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:
Why do pathogen tests take days when the detection methods (like PCR) can be completed in just a few hours? Dan DeMarco, Ph.D. from our Eurofins Microbiology lab in Louisville, KY discusses this topic in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
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.
Bacillus consists of a wide range of species from pathogenic types to beneficial bacteria. Bacillus coagulans, specifically, is commonly used in various products due to its survivability of many processing conditions as well as long shelf life needs. So, how would you test for the pathogen, Bacillus cereus, in a product containing Bacillus coagulans? Our Principle Scientist, Megan Brown, discussed more on this topic and what to keep in mind.
When working with a third party testing laboratory, what should you do to get your sample ready? Daiona Newberry from our Eurofins Microbiology lab in Louisville, KY explains some items to keep in mind in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
What should you do when you get a positive result on a presumptive pathogen test? Anne Chi from our Southern California Eurofins Microbiology lab explains some next steps in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
Did you know the type of swab or sponge in your environmental monitoring program (EMP) is important in regards to the methods used for detection of pathogens? Camila Gadotti discusses this topic in this short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
There are many different types of PCR-based pathogen detection platforms in the industry. At Eurofins, we are often asked, how does our Eurofins BACGene compare to the most common alternative, Hygiena BAX? Michael Kaiser from our Eurofins Microbiology lab in Madison, WI discusses this topic in the short video. Eurofins publishes our Ask an Expert Series weekly on our social media platforms.
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.
