In her new role as Hojeij Branded Foods’ (HBF) global food safety specialist, Denise Fowlin-Mignott is working behind the scenes to take some of the stress out of flying for guests. Fowlin-Mignott, who has dedicated her career to public health initiatives, is now responsible for instituting food safety best practices for over 2,000 employees at more than 75 HBF foodservice locations at 14 airports across the country.
In addition to traveling to locations daily to work with HBF restaurant leaders to check food temperatures and review food logs and records, Fowlin-Mignott makes sure all foodservice operations are running above and beyond government standards for food safety.
Fowlin-Mignott began as a nursing major at Southern Connecticut State University but quickly realized she would be able to help more people by switching to a public health concentration. She began her career going restaurant to restaurant with her food thermometers as a local health inspector and now oversees HBF’s exemplary food safety practices.
“We are focused on training and creating a superior food safety culture with all of our staff,” she says. “HBF is positioning itself to be a global leader in food safety, and it’s exciting to be a part of that.”
Fowlin-Mignott also oversees a unique company-wide communications system designed to send valuable real-time updates to its locations across the country anytime a food recall is received by a supplier so swift action can be taken.
“Food safety has been my passion my entire career,” says Fowlin-Mignott. “If I’m doing my job correctly, our guests may never meet me or even know about my role. That’s fine with me. Just knowing that each guest is the beneficiary of that work is incredibly rewarding.”
