[In the Field] Auditor Profile: Galen Haar

With 25 years of food industry experience and an educational background of biology, organic chemistry and business administration, Galen Haar feels like he thoroughly understands the technical and business aspects of a variety of food processing operations.

After completing his education at Penn State, York College and the University of Miami, Haar spent 20 years servicing food businesses in the specialty chemical and pest control industries. Five years ago, he branched out and used his experience to become an AIB auditor. These days Haar serves AIB customers in the northeast region and also provides dedicated and specialty audits throughout the United States.

Haar’s food industry resume is quite extensive. He has completed advanced HACCP training, is qualified as a food defense coordinator and recently completed Better Process Control School. On top of that, he is qualified to perform GMA, Gold Standard and Frito-Lay audits — an accomplishment that requires comprehensive training and preparation.

Before coming to AIB, Haar worked in the specialty chemical industry, where he reported to a very demanding vice president who also was an accomplished writer. Part of his job was to produce articles for selected business journals and give presentations at tradeshow seminars. He also provided in-plant seminars to help train line workers to understand chemical technologies. He learned a great deal about professional writing during that time and was able to sharpen his journalistic and public speaking skills.

These experiences have paid off, since his job as an AIB auditor involves providing training audits, writing magazine articles and being one of many faces for the global company.

Haar gets asked new questions on the job every day. They mostly range from technical process improvement to how to improve audit scores to questions about industry happenings. The most common questions Haar receives relate to current industry events. Customers always want to know AIB’s stance on the latest trends and topics, particularly new traceability and record keeping regulations, how to avoid produce contamination and what the modernized GMPs will contain.

In the ever-changing food industry where the bar for food safety, food defense, quality and processing technologies is being raised constantly, Haar challenges new employees to embrace the advice and teaching of experienced workers and ask questions. “If you love challenges and change, you will love working in the food industry,” he said.

The life of an AIB auditor is always filled with excitement, but it can be a very tiring job full of travel days. In 2007 alone, Haar traveled to California, Washington D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, New Jersey and New York to provide audits and inspections.

When he’s not gallivanting around the United States, Haar likes to spend his time with his family. He’s been married for 26 years and has two children, ages 20 and 17. He also enjoys motorcycling, reading and playing chess.

With a resume packed with so many years of experience, Haar is a great asset to AIB’s food safety team. We look forward to watching his knowledge and skills grow in the years to come.

The author is Publication Coordinator, AIB International.