Minerich oversees product development, regulatory compliance and food safety. For more than 32 years, he has worked within food production committed to improving the safety of our food supply. Minerich and his team have initiated a new food safety project that explores new applications for existing technologies, including researching all types of food safety interventions internationally, analyzing and validating scientific claims, and identifying how it would be useful for Hormel Foods product lines. During this time, his team applied the science that involves using high pressure processing (HPP) to package protein products. This resulted in the development of Hormel Natural Choice meats. Today, because of his contributions, public health and food regulation agencies have better methods for contamination detection and communicating events happening at a rapid rate.
A member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), Dr. Minerich holds three patents for development of a pressure indicator for high hydrostatic pressure processing of foods, packaging methods and products, and a container for active microwave heating.