J. David Legan

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:

Food Fraud Webinar

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.

Keywords: Webinar Food Fraud Doug Marshall Food Beverages Ingredients Authenticity

Fingerprinting Fruits Using Targeted and non-Targeted Analyses, Authentication Tool for Minneola Tangelo

As Minneola, a hybrid between grapefruit and mandarin, has become more popular it may be susceptible to fraud and/or adulteration. This poster shows the phenolic pattern of this fruit, in relation to other orange, grapefruit and mandarin fruits that may be used to identify its juice or juice concentrate.

Keywords: Scientific Research Authenticity Food Beverages Food Fraud

Eurofins Enables New Methods to Detect Adulteration of Lemon Juice

Eurofins presents at AOAC 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting & Exposition. Adulteration to fruit juices has been a long-standing problem in food processing. While analytical tests exist to detect cheaper juices in more expensive ones, an ongoing problem arises when lime juice is blended with lemon juice. Due to their chemical similarities, this requires new in-depth methods.

Keywords: Scientific Research Authenticity Beverages Ingredients Food Fraud

Five Risks to Your Food Fraud Program

Food fraud has been a topic that continues to be of high interest. Below are the top risks that should be considered when developing your food fraud plan.

Keywords: Blog Authenticity Food Beverages Ingredients Supplements Food Fraud

Food Defense and Intentional Adulteration

During this webinar, Tim Lombardo of Eurofins Food Assurance discussed the differences between food security, food safety, food fraud, and food defense. He provided a short history of FSMA and reviewed regulations for food defense and intentional adulteration protection.

Keywords: Webinar Authenticity Regulatory Food Beverages Ingredients Supplements FSMA Food Assurance Food Defense Food Fraud

J. David Legan

Below are resources from David:

Food Fraud Webinar

Fingerprinting Fruits Using Targeted and non-Targeted Analyses, Authentication Tool for Minneola Tangelo

Eurofins Enables New Methods to Detect Adulteration of Lemon Juice

Five Risks to Your Food Fraud Program

Food Defense and Intentional Adulteration

Fingerprinting Fruits Using Coumarins & Psoralens, Authentication Tool for Meyer Lemons

Quality Assurance in Agave Syrups - Jahromi and Reimann, et al

A Look at Food Fraud Practices with Eurofins

Food Fraud Mitigation Webinar