The Food Marketing Institute (FMI), Arlington, Va., said it named Josh Katz, Ph.D., its new director of food safety programs. Katz will be instrumental in the development and implementation of food safety initiatives critical to the retail community. He will report to Hilary Thesmar, Ph.D., RD, FMI’s vice president of food safety programs.

“Josh brings to FMI more than 13 years of robust academic and professional experience, including in-depth knowledge of designing food safety and quality systems,” Thesmar said. “Food safety is of upmost importance to our members and Josh’s farm-to-fork experience will become a valuable asset to our retailers.”

According to FMI, Katz’s most recent work includes earning his doctorate at University of California Davis in nutritional biology, specializing in human health risk assessment. During this time, he produced five publications, three as author and two as co-author, investigating the impact of diet on consumer issues such as food safety (pesticides, acrylamide, cyanide) and nutrition. Prior to earning his degree, Katz spent eight years in the food safety assessment industry, first with The Steritech Group, and then with Davis Fresh Technologies.

Katz holds a B.S. in food science from California Polytechnic State University and a Ph.D. in nutritional biology from UC Davis.