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:
Pathogen detection in foods and environmental samples is a critical element in a food management system. This study set out to compare the robustness of Loop Mediated Amplification (LAMP) with that of PCR as illustrated by the detection threshold of Listeria and Salmonella spiked into culture broths previously incubated with various spices.
Enumeration provides the most basic required information with methodologies evolving to provide improved accuracy, precision, and turnaround times. Acoustic-assisted hydrodynamic flow cytometry incorporates the advance of using sound waves to align the particles in the fluid stream for counting, reducing the time to result.
As probiotic consumption rates continue to grow, stakeholders are demanding more information about the quantity, quality, and identity of organisms in probiotic products. Increasingly, flow cytometry is being used to address manufacturers’ and consumers’ demands, and has shown promise in rapidly providing precise quantitative and qualitative probiotic information.
For microbiology both quantity and quality matter, and microbiological testing methods are classified as being either quantitative or qualitative. Which category they fall into is based on what type of data is actually collected and reported.
Salmonella depends on an effective food safety program supported by robust Salmonella detection methods. Our objective is to explore recovery of Salmonella from a background of probiotic cultures and demonstrate and validate as effective, sensitive method for detecting Salmonella in probiotic cultures to protect public health.
The success of such programs hinges not only on consistent implementation and testing, but also on the effective swabbing of your plant. Below are the top 5 mistakes our experts see plants make when sampling and submitting swabs and sponges for testing.
This series is focused on getting new pet food, pet treat, and pet supplement businesses headed down the right path.
Although many genera of bacteria produce lactic acid as a primary or secondary end-product of fermentation, the term Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) is conventionally reserved for genera in the order Lactobacillales. LAB have many applications in food production and spoilage, all of which apply when considering when and how to test for lactic acid bacteria in food.
Microbiome analysis is a method that has revolutionized the analysis of microbial communities. This webinar is an interview with experts in the field who present and discuss industry and laboratory perspectives on using microbiomes as applied to probiotic products and clinical trial samples.
Watch this webinar to learn how quality and maintenance can work together, and gain insight to demonstrate ROI to your senior management for new equipment or upgrades within your plant.
