As an engineer and highly respected food scientist, Angela Tellez-Lance has garnered what is considered a unique combination of skills in the food industry.
She has earned international recognition for her expertise in food microbiology, food quality, risk analysis and incident management, and has designed and implemented processes to solve food safety problems efficiently. She has also trained more than 1,800 food safety managers and directors in larger companies.
Tellez-Lance is now providing her specialization with Niagara College’s Food & Beverage Innovation Centre (FBIC) as a Research Lead.
Prior to spending the past 17 years in the food and quality management field, Tellez-Lance earned a Master’s degree in Agriculture and Biological Engineer (Texas A&M University) and a doctorate in Food Safety and Microbiology (University of Guelph).
She is currently the Risk Analysis and Food Expert Adviser for Synthesis Food Consulting Group, where she supports food manufacturing and related organizations to comply with food safety regulations. Previous to that, Tellez-Lance gained experience as Director of Operations at the Guelph Food Innovation Centre (University of Guelph). She has had broad industry experience and has worked in companies such as The Kraft Heinz Company, where she served as the Food Safety and Microbiology Lead for Canada.
Earlier in her career and while Operations Manager at the Canadian Research Institute of Food Safety at the University of Guelph, she developed food safety training material such as the “Maple Leaf Food Safety Education.” She was also the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) Development Analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
At Niagara College, Tellez-Lance and the FBIC team work closely with industry partners using applied research to help them in resolving complex problems, reviewing the safety and regulatory compliance of new products, implementing food safety management systems and designing validation studies.