Joseph Scimeca, PhD, recently retired from his 3.5-year position with the International Dairy Food Association (IFDA) as the Senior Vice President, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs. Scimeca has extensive technical regulatory and scientific expertise that includes over 37 years of industry experience. In his position with IDFA, he provided strategic regulatory and scientific leadership for the dairy food and beverage industry, covering a broad range of areas including product safety, quality, and labeling; nutrition and health policy; product identity standards; food defense; sustainability initiatives; Codex and other international standards; technical trade barriers; and emerging science and technologies affecting the dairy sector.  

Prior to IDFA, he was at Cargill Inc., where he worked for 16 years, serving as Vice President of Global Regulatory & Scientific Affairs. For Cargill, Scimeca provided leadership for ensuring food, feed, and other consumer products were safe; protected against intentional acts of economic adulteration and bioterrorism; and stayed in conformance with relevant food/feed regulations, standards, and internal policies. He managed a team of 30 regulatory professionals based in locations around the world that collaborated with their business partners in facilitating compliance against existing and emerging regulations. Previously, he held similar regulatory affairs roles with General Mills, Pillsbury, and Kraft. 

Scimeca has a proven track record working with the FDA and USDA to lead the broad food industry in regulatory reform, with notable efforts in shaping and influencing FDA FSMA regulations, and with several foreign governments in their efforts to modernize food regulations, including China, Canada, India, EU, and Indonesia. Scimeca is skilled at building and leading private-public partnerships to advance food safety initiatives leading to improved public health.  

He chaired or served on numerous and varied technical committees for scientific, academic, and trade organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, IUFoST, IFT, ILSI, FARRP, and JIFSAN, among others.  He had authored nearly 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers, monographs, and book chapters.  

He holds a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BA in Biology/Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia.  

In his leisure time, he enjoys traveling with his wife and adult children, and occasionally finding time to run, backpack, and rock-climb.