IFPA welcomes Eric Stevens as vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs
IFPA welcomes Eric Stevens as vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs
The International Fresh Produce Association has named Dr. Eric Stevens vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs, a role in which he will lead the group’s global efforts to shape policy in those areas.
Stevens, who starts March 18, will serve as a key liaison to U.S. regulatory and food safety agencies and strengthen engagement with global and regional standard-setting bodies. He will also support member needs through technical expertise and strategic collaboration with internal teams and external coalitions.
“Eric brings a valuable combination of deep scientific expertise and global regulatory experience at a pivotal time for our industry,” Alexis Taylor, the association’s chief global policy officer, said in a statement. “His expertise in translating science into risk-based, practical policy that works for regulators and for the produce supply chain will be an incredible asset.”
Stevens most recently led scientific and market development for farm-to-fork food safety diagnostics at Hygiena and supported verification programs aligned with global regulatory and audit expectations.
He began his public service career in 2014 at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an FDA Commissioner’s Fellow. He later served as a public health advisor in the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Science, helping expand the agency’s GenomeTrakr program, and completed a stint with the World Health Organization’s nutrition and food safety unit developing guidance for foodborne disease surveillance.
From 2019 to 2025, he was an international policy manager in the FDA’s human foods program, leading science policy and regulatory cooperation on food hygiene standards, risk-based oversight and global market access. As a delegate to the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene and the FDA’s Codex Alimentarius manager, he worked with the agency, the U.S. interagency, global counterparts and industry to advance science-based positions.
Earlier this year, he was selected by the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to participate in a joint expert meeting on the use of omics for microbiological risk assessment.
Stevens earned his doctorate in human genetics and molecular biology from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, with a focus on genetic relatedness.
“I’m honored to join IFPA and to serve an industry that plays such a critical role in global nutrition and public health,” Stevens said. “Fresh produce is central to healthy diets worldwide, and advancing practical, risk-based policies is essential to ensuring both safety and access.”
