Life Lessons with Dr. Al Baroudi, Vice President of Quality Assurance and Food Safety at The Cheesecake Factory

“I graduated with a scholarship from the Lebanese government that let me go anywhere in the world and get a master’s and doctorate degree in food science and technology,” he said.

Baroudi traveled to the U.S. in 1973 as a student and went to University of California Davis, where he earned a master’s degree in food science and technology. He went on to graduate from The Ohio State University with a doctorate in food processing and technology.

Baroudi is well-known for implementing several food safety regulations, such as being a founding member and serving as president of the International Food Safety Institute (FSI), where remote video auditing systems were developed and implemented industry-wide. He was instrumental in passing the Food Facilities Sanitization Bill in the California State Assembly that cleared the way for ozone technology to be approved in the California CalCode in 2012. He also served on the E. coli O157:H7 Blue Ribbon Task Force Committee during the Jack in the Box major pathogen outbreak.

“If you are in the food business, then food safety is not negotiable,” he said. “Human dignity is not a privilege; it’s everyone’s right. No one should go to bed hungry, and now is the time to give back and educate the next generation on that.”

From research to manufacturing, selling products to supermarkets, consulting clients internationally and running quality assurance and food safety departments at the corporate level, Baroudi shared some life lessons that have shaped his career.

During my first job as an associate director in quality assurance at Borden, we were growing the snack industry, and I wanted to learn and see what’s going on during the production of food. Those were the best five years of my career. I learned a lot there. I was going out to do inspections in the dairy factories and then I came up with a proposal called the Environmental HACCP program that took swabs from the floor, drains and equipment and sent them to the lab to check what’s going on. That program became the state of the industry and assured milk, ice cream and cheese products were Listeria-free.

I know people want to eat, and we need it everywhere in the world, every day. When you are dealing with food, it has to be safe and wholesome and high quality, otherwise people are not going to enjoy eating food and will end up in the hospital. My biggest concern is what do we do to prevent that from happening and let people enjoy their meals? There’s a need for this kind of work.

Food processing fascinates me. Researching ways to make food safe for consumption while extending the farther destinations food could be distributed means exploring how to extend shelf-life. I get my thrills exploring how to adapt new technologies, including software, to make eggs, fresh produce, milk and restaurant foods safer for not only U.S. customers but citizens around the globe.

I continue to look for silver bullets to protect the foods my employers and clients make — protecting the food supply across the miles and weeks. I claimed the title “Ozone Daddy” by introducing ozone technology to the supply chain and restaurant industry as a pathogen kill step for produce and protein. All this experience eventually led me to The Cheesecake Factory, where I developed and continue to serve as the vice president of the food safety and quality assurance department and ensure that dining out is safe and enjoyable.

What gives me the most satisfaction is when I see people who have graduated from my department go start their own department at different companies. That’s the best reward after so many years in the industry.

I believe that to keep our food systems growing strong, one has to be focused on regulations that involve safe production of food and ensuring that wholesome food gets delivered to the customer. That is why I have journeyed through commodity boards and corporate sectors like the supermarket industry to the manufacturing industry to consulting careers and now the restaurant industry to shape a contemporary and global food protection system. It is my passion to be a food protectionist from farm to the dining table.