A staff member with the advocacy group STOP Foodborne Illness (formerly Safe Tables Our Priority) has been named to the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Susan V. Grooters will serve a two-year term as a consumer representative on NACMCF, which otherwise consists of scientists from industry, government, and academia, according to a release from USDA.
Grooters is currently director of research and education with STOP. She holds a master’s degree in public health in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food sciences from the University of Vermont.
The 31-member NACMCF, established in 1988, provides scientific advice on public health issues relative to the safety and wholesomeness of the U.S. food supply, USDA said. The committee also assists in the development of microbiological criteria and reviews and evaluates epidemiological and risk assessment data as well as methodologies for assessing microbiological hazards.