CHICAGO – Hal King, founder, and CEO of Public Health Innovations LLC, is this year’s recipient of the Food Safety Leadership Award from NSF International.

NSF International, a global public health, and safety organization, announced King as this year’s recipient Wednesday at the 20th annual Food Safety Summit. The summit, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in suburban Chicago, wraps up today.

Hal King, left, accepted the NSF International Food Safety Leadership award Wednesday from Carey Allen, associate managing director of supply chain food safety at NSF. The company presents the annual award at the Food Safety Summit. The summit wraps up today. Photo courtesy of NSF

Each year, the Food Safety Summit Educational Advisory Board evaluates the award nominees on the basis of innovation, impact and overall contributions to food safety. The board is a volunteer group of industry leaders representing manufacturing, foodservice, regulatory, academia, retail, and distribution.

This year’s award recognizes King for his contributions to food safety and the protection of public health. Through his career of more than 25 years, he has investigated foodborne illnesses, conducted research on the causes of diseases, worked to prevent the adulteration of foods, and designed and implemented preventative controls for food safety hazards in the food industry.

King created the Emerge-Protect app, a proprietary hand hygiene model for schools. He also authored the books “Food Safety Management: Implementing a Food Safety Program in a Food Retail Business” and “Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventative Controls: Improving Food Safety in Human Food Manufacturing for Food Business.”

“Dr. King is known as a collaborative, passionate and thoughtful industry leader, who is always willing to help solve critical food safety issues,” said Kevan P. Lawlor, president, and CEO of NSF International. 

“It’s his kind nature, expertise, and involvement in innovative solutions like the Emerge-Protect app that make him an outstanding choice for this year’s Food Safety Leadership Award. We are honored to present this award to such a deserving candidate as Dr. King.”

King was formerly director of food and product safety at Chick-fil-A Inc. where he led and implemented the company’s food safety management program. He is a past chairman of the National Restaurant Association Quality Assurance Executive Study Group, a board member on the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the FDA and CDC Industry Partnerships, and the past president of the Georgia Association for Food Protection.

NSF International’s Food Safety Leadership Award recognizes individuals and organizations for real and lasting improvements in food safety. Created in 2004, the awards encourage the development of educational programs, processes, and technologies to advance food safety.

NSF International is an independent, global organization that writes standards, and tests and certifies products for the food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects and protect the environment. Founded in 1944, NSF operates in more than 175 countries.

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