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:
Third-party food safety testing is a surefire strategy to save money, boost quality, and increase profit margins. Find out how Eurofins can partner with your company.
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.
Here we are in the third post of a series focusing on pet food, pet treat, and pet supplement testing considerations. We have explored guaranteed analysis and other testing considerations such as shelf life and microbes. This time around I’ll expand on a topic that people often view as less a food safety issue and more of a palatability issue: Rancidity.
If you are seeking your initial GFSI benchmarked certification and aren’t sure if you’re ready, a pre-assessment audit is a great tool to verify your preparedness. You can think of a pre-assessment as a “practice audit” that will provide an expanded review of your facility’s program and procedures as they relate to the audit scheme.
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.
Whether you’re considering selling your homemade pet treats or starting a new pet treat business, one of the first steps you may find yourself tasked with is determining what a guaranteed analysis is. Figuring out how to have a product tested and what information is pertinent can be intimidating – the information in this post is intended to get you started in the right direction.
Welcome to the first edition of the all-new DQCI blog! Stay tuned for additional installments that address pertinent topics for the milk producer and dairy manufacturing industries from our in-house experts.
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.
Meet Lorena Dean, a recently promoted business development specialist at Eurofins BioDiagnostics, is a world explorer with a passion for science, biology, and people.
