Mr. Savage received his B.S. and M.S. in Food Science and Technology from the University of Massachusetts and has more than 44 years experience in the food industry, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the HACCP Consulting Group, L.L.C.
Mr. Savage served as the Director of Microbiology for the Ann Page Division of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company where his duties included developing microbiological methods, establishing microbiological specification for new products, QC sampling plans, thermal process schedules for low-acid canned foods and trouble-shooting microbiological problems.
While with FDA, Mr. Savage was active in the implementation of the first HACCP-based, low-acid canned food regulations, investigations of botulism outbreaks, product recalls and evaluations and audits of firms’ compliance with FDA regulations both domestically and overseas. He is considered a leading expert in thermal processing technology.
In the FSIS, Mr. Savage was responsible for the development of the HACCP-based, canning regulations for meat and poultry products. Mr. Savage served as the Headquarters representative on a six-member HACCP Special Team to study how HACCP would be used in the meat and poultry industry and in the inspection program. Duties included conducting HACCP workshops with leaders in the meat and poultry industry and pilot testing HACCP models in volunteer slaughter and processing plants. He also participated in the development of the HACCP regulations and HACCP guidance materials for small business. While at FSIS, Mr. Savage conducted numerous HACCP training sessions for both industry and Agency personnel and is accredited as a Lead Instructor and a Train-the-Trainer by the International HACCP Alliance.
Mr. Savage served as President of HACCP Consulting Group from 1996 until March, 2016. With HCG, he has taught numerous HACCP, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), and HACCP audit courses for the food industry (e.g., meat, poultry, airliner catering, etc.) both in the United States and Internationally. Mr. Savage has travelled to over 20 countries to provide food safety, regulatory enforcement training and assistance to foreign countries (both industry and government inspection personnel) to become eligible to export meat and poultry to the U.S. Other activities have included food safety assessments of plants’ HACCP Plans, GMPs and SSOPs. Mr. Savage has also worked with the North American Meat Association, the American Meat Institute and the former Food Processing Institute to provide HACCP instruction.
Mr. Savage is a member of the International Association for Food Protection and has published numerous articles dealing with HACCP, HACCP Plan Validation, FSIS In-Depth Verification (IDV) Reviews and Implementation of SSOP Programs.
Mr. Savage is also the recipient of the 2000 Professional of the Year Award from the National Meat Association (NMA). Mr. Savage also served as a member of the NMA, Board of Directors and the International HACCP Alliance.
