Wednesday, May 28, 2014

3 New Yorkers Leading Major National Ag Organizations

From NYS Ag and Markets:

Three New Yorkers have been named presidents of three national food safety and dairy organizations.

Casey McCue, director of the Division of Milk Control, is serving out the remainder of his term as president of the National Association of Dairy Regulatory Officials. Stephen Stich, director of the Division of Food Safety and Inspection is beginning his term as president of the Association of Food and Drug Officials and Dan Rice, director of the state Food Laboratory, is the incoming president of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Dan Rice:

Dan Rice is the director of the New York State Food Laboratory, which supports the regulatory programs of the Divisions of Food Safety and Inspection, Milk Control, and Plant Industry by providing analytical testing of samples that are collected as part of scheduled regulatory or surveillance programs and in response to disease outbreak investigations, consumer complaints, and a variety of other food related investigations. Specialized analytical services are also provided at the lab on a contract basis to universities and various state and federal agencies
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Rice earned a bachelor's degree in zoology and a master's in veterinary epidemiology from Washington State University and is a doctor of public health candidate in the School of Public Health at SUNY Albany. He expects to complete his doctorate this year.

Prior to his current position, Rice was affiliated with the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine where he supervised a research program on the ecology and epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens in food animal production facilities. Rice’s primary public health interests are in food safety and he serves on several national workgroups and committees.

Rice joined the Department of Agriculture and Markets in 2004 as Director of the State Food Laboratory, which provides laboratory support for a wide array of food safety and agricultural programs.  Dan also helped oversee the completion of the state’s new Food Laboratory, which opened in 2013 in Albany.  Rice is the incoming President of APHL, which is the professional association representing state and local laboratories engaged in testing and programs that support public health. 

Steve Stich:

Steve Stich is the director of the Division of Food Safety and Inspection, which is the agency’s largest Division and has jurisdiction over 28,000 food handling establishments across New York state.  These include grocery stores, supermarkets, manufacturing/processing plants, beverage plants, food warehouses, and wholesale bakeries.  

The Division also helped initiate a nationwide recall of chicken jerky products for pets in early 2013.Food inspectors who work for Stich routinely collect food samples and send them to the State Food Laboratory for analysis.

Stich grew up in Oneida County, received a degree in environmental science from Morrisville State College, and started his career with the Department of Agriculture and Markets in 1987 as a food inspector in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. In 1992, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Albany where he progressed through the ranks and was named director in 2010.  He also participates in several multi-state and federal food safety workgroups.

Stich is the incoming president of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, which helps to advance uniform laws, regulations, and guidelines that result in more efficient regulation and less confusion among industry in the marketplace.

Casey McCue:  

Casey McCue is the director of the Division of Milk Control and has worked for the state  Department of Agriculture and Markets since 2000. The division regulates New York’s largest agricultural industry through various sanitation and inspection programs and issues licenses to every dairy processing facility in the state, and inspects each fluid, manufacturing and wholesale frozen dessert plant every 90 days. 

Division employees conduct more than 6,500 inspections and obtain more than 13,000 samples at New York’s 360 dairy processing facilities every year. The division also provides oversight of New York’s Certified Milk Inspector Program where industry inspectors maintain the sanitation requirements on the state’s Grade A dairy farms.

McCue has served in many positions since starting as a dairy products specialist 1 in Jefferson and Lewis counties. McCue grew up deeply involved in his grandparents’ dairy farm near Lowville and after graduating from SUNY Canton with a degree in milk and food quality control, he began his career in industry on both the producer and processor sides. 

He is the current president of NADRO, which works to address issues within the dairy industry and make recommendations to relevant federal agencies and national organizations. His involvement in national dairy regulatory issues also landed him a seat on the executive board of the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments, serving in many roles within the councils and committees of the conference.  He was the 2012 recipient of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture’s Administration Award for his work on behalf of New York’s rapidly growing dairy industry.

All three of these employees are Capital Region residents.  

For more information on the Association of Public Health Laboratories, please visit: www.aphl.org

For more information about the Association of Food and Drug Officials, please visit: www.afdo.org.

For more information on the National Association of Dairy Regulatory Officials, please visit:  http://nadro.org/


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