My Story…

I’m small town. I’m blue-collar proud. The middle of three daughters, I was born to a stay-at-home mom and a dad that worked full-time “in town” and full-time “on the farm”. In Minnesota, my sisters and I grew up on honesty, family dedication, community commitment, and a strong work ethic. These values have guided me in both my personal and professional life. A life which is grounded in community. Where family and friends are brought together at crowded tables by our shared passion for food. My passion for food includes exploring the cultural connections between food, history, art, and music. As Maya Angelou poetically claimed, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Biography…

Michelle Steene started her career in 1996 at a contract laboratory conducting Salmonella and Listeria testing. Shortly thereafter, she moved on to food processing in a Food Safety Quality role at a cereal and grain milling manufacturer in Iowa. Michelle stayed working in food and beverage production at FDA and USDA regulated facilities located in Minnesota for the next two decades. In 1999, she oversaw the USDA / FSIS implementation of the new meat and poultry HACCP and sanitation regulations at Schweigert Foods. While working for Del Monte, she led her team in attaining its first BRC certification in order to meet Walmart’s 2008 Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). She did the same at Zumbro River Brand in 2012, leading the company to attain its first SQF certification in less than six months. Michelle has extensive management experience working for both small, family-owned operations as well as large, global corporations.

Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Technology from Southwest Minnesota State University and is a certified Safe Quality Food (SQF) Auditor. In 2014, she started Quest Food Consulting located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Through Quest Food Consulting, she advocates for the necessity of a thriving, sustainable, local food ecosystem to get more locally sourced, better-quality products onto our tables and on more store shelves. She partners with food and beverage producers to help them standardize work, meet production demands and deadlines, identify inefficiencies, develop management systems, and implement effective business practices.

In addition to consulting, Michelle conducts contracted inspections of food manufacturing facilities, distribution, and warehousing operations to assess a site's compliance with customer, industry, and regulatory requirements. Over the last 8 years, she has audited over 300 North American food and beverage companies to certify them to GFSI standards specific to the SQF Institute.