Dan Schmitz

Director of Operations

North America / United States

Dan Schmitz - Director of Operations

As the Director of Operations for Commercial Food Sanitation, Dan brings strong leadership skills and technical knowledge that he developed in his 20-year career at Kraft Foods, along with a 24-year career in the United States Air Force. Dan’s food industry experience is extensive with both USDA- and FDA-regulated industries.

Dan has a passion for plant operations with a focus on food safety programs. He has held plant leadership roles in operations, quality, and sanitation in some of the largest and most demanding plant environments. Dan has a talent for developing very strong teams that successfully drive culture change in food manufacturing plants. Dan’s specific knowledge includes HACCP, pathogen environmental monitoring, hygienic equipment design, allergen controls, sanitation monitoring, master sanitation schedules, Six Sigma, GFSI, and much more.

In addition to his plant experience, Dan held corporate leadership roles in quality and sanitation. He helped influence and create policy for many of the food safety, quality, and sanitation programs at Kraft Foods. Dan was also an instrumental leader in the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) creation of the Industry Handbook for Safe Processing of Nuts by leading the allergen sub-team and writing the sanitation and pest control sections.

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