Karl Thorson

Karl Thorson is a corporate Global Food Safety and Sanitation Manager, leading Sanitation for General Mills globally. Karl received his Bachelors of Science degree in Food Science from the University of Minnesota. His experience includes 24 years with Pillsbury/General Mills in both plant and corporate roles in Quality, Operations, and Sanitation. He has worked with multiple product platforms including cereal, pizza, yogurt, dough products, snacks and other dry, refrigerated and frozen products. His areas of focus include allergen and pathogen control, sanitary design, and sanitation training/education. He chaired the GMA (Grocery Manufacturers Association) Sanitation Working Group for 3 years and currently hosts their annual sanitary design workshop. He also works with BEMA (Bakery Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds), Alliance for Advanced Sanitation, and PMMI (The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies) OpX Leadership Network to help advance food safety through sanitation and sanitary design for the food industry. He has been recognized as the Baking & Snack’s 2016 Operations Executive of the Year and 2016 Sanitarian of the Year by IAFP (International Association of Food Protection).