Young Farmers & Ranchers: Food safety manager points to diverse jobs in agriculture

By Ching Lee

When Katie Verhoef was earning her bachelor’s degree in business administration, she did not imagine that she would one day oversee food safety for a California grower, packer and shipper.  

Her focus at California State University, Bakersfield, was in agricultural business and marketing, and she said she saw herself working in marketing. But after interning for a Kern County company in the quality assurance department and learning about the food safety side of the business, she said it “opened my eyes to other parts of the ag industry.”

These days, as an eight-year member of the Kern County chapter of the California Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers program, Verhoef talks to college students about the different career possibilities in agriculture that they may not have thought of.

“I always tell people, ‘Never be afraid of the opportunity,’” she said. “I was dead set on wanting to do marketing. But by saying yes to that quality assurance internship, that opened my eyes to other parts of the ag industry and led me to where I am today.”

Verhoef works as the food safety manager for San Joaquin Valley-based AC Foods, which has farms in California, Oregon and Australia. She ensures that the company’s produce is grown, harvested, packed and stored according to federal food safety standards and regulations. 

Most of her work occurs in California, where the company grows, packs and ships blueberries and citrus fruit, with some production of almonds. Sometimes her job takes her to Oregon, where the company also farms blueberries and hazelnuts. 

Certain customers have their own food safety requirements, and she coordinates third-party audits for AC Foods’ farms and facilities in the two states. 

Her job entails taking water and product samples and conducting internal food safety inspections to ensure food safety standards are met on the farm, during harvest and when the product is packed, stored and shipped. She also trains employees on good farming, harvesting and manufacturing practices. 

“There’s an entire process—from growing, harvesting, packing and storing and shipping,” Verhoef said. “Food safety is involved just to make sure that we’re following the standards and regulations that we have to follow to produce a safe product.”

Verhoef grew up in Bakersfield, where she still lives. As a youngster, she showed pigs as part of her 4-H projects. Throughout her high school years, her family operated what she described as a small hobby farm with 1 or 2 acres of different fruits and vegetables, which they sold at Kern County farmers markets. 

After graduating from CSUB, she began working full time in food safety. She also earned a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in leadership from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.

She said her work at AC Foods’ food safety department not only puts her in the field inspecting all aspects of the production process, but she gets to work with “pretty much almost every department in our company”—from the farm to packing, processing and cold storage. 

“It’s all a team effort,” Verhoef said. “We all need each other to be successful. We all have different roles and parts in the company and different roles and parts in the ag industry, and we are successful by coming together and working together.”

To ensure food safety on the farm, she emphasized the importance of water quality in growing a safe product. She tests for everything from E. coli to maximum residue levels of certain materials.  

“That’s why we take the product samples,” she said. “We’re verifying that there’s no chemical residue on the product and that the product is safe to harvest.” 

Her involvement with Kern County YF&R dates to her Cal State college years when a friend invited her to one of the group’s meetings. Since then, she’s been part of the group’s executive team for three years and the state YF&R committee since 2022.

“I joined because of opportunities it offered to connect with other young farmers and ranchers—not only locally in Kern County but also statewide—and just being able to promote agriculture to the next generation,” Verhoef said.

While membership has fluctuated through the years, she said the group has seen more participation in recent years, especially in 2023. 

“People have changed, but the group continues to be active in the community, such as providing ag grants to 4-H and FFA students” to help fund their projects, she said.

She pointed to the success of the Kern County YF&R charity farmers market, which the group has done for nearly a decade. YF&R members sell donated produce and other products from local agricultural companies. The money raised from the events is used to build gardens at local schools.

Last year, Kern County YF&R expanded its work with CSUB’s agriculture group, connecting with college students who are involved in agriculture in the community. The hope is that students would become more involved in YF&R, she said, meet others in the business and realize “that there’s a lot of different parts of the ag industry.”

“There’s more than just being a farmer,” Verhoef said. “The farmer is still important. We still need farmers. But there’s other aspects of the ag industry—like if your passion is sales, you can do sales.”

Verhoef said her favorite part of being in YF&R is getting to know others in agriculture—not just those in the local community but throughout the state—and learning about the different facets of California agriculture. She said she also appreciates the volunteer opportunities YF&R offers.

“Seeing different parts of the industry through tours and talking to other members and guest speakers, you’re able to learn different parts of the ag industry and expand your own knowledge,” she said. “You are also learning the whole process, and you can take what you’ve learned and pass it on to others.”

(Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)