IFPTI Names New Board Members

The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI), a leader in delivering career-spanning, standards-based food protection training to state and local food safety officials, announced the appointment to its board of directors of Jim Fernandez, executive director of the National Center for Security Research and Training (NCSRT), and chairman of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC).

As Executive Director of NCSRT, Fernandez oversees $50 million of training-related activities in three national stand-alone security training organizations, one of which is the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT). In February 2010, IFPTI and NCBRT executed a memorandum of understanding covering their collaboration in the development and delivery of cutting-edge food protection training programs.

Joining Fernandez on the IFPTI board are three widely-recognized leaders in the nation’s food protection community: Marion Aller, director, Division of Fdod Safety, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Joseph Corby, executive Director, Association of Food & Drug Officials, and Dan Smyly, scientific and regulatory affairs director with The Coca-Cola Co., North American Division.

The appointment of Fernandez, Aller, Corby and Smyly brings the number of directors of IFPTI to eight.

To date, working in partnership with the Association of Food & Drug Officials, and in collaboration with the FDA, IFPTI has trained nearly 500 food protection professionals from more than 35 states. Utilizing a FY2010 federal appropriation of $1 million, IFPTI expects to train an additional 1,000 state and local food protection professionals in 2010 and the Institute is preparing to train up to 2,000 to 3,000 food safety officials in 2011 utilizing $8 million in funding allocated for such purposes in the President’s FY2011 Budget.