ARLINGTON, Va. – The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), a division of FMI – The Food Industry Association, today announced six finalists for its 2024 SQF Excellence Awards. The finalists were announced in anticipation of the upcoming 2024 SQF Unites conference, which will be held March 11-14 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in New Orleans.

Excellence in Auditing

The Excellence in SQF Auditing award is presented to a credentialed SQF auditor who demonstrates exceptional performance and dedication to the SQF program through high-quality audits, professional development activities, leadership and mentorship skills, and promotion of food safety culture.

The three finalists for the Excellence in SQF Auditing Award are:

• Bradley Rush, lead auditor at EAGLE Certification Group.
• Stacey Brown, cGMP & SQF food safety auditor at ASI Food Safety.
• Tadashi Mizuta, lead auditor at SGS Japan Inc.

Excellence in Practitioner Leadership

The award for Excellence in SQF Practitioner Leadership is given to an SQF practitioner within an SQF-certified site who demonstrates extraordinary leadership and promotion of food safety at their workplace.

This year’s finalists include:

• Samantha Shinbaum, associate director of regulatory policy and compliance at Tyson Foods, Inc.
• Robert Clark, quality manager at Vital Farms.
• Hugo Lopez, quality assurance manager at Heritage Coffee Co. Ltd.

2024 SQF Excellence Awards

The winners of the SQF Excellence Awards will be announced at SQF Unites on Tuesday, March 12 at 4:30 p.m. CDT. During this ceremony, SQFI will also celebrate the recipients of the FMI Foundation Food Safety Auditing Scholarships, given to students currently enrolled in food and agricultural science majors with expressed interest in the field of accredited food safety auditing.

The SQF Excellence Awards are sponsored by Exemplar Global. For more information about the 2024 SQF Excellence Awards, please visit www.sqfi.com/sqf-professionals/sqf-excellence-awards.