On June 19, the food industry lost a food-safety icon. Dave Theno, 66, unexpectedly died after being struck by a large wave while snorkeling with his grandson in Hawaii.
During the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1993, Dave served as the senior vice president and chief food safety officer for the restaurant chain. Following the outbreak, Dave overhauled the company’s food safety systems, developing and implementing robust cutting-edge food-safety programs that would eventually be adopted industry-wide. More recently, because of his continuing and substantial contributions to food safety, Dave was inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.