Hormel Foods promotes food safety, quality executive

Hormel Foods Corp., recently announced Jeremiah Johnson would be the next vice president of global food safety and quality management at the company.

He will succeed Richard Carlson, who is retiring from the role after 35 years with Hormel.

“Jeremiah brings deep expertise in food safety, quality and regulatory affairs, along with strong operational knowledge, making him well-prepared to lead this critical function,” said John Ghingo, president of Hormel. “He has led key initiatives to strengthen our food safety systems and safeguard the trust consumers place in our brands. Jeremiah’s proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, elevate standards and drive continuous improvement make him the right leader for this important role.”

Johnson began at Hormel Foods in 2005 and most recently served as director of food safety management. His first role with the company was process control supervisor at the Austin, Minn., plant before advancing through the quality and process control manager roles at the Algona, Iowa, plant and the company’s former Vernon, Calif., facility.

In 2015, Johnson was promoted to corporate manager for regulatory, compliance and HACCP before expanding his responsibilities two years later to oversee the sanitation process in Hormel production facilities. Johnson was named assistant director of food safety management in 2023, before being promoted last year.

Johnson graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and is an active member and past chair of the Meat Institute Food Safety and Inspection Affairs Committee.

Carlson started with Hormel in 1990, as a quality and process control engineer at the Austin plant. He moved into various quality assurance and production management positions at the company’s former Stockton, Calif., and Owatonna, Minn., facilities along with the Jennie-O plant in Willmar, Minn. In 2000, he was promoted to director of quality assurance at Jennie-O, and in 2010, he was promoted to vice president of quality management for the turkey business unit. Carlson moved into the corporate office in Austin in 2014, where he became the vice president of quality management at Hormel.