Jan Gardner is the founder and president of Food Safe Pacific, LLC . She has more than 25 years of food safety and regulatory compliance experience.
Jan grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Growing up on a family farm taught her hard work and the bottom line basics of small business. It also sparked a lifetime interest in food production that led her to pursue a career in food safety. She successfully completed a degree in Food Science Technology in 1987. After three years in a cheese manufacturing company, Jan began working for the state of Wisconsin as a Food Safety Inspector. She performed inspections of Food Manufacturers, dairy farms, retail groceries and restaurants, hotels and public swimming pools. Jan’s work on a Pontiac Fever outbreak investigation in 1998 was singled out for praise in The Journal of Infectious Disease. Her final position with the state of Wisconsin was as a Public Health Sanitarian.
Jan has always had a passion for Hawaii and it’s people so she left the State of Wisconsin to join the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1999. As an investigator with FDA, Jan was responsible for inspections of seafood firms, food manufacturers, and airline caterers to ensure FDA compliance. She quickly built her reputation with local businesses as a knowledgeable but fair investigator who would educate rather than play “gotcha”. She worked with businesses to achieve voluntary compliance with FDA regulations whenever possible. While at FDA, Jan also performed construction inspections of the Hawaii Super Ferry and the Norwegian Cruise Line Pride of Hawaii Cruise ship. She was also responsible for aircraft inspections and issuing sanitary construction certificates.
In September 2010, Jan decided to retire from FDA and start her own food safety consulting firm, Food Safe Pacific LLC. She realized that businesses in Hawaii had few resources available to them to improve their food safety and achieve regulatory compliance. She felt that food firms in Hawaii could benefit from the common sense approach to food safety training that became her hallmark.
Through Food Safe Pacific, LLC, Jan is able to help business achieve safe, high quality products while maintaining the bottom line in business.
Credentials:
- NEHA Registered Environmental Health Specialist/Registered Sanitarian(REHS/RS)
- NEHA Registered Certified Professional-Food Safety (CP-FS).
Awards/Continuing Education:
- Received numerous FDA awards including the prestigious Outstanding Service Award for her work related to foodborne illness outbreak investigations.
- Seafood HACCP
- Managing Retail Food Safety.
- Risk Based Inspection Methods at Retail.
- Foodborne Illness Investigations.
- Standardized in the FDA Model Food Code.
- Certified SQF Auditor training
- Implementing SQF Systems Practitioner training.