Marjon Wells-Bennik

NIZO food research
Ede Netherlands

Biographical Sketch: Marjon Wells-Bennik is Principle Scientist Food Safety at NIZO (The Netherlands). The focus of her work is on preventing and solving food safety and quality issues for customers in the food industry. Together with other NIZO experts, multidisciplinary approaches range from (high throughput) challenge testing, troubleshooting activities, process validations, microbial and chemical risk assessments, to in-depth genomics analysis of microbial diversity to detect problem-causing bacteria. She managed large programs on heat resistant bacterial spores relevant to foods (Bacillus and Clostridium species) and on microbial contaminants in the dairy chain (spoilers and pathogens). Her broad expertise and background in food safety and quality was shaped by her MSc and PhD research at Wageningen University, Postdoc at Harvard University, and work experience at the Agrotechnological Research Institute (Wageningen), the Institute of Food Research (Norwich, UK), and NIZO. She is an author on more than 60 scientific publications.

Papers:
Hurdles to Prevent Outgrowth of Listeria monocytogenes: Evaluation of Factors in Gouda Cheese