BIOGRAPHY

RUTH PETRAN, Ph.D., CFS

SENIOR CORPORATE SCIENTIST
FOOD SAFETY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Dr. Ruth Petran is Senior Corporate Scientist, Food Safety and Public
Health for Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy
technologies and services that protect people and vital resources.

In her current role, Dr. Petran provides technical expertise and consultation
to internal and external customers on food safety and public health issues,
by identifying and tracking emerging food safety trends and new control
strategies. To be most impactful, these span the food supply chain from
farm to manufacturing processes and to food service and retail.

Prior to joining Ecolab, Dr. Petran was a research microbiologist and

supplier quality manager at Pillsbury, as well as specifications manager
and quality regulations operations product manager at General Mills. She
focused on managing safety and quality concerns of microbiologically
sensitive products and ingredients. She has led food safety assessments
at food manufacturing facilities worldwide, focusing on the application of
HACCP systems and regulatory compliance.

Dr. Petran is a certified food scientist and has served two terms on the
National Advisory Committee for the Microbiological Criteria for Foods.
She an Executive Board member of the International Association for Food
Protection and is also a member of the Institute of Food Technologists
(IFT), where she’s served on awards committees and has been active in
the IFT-Food Microbiology Division. She chaired the Minnesota Food
Safety and Defense Task Force, and has advised the Minnesota
Departments of Health and Agriculture on needed revisions to the state’s
food code.

Dr. Petran has a bachelor’s degree in Consumer Food Science from

Cornell University, a master’s degree in Food Science from the University
of Minnesota, and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of
Minnesota. Her thesis focused on the value of leveraging data from health
department inspections to improve food safety.

Ecolab is a trusted partner at more than one million customer locations. With
2019 sales of $14 billion and 48,000 associates, Ecolab delivers
comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain
healthy environments, optimize water and energy use and improve
operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, hospitality and
industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.
www.ecolab.com.

©2019 Ecolab USA Inc. All rights reserved. 11/19.