Frutarom USA Inc. has appointed Jennifer Czerner as technical business manager. She will work closely with the company Functional Food team in both the United States and Switzerland. Part of her responsibilities are focused on developing the North American business strategy to support Origanox® products, Frutarom’s line of natural antioxidants, as well as EFLA®, a line of highly functional standardized extracts.

Wolfgang Lettgen has joined Wolf-tec Inc. as North American product manager for the newly acquired line of Multitec sliced product buffering and positioning solutions from Germany. He has previously worked with food processors in both Europe and the Americas to improve their slicing and packaging operations.

Marel USA has hired Michael McFawn as a service engineer. He has extensive experience as a software and hardware test engineer for Windows-based systems, as well as having managed teams of engineers. Additionally, Morten Parmo has been hired as a sales and service manager for further processing. He will be working in conjunction with Carnitech, Marel’s partner in processing, to enhance and expand the further processing market. Damien Turiello has been hired as a key account/territory sales manager for the Meat Division. He has more than 19 years of sales and management experience selling capital equipment and service-related products.

Chef Stephen Giunta, Cargill Meat Solutions Corp.’s director of culinary, has been certified as a master chef by the American Culinary Federation Inc. Certified master chef is the highest and most demanding level of culinary achievement in the United States. Giunta passed the eight-day test of culinary skill and knowledge at the Culinary Institute of America’s main campus in Hyde Park, NY. Test days lasted up to 15 hours.

West Liberty Foods LLC has appointed Gerald Lessard to the position of chief operating officer. He joined West Liberty Foods in April, 2004 as vice president of operations and will continue to oversee production operations at West Liberty, Sigourney, and Mt. Pleasant.

Working with its parent company, Food Products Association, the National Food Laboratory has developed a new method to test for the presence of Sudan dyes in both raw spice material and blended material products, to assure that the current product inventories or product that is being purchased are free from illegal colorants. Sudan dyes are potential carcinogens and are prohibited for use in food products in the U.S. and most other countries. Sudan Red is an industrial dye normally used to color shoe polish, plastics, oil and other synthetic products. Common thought is Sudan Red is being added to a food product to augment and preserve the red color over time. European and other international regulatory agencies have recently tested chili powders and a variety of products containing chili pepper, tumeric, paprika, red pepper, and oleoresins for Sudan Red food dyes. For more information, visit www.thenfl.com NP