Food Safety Leader Doris Rittenmeyer Joins Elara Foodservice Disposables Team

02/15/2012 – Food safety expert Doris Rittenmeyer, CP-FS, has joined the Elara Foodservice Disposables team as food safety advisor, as part of Elara’s corporate focus on delivering food safety education to its customers. Rittenmeyer has more than 25 years of experience in the food protection field, having served as Director of Safety Management Services at FoodHandler Inc. from 1999 through 2010. Prior to FoodHandler, Rittenmeyer was employed by the State of Iowa, Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals as the Training Officer for the Food and Consumer Safety Bureau for 13 years.

Elara is a designer and producer of food contact gloves, food storage bags, plastic cutlery, meal kits and related single-use products used by commercial and non-commercial foodservice operators. The company is dedicated to providing food safety support as part of its customer relationships.

In her new position, Rittenmeyer will be spearheading Elara’s food safety education and training initiatives, as well as providing best-in-class food safety and hand hygiene consultation to Elara’s clients. In addition, Rittenmeyer will be providing food safety education through blog posts, news and other content formats.

“Partnering with Elara,” states Rittenmeyer, “is a natural. Its vision of raising the bar in the industry in the area of not only food safety, but also product quality and hunger relief, makes Elara a company that I’m very proud to partner with.”

“Doris brings leadership, dedication and expertise to the company,” says Dan Grinberg, President and Founder of Elara. “She has built effective food safety and hand hygiene programs for many companies, and is a wealth of knowledge in the food protection field. Given Elara’s commitment to the promotion of food safety, it was a perfect fit to partner with Doris. We are thrilled to have her on the team.”

During her career in food safety, Rittenmeyer has conducted food safety training, including HACCP training courses, for the New York City School system, the health care industry, state and national correctional systems, state and national Dietary Managers Association, and state and national school foodservice associations. She has also conducted national satellite presentations for the State Training Branch of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the areas of Train the Trainer, Current Concepts, Specials Problems in Food Protection, and HACCP.

Rittenmeyer is currently a certified master instructor with the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association and has conducted, among others, ServSafe classes for Iowa State University and the Iowa Department of Education via the Iowa Communication Network (ICN). Rittenmeyer has obtained instructor's status with the Dietary Managers Association (DMA) and the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) Food Safety Program. While employed by the State of Iowa, she was standardized by the FDA as a Food & Sanitation Evaluation Officer and completed the FDA SW Region’s Level One Training Requirement. She has also achieved the National Environmental Health Association's Certified Food Safety Professional credential. In addition, she has served on the Legislative Action Food Safety Committee of SNA (School Nutrition Association), and also served on the NRA and DMA Test Writing committees.

Related Links:

The Food Safety Modernization Act - What Food Professionals Should Know 

The Case for Training