as a microbiology "client", he is now back in the "provider" role as Director of Science at Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories, Inc., by way of the Covance Food Solutions group based in Madison, WI, which he joined in 2016. In this role, he ensures appropriate method validation, explores new testing technologies, and fields multiple complicated food microbiology questions.
Products that his team has evaluated or developed and launched include:
- The 3M MDS platform in the Madison microbiology laboratory
- Flow cytometry for enumeration of probiotics
- Strain-level confirmation of probiotic identification using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
- Next-generation sequencing using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies GridION sequencing platform for microbial identification and microbiome analysis
Below are resources from David:
Eurofins SFA is excited to now offer a new FD&C Dye Screen. The FDA approved nine artificial dye molecules for use in foods, drugs, and cosmetics (with some limitations), in addition to a variety of naturally sourced colorants.
Food fraud, also known as economically motivated adulteration, is widespread worldwide. Food fraud involves deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, labeling, product information or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. Food fraud can adversely impact consumer health, product quality, and brand reputation.
Your goal is to manufacture a safe product that meets the claims on your label.
How are you ensuring that your finished product will do this?
Proactively, or retroactively?
Putting a proactive plan in place to assess ingredient safety and quality is key to producing finished products that meet all of your quality standards. Having a partnership with an accredited, independent (third-party) laboratory just in case something goes wrong is a must.
Whole-Genome Sequencing aids in tracking foodborne illnesses and drug resistance in food pathogens. Read on to learn how WGS ensures food safety and quality.
We are proud to share the publication of a new scientific article from our team overseas. This article details the optimization of the NMR method, and the validation of the enhancements made. This unique analysis can differentiate agave inulin/syrup/alcohol from cane or corn adulterants.
The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), requires domestic and foreign food facilities registered with section 415 of the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic (FD&C) Act to enact risk-based preventive controls. This document provides information on the required analysis of hazards and risk-based preventive controls to minimize or prevent identified hazards.
What are osmophilic yeasts and why do they matter? Christine Garduno from our Eurofins Microbiology lab in Fresno, CA discusses this topic in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
Eurofins Scientific was founded in 1987 with four employees to market a ground-breaking testing technology using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to detect whether sugar had been added during the winemaking process to increase alcohol content. In the following years, the patented SNIF-NMR® technology was used to verify the origin and purity of several types of food and beverages and identify sophisticated fraud not detectable by other methods.
Formulating a new product can be exciting! But sometimes we are not sure of the effect this can have on growth of spoilage organisms during shelf life or risk of pathogenic bacteria. Martha Kimber from our Advance Microbiology Lab in Fresno, CA discusses this topic in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
Should you use a microbiological enumeration method that reports coliforms in colony forming units (CFU) per gram or most probable number (MPN) per gram? Which method is better? Abraham Gonzalez from our Southern California Eurofins Microbiology lab discusses this topic in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
