About Us

Active Food Safety consists of an experienced team of food safety professionals who are  thought-leaders in the food industry, and have each led enterprise level food safety management programs in several of the most well-known and respected brands in the food industry.  Our experienced partners bring you the best business management solutions with the science of food safety risk reduction for today's food safety challenges in foodservice, retail food sales, and food manufacturing.

We continuously help our clients ensure food safety based on proven business best practices designed specifically to the brand - to maximize risk reduction to prevent foodborne disease illnesses and outbreaks, to meet all government regulatory requirements, and to improve sales and brand reputation.

Who we are

Active Food Safety consists of a team of food safety professionals, thought leaders, and system designers who specialize in modern and effective food safety solutions. With diverse experience and expertise we have formed a cohesive and effective partnership to bring you great food safety solutions!

Hal King, PhD

Managing Partner

Dr. Hal King is Managing Partner at Active Food Safety with over 16 years in Enterprise food safety management leadership and the recipient of the 2018 NSF International Food Safety Leadership and Innovation Award.  He is Founder/CEO of Public Health Innovations (PHI), a book author, a public health scientist/innovator, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health.

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Arthur P. Liang MD MPH

Expert Advisor

Arthur P. Liang MD MPH is a Public Health physician and epidemiologist with over 40 years’ experience, including outbreak response and emergency preparedness at federal, state, local and international levels, with a focus in Communicable Disease Control in general, and foodborne illness in particular.

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James Marsden, PhD

Expert Advisor

Dr. James Marsden has over fifty years’ experience in the food industry with a strong background in working with government officials, regulators, and for food companies, trade associations and in academia.

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Paul Hineman

Advisory Partner

As a recognized leader in the Hospitality Industry for over 20 years, Paul has held senior financial and operational positions in leading restaurant brands like Cracker Barrel and First Watch.

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Mark Miklos, CP-FS

Advisory Partner

Mark is an executive dedicated to food safety education and advocacy. His twenty-seven-year career includes sixteen years in restaurant operations, training, and food safety, most of those at the Director or VP level for Waffle House, Inc., seven years at the National Restaurant Association working on behalf of the entire industry and culminating as Director of Food Safety and QA Programming, and most recently, as a partner-advisor with Active Food Safety.

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Marjorie Jones, REHS

Expert Advisor

Marjorie Jones is a food safety professional with over 30 years of industry experience. She has worked in all aspects of the trade from restaurant worker to regulator, Auditor, Quality Assurance Manager, Account Executive, Account Manager and Head of Client Management.

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Josh King

Tech Advisor

Josh is a Product Designer, Product Developer, and Project Manager with 7 years experience in the food safety industry. Putting user experience first, he designs and implements the best possible products to improve the state of the industry.

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Lori Bestervelt, PhD

Expert Advisor

Dr. Bestervelt is a public health professional who has worked in the fields of microbiology, toxicology, risk assessment, nutrition and molecular biochemistry. She spent 23 years as the Chief Science Officer of NSF International, a leading public health safety organization that develops American National Standards and certification programs for food safety, water safety and health sciences.

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Karen Holden

Expert Advisor

With over 30 years in the hospitality, supply chain and food safety industries, Karen brings exceptional knowledge and experience to the Active Food Safety consulting team.

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Kristen Hilger

Expert Advisor

Kristen is a dedicated food safety professional with 30 years of diversified experience, having held FSQA positions in regulatory, third-party auditing, and the food service industry. She has worked for some of the largest food service companies in the world, including Darden Restaurants and Compass Group.

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Yale Lary

Expert Advisor

Yale did his graduate studies at Texas A&M University where his research was funded by USDA through the Animal Science Department.  He has years of hands-on experiences across a wide variety of supply chains, food types, manufacturing processes and cultures.

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Joan Rosen, MS

Expert Advisor

Joan Rosen is the founder of JC Rosen Resources, a consulting firm that provides services globally with expertise in food safety, quality systems, postharvest technology, and regulatory affairs for the fresh produce and food industries.

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Mary Wagner, PhD

Expert Advisor

Mary K. Wagner is a recognized executive leader and board director with a reputation for creating innovative products, managing risks, handling corporate crises, and managing food quality and safety. She is a strategist, an operational leader and a team builder who has been an executive in branded global retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

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Ned Klein M. Ed.

Expert Advisor

Ned is a food safety professional with 10 years of experience across the food industry. As a consultant he has worked with over 100 food businesses including international restaurant groups, food delivery platforms, shared kitchens, ghost kitchens, and food manufacturers.

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Tonya Gray, MPA

Expert Advisor

Tonya has been working in Food Safety for almost 40 years. Her career began in regulatory with Agriculture and Public Health, both local and state level. However, the last 15 years included consulting for Education and Industry.

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Daryl Kellenberger

Expert Advisor

Daryl is an expert on restaurant food safety. While working for McDonald’s Corporation for almost 35 years in both global and US food safety leadership roles he focused on integrating food safety into development processes, training and restaurant operations to reduce and manage food safety risks.  

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David Simmons

Preferred Vendor Expert Advisor

David Simmons is a corporate program and product solutions specialist with over 30 years of experience developing, promoting, and implementing effective program solutions with a focus on foodservice enterprises/chains and their food safety and sanitation needs.  

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