Dairy Quality and Safety Professional Development Group

Mission Statement: To promote the production and processing of safe, high quality dairy products and to develop program topics and symposia for presentation at the IAFP Annual Meetings.

Meeting Information

Virtual: TBD

In Person: IAFP 2025

                   July 27, 2025, Huntington Convention Center, Cleveland, Ohio

How to Join

Involvement in committees and professional development groups (PDGs) offers Members the opportunity to share a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Members of committees and PDGs are the architects of the Association structure. They plan, develop and institute many of the Association's projects, including workshops, publications and educational sessions. Technical challenges facing the food safety industry are discussed, examined and debated. Members may volunteer to serve on any number of committees or PDGs that plan and implement activities to meet the Association's mission.

Membership on a PDG is voluntary (not by appointment) and may vary from year to year.

IAFP Members can manage their PDG involvement by logging in to the IAFP Web site. At the Member Dashboard, click “Edit Profile.” Your profile has two tabs: Contact Info and Professional Info. Select the Professional Info tab and update the PDGs you would like to participate in. We highly recommend that you contact the PDG chairperson for each group to let them know you have joined their PDG.

Non-members can contact Dina Siedenburg, dsiedenburg@foodprotection.org, for more information.

Board Responses

2024 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. 1. We ask that the Board accept the approval of Kara Mikkelson as the Dairy Quality and Safety Professional Development Group’s newly elected Secretary.

    Board Response: Board Response: Agree.

2023 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. None.
2022 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. Sarah Murphy recognized as the incoming Vice Chair.

    Board Response: Agreed.

2021 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. 1. Consider reviewing interest in potentially switching PDG annual meetings to be primarily virtual or hybrid.

    Board Response: Virtual meetings may be held anytime throughout the year and all PDGs are encouraged to hold periodic meetings (virtually). We plan to return to in-person PDG meetings in 2022. Zoom or other options can be used as desired if you wish to include remote participants in your meeting. A projector, screen and WiFi will be provided in the meeting rooms.

2020 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. Recommend the Board approve Josie Greve-Peterson as Vice Chair of the PDG.

    Board Response: Agree.

2019 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. None
2018 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. None.
2017 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. Approve the succession of Yvonne Masters and Nancy Huls to Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

    Board Response: Agree

  2. Approve the newly-elected Secretary Wendy McMahon.

    Board Response: Agree

  3. Consideration of implementing the IAFP Buddy Program universally (as an IAFP wide program), administrated and advertised by IAFP.

    Board Response: Please provide the program document used by the Dairy PDG in 2017 for Board review.

  4. Program Committee to formally or automatically notify PDG Chair and Vice Chair of any programming content submitted and/or accepted by the Committee for the following year.

    Board Response: Chairs and Vice Chairs are encouraged to follow up with the submitters of session proposals to determine whether the submission was accepted or not.

2016 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. None
2015 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. Approve the succession of Dawn Terrell and Yvonne Masters to Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

    Board Response: Approved.

  2. Recommend that the Board approve the newly-elected co-vice chair/secretary Nancy Eggink.

    Board Response: Approved.

  3. Provide the ability to go into IAFP website member profile to choose which PDG that the member wants to be in or opt out of the PDG distribution list.

    Board Response: IAFP staff will look into making these changes.

2014 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. Have Sanitary Design PDG and 3-A Committee meet at times that do not conflict with Dairy Quality and Safety PDG. Consider having Sanitation and Hygiene, 3-A Committee, Equipment and Facility Hygienic Design and Dairy Quality and Safety PDGs meeting in consecutive sessions.

    Board Response: Efforts will be made to accommodate these requests.

Webinars

  • Impact of Water Use and Reuse in Food Production and Processing on Food Safety at the Consumer Phase: Focus on the Dairy Products Sector

    Organized by: Water Safety and Quality PDG, International Food Protection Issues PDG and Dairy Quality and Safety PDG

    Part Three: Water is essential for the production, handling and processing of dairy products. Consumer safety can be affected by physical, chemical and microbiological hazards introduced into food products through water (re)use. Hazards and hazardous events need to be continuously monitored and may require targeted interventions to reduce consumer risks to acceptable levels.

    The background to this webinar is the work of Codex Alimentarius on risk management guidance for water (re)use in the production, handling and processing of food commodities. Codex has asked the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meeting in Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) for advice on this.

    JEMRA established a science- and risk-based framework on fit-for-purpose water (re)use as input to the Codex work. JEMRA experts have discussed the principles of this framework and the underlying scientific and technical principles. Case studies will be provide demonstrating how practical interventions can mitigate product safety risks to consumers in the case of milk and milk products.

    Learning Objectives:

    The participants will learn about the following aspects of water (re)use in the dairy products sector:
    •The efforts of JEMRA and Codex Alimentarius to develop a risk- and science-based framework for managing the safe use and reuse of water in the production, handling and processing of dairy products by following a "fit-for-purpose" approach.
    •The microbiological hazards potentially associated with water (re)use in this sector and interventions to mitigate food safety risks at the consumer stage.
    •Practical examples and case studies regarding current water (re)use in the dairy products sector.

    Download Slides

    Presenters
    • Kang Zhou, Presenter FAO, Rome, Italy
    • Claus Heggum, Presenter International Dairy Federation, Denmark
    • Leon Gorris, Panelist & Moderator Food Safety Futures, The Netherlands
  • Processing Water - I Thought It Was Sanitary

    Employee constraints and other pressures on food company ROI are pushing for longer operational runs which reduce cleaning frequency. Cleaning already suffers from time constraints and ever-changing soils.
    As biofilms become a more widespread phenomenon, prevention and mitigation are now at the forefront. This symposium will bring practical knowledge from food processing to provide an operational guide to help.
    After a quick scientific overview of biofilm basics, we will supply a practical hands-on step-by-step approach to analyzing food production facilities via a Risk Assessment on processing water that can be taken back and added to food safety/quality programs. And finally, we will discuss some of those real-life myths & common mistakes in food manufacturing that end up supporting and establishing biofilms. The topics discussed will help the attendees go back and take a novel approach to investigate and help eliminate potential sources and make the cleaning regime more effective.

    Download Slides

    Presenters
    • Neil Bogart, Presenter Ecolab, United States
    • Phyllis Posy, Presenter Posy Global, Israel
    • Josie Greve-Peterson, Moderator PSSI, United States