March 28, 2022, Orlando FL – Fresh Express Incorporated today announced the addition of two key managers to its Corporate Food Safety & Quality Team. According to John Gurrisi, Vice President, Food Safety & Quality, the new additions underscore the company’s continuing commitment to food safety excellence and to ensuring the highest levels of product integrity.
Dr. Zhe (Harry) Hou, Director of Food Safety
Dr. Zhe (Harry) Hou has been named Director of Food Safety and will be based at the company’s Streamwood, Illinois facility serving in a companywide capacity. Dr. Hou has over 15 years’ experience working in academia on research projects funded through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture and holding various leadership roles in industry and food safety professional associations.
Before joining Fresh Express, Dr. Hou oversaw food safety and sanitation at manufacturing and distribution sites, conducted HACCP validations and auditing programs, managed high risk ingredients and global supplier programs, directed shelf life testing, and supported regulatory inspections for such companies as Farmers’ Fridge, Wrigley Americas and Kraft Foods Group.
Dr. Hou received his Ph.D. in Food Science with an emphasis in food safety from the University of Minnesota, where his research focused on understanding the interaction and natural internalization at the molecular level between human pathogens and fresh produce.
Jacob Aguirre, Senior Manager of Sanitation
Jacob Aguirre joins Fresh Express as Corporate Senior Manager of Sanitation, based in the Salinas, California facility. He will provide sanitation leadership and support to all Fresh Express facilities throughout the United States.
Aguirre has more than 14 years’ plant sanitation and food safety experience including many years fulfilling wide-ranging sanitation responsibilities supporting Commercial Food Sanitation, LLC and produce industry groups for Hygiene Design Team, Produce Sanitation Best Practices and Hygienic Zoning Team. A certified Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI), his expertise includes the Sanitation Continuum and Hygienic Design of Equipment.
Previously, Aguirre held roles with Del Monte/Mann Packing, True Leaf Farms/Church Brothers, Earthbound Farms, Kellogg Company and ConAgra Foods.
About Fresh Express®
Fresh Express® is the brand leader in Value Added Salads and is dedicated to providing consumers with healthy, convenient ready-to-eat salads, leafy greens, vegetables and fruits. With the invention of its special Keep Crisp® bag in the 1980s, Fresh Express pioneered the retail packaged salad category and was the first to make them available to grocery stores nationwide. Today, Fresh Express fresh salads come in more than 100 different varieties offering exciting new flavors and convenient new ways to meet the daily dietary requirements for both conventional and organic fresh produce. More than 14 million consumers each week enjoy healthy, convenient ready-to-eat Fresh Express salads, spinach and vegetables. For more information, visit www.FreshExpress.com.
