Unwrapping Food Waste

Dr. Julie M. Goddard (@Prof_JMGoddard) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University; she holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Food Science. Dr. Goddard worked at Kraft Foods as a research engineer before returning to academe to establish her research program on biomaterials and biointerfaces in food and agriculture, currently funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and private industry. She has proudly mentored 25 amazing M.S./Ph.D. students whose work developing new biocatalytic materials, active food packaging, and nonfouling/antimicrobial materials is reported in more than 75 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Goddard was the recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Young Scientist Award, the Institute of Food Technologists Samuel Cate Prescott Award for Research, and the Institute of Food Technologists Marcel Loncin Research Prize.   

Kai Robertson is an independent senior corporate sustainability advisor with 30 years of food industry experience. She provides insights to an array of organizations on sustainability strategies and stakeholder engagement. 

Ms. Robertson is an expert on food loss/waste, with one of her roles being Lead Advisor of the Food Loss and Waste Protocol for the World Resources Institute (WRI). She provides guidance to companies and others about how to measure food loss and waste and take action to reduce it. 

Over the course of her career, Ms. Robertson has worked with a range of companies, including Walmart, Kellogg’s, Unilever, and McDonald’s, as well as highly respected civil society organizations such as Ceres, Oxfam, BSR, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International. She received an MBA from Northwestern University and is a proud graduate of Cornell University. 

Paola Appendini has worked with Mars Inc. as a Principal Engineer in Global Packaging since April 2018. Mars is a global, family-owned business that produces a diverse portfolio of confectionery, food, and pet care products. Her areas of focus include research on reuse models for packaging elimination, developing packaging “fit” for digital demand, and new technologies exploration. Dr. Appendini is also responsible for strategy development and building capabilities for the Mars Wrigley Global Packaging organization.

Immediately prior to joining Mars, Dr. Appendini worked as a Global Nutrition Packaging Innovation Manager with PepsiCo for two and a half years, and she spent an additional 14 years as an Associate Principal Engineer with The Kraft Company. In these roles, Dr. Appendini launched to market new product packages for several food categories. She holds six design and utility patents.

Dr. Appendini earned both a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell University. She has published several papers on antimicrobial and active food packaging. Dr. Appendini has also been active in the past with organizations like Keep Chicago Beautiful, which promote recycling, composting, and reuse.   

Toby Thomas has 30 years of food packaging experience focused on research, new products, and business development. With over 40 patents, Mr. Thomas has utilized food packaging innovations to develop new branded products, including Hefty OneZip and Slide-Rite. He has degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UW-Madison and Texas A&M University. Mr. Thomas’s additional skills include process automation, active packaging, and product development, with corporate roles in capital and business planning, intellectual property, operations management, and product pricing.