Life Lessons with Peggy Poole

During her first job in food safety, Peggy Poole, Ph.D., didn’t yet know it was her first job in food safety.

She was in high school and working at McDonald’s as a cashier. Looking back, Poole realized that role gave her an understanding of how to handle food safely and properly.

“I learned so much about the importance of food safety — time and temperature, cleaning and sanitation,” Poole said. “That was actually my first introduction to food science before I knew it.”

Today, Poole is nearing the end of her term as the 86th president of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), a Chicago-based organization committed to the advancement of food science around the world. Her career has spanned more than 40 years, with an unwavering passion for food science woven throughout.

Originally from New Jersey, Poole chose to attend Rutgers University and was on the pre-med track. After a hospital internship, Poole decided she didn’t want to become a medical doctor.

“So, I wandered over my senior year to the food science department, and I took a few classes,” Poole said. “I fell in love with the department, its programs, the people — and the rest is history.”

It’s safe to say Poole is a devoted alumna. She received her master’s degree in food science with a focus on sensory and post-harvest physiology and earned her Ph.D. in food science biochemistry at Rutgers, where she also learned about IFT, and its New York section, for the first time.

Poole has dedicated much of her career to supporting students in food science and safety. She has served on the advisory boards of food science departments at Rutgers, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Penn State University.

While she has always been active in supporting the next generation, Poole was also busy leading R&D, regulatory affairs and quality assurance at companies such as Häagen-Dazs, Kraft Foods, HP Hood LLC and Leprino Foods. Her most recent role was as vice president of the tea division at Bigelow Tea Company.

The position appealed to Poole because it combined work she had previously done (quality, food safety, regulatory and new product development) with the added responsibility of procuring tea ingredients. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never done that. That sounds like fun!’” she said.

After retiring from Bigelow in 2024, Poole began serving her term as IFT president in September 2025. Being president, she said, has combined all her career experiences and industry sectors into one role, allowing her to set IFT up for a bright future.

Never in a million years did I ever think when I was a student that I’d have the privilege of serving in this position [as IFT president]. It is, for me, the pinnacle of my career.

One of the greatest privileges of the positions I’ve held is being able to help others achieve as far as they can go, seeing where their strengths were, being honest where their weaknesses were and helping them find the path for their ultimate success. What a journey and a privilege. Leadership, for me, is a way to make a difference daily by committing to continuous improvement for myself and others.

IFT is evolving, and that change is helping transform challenges into opportunities and ideas into progress. Change can be uncomfortable, but ultimately it pushes you to grow and discover new possibilities. At IFT, change is how we fulfill our mission and bring our vision to life, harnessing science, innovation and collaboration to create a better food future for everyone.

The IFT team is so supportive. They’ve done an amazing amount of work in the timeframe that I’ve served on IFT as a board member.

When I lived in Massachusetts and I was working at HP Hood, a neighbor came up to me at the bus stop. She explained to me that her daughter was extremely allergic to peanuts, and she asked me if it was safe for her to have a Hoodsie vanilla ice cream cup. She was really afraid for her daughter’s life. So, I looked her straight in the eye and I said, ‘It is safe to give your daughter a Hoodsie cup.’ And I took that back to work to remind people of how serious it really is — the job they do every day. It can be tedious, it can be repetitive, but it makes such a difference in the life of a person.

My hope, first and foremost, is that we continue to attract the smartest, the strongest, most inquisitive students into the food science programs, because they are our future.

My other open prayer is that we continue to support academic research. Not only continue, but expand it. We need to make sure that we’re training students and also doing valuable research. … We need to continue to support those people in academia.