Dirk Nikoleiski

Dirk brings tremendous food industry experience to Commercial Food Sanitation in his role as Regional Manager EMEA. His 30 years of experience in both the manufacturing and corporate environments span over the cheese, grocery, biscuits, confections, gums, and candy segments. He held numerous plant and corporate roles at Kraft Foods, including Quality Manager, Project Manager (brownfield food plant), Business Development Manager, and multiple Corporate Sanitation roles. He has been instrumental in continuous improvement; development of policies, standards, and guidelines; and providing project support and training to the organization over the years.

Beside his leading roles at Kraft and Mondelez, Dirk was very engaged with NGOs, such as the European Hygienic Design Group (EHEDG), FoodDrinkEurope (FDE), and the Association of Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionery Industries of Europe (Caobisco). In 2016, EHEDG honored Dirk for his outstanding and long-term commitment as well as for his distinguished services to the organization. As member of the allergen ad-hoc group at FDE, he contributed to a guideline on food allergen management for food manufacturers.

Over the years, Dirk has also been a speaker on sanitation and hygienic design at various conferences, symposia, and seminars. He has written many articles for publications, written a book on hygiene in food manufacturing in German language, and contributed chapters to various books, such as “Hygienic Design and Cleaning as an Allergen Control Measure” in the Handbook of Food Allergen Detection and Control.

Dirk holds a diploma in Food Technology from the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences in Lemgo, Germany.