Gayan Hettiarachchi

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT GAYAN HETTIARACHCHI

As a food safety expert, I truly believe that companies set out to perform food processing safely, but they need someone to design and implement overarching food safety policy. As Director of Food Safety for Champion Petfoods LP, this is what I do. I work with our team to implement a comprehensive food safety system at Champion, in compliance with different food safety regulations and global food safety standards such as GFSI, with the expertise I’ve developed over the past 10 years in the fields of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory sciences. Not long after starting my career as a small animal veterinarian, I enrolled in two Master’s degree programs in the fields of veterinary epidemiology and animal product technologies. That enhanced my professional career in the field of food safety, quality assurance & regulatory affairs in primary production and food manufacturing. I was appointed to the Food Safety Expert Roster of the Food Safety and Codex Unit, which is attached to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and am a member of the Food Safety Advisory Working Group of the Pet Food Association of Canada (PFAC). I have also co-authored several international research publications on animal diseases of public health importance. With help from my Champion team, I led the company to be awarded the first-ever GFSI Global Markets Award in 2017, for continuous improvement in food safety systems, through GFSI’s Global Markets Program. This achievement reflects Champion’s commitment to a rigorous and credible food safety management system and is a testament to Champion’s vision of being “Trusted by Pet Lovers Everywhere.” In addition to my passion and expertise in food safety, I am also interested in system implementation, team building and food safety culture enhancement.