Moving food packaging science forward

Dr. Claire Koelsch Sand

Claire Sand is a Global Packaging Leader with over 35 years of food science and packaging experience. Sand's mission is to enable a more sustainable food system by advancing science and value chain innovations that increase food shelf life and prevent food waste. She manages cross-functional teams, implements innovative solutions, creates compelling business and technology strategies and business cases, and creates implementation roadmaps for the packaging and food industries.
 
Dr. Sand is the owner and founder of Packaging Technology and Research, LLC, as well as Gazelle Mobile Packaging Inc. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Michigan State University and CalPoly, and a monthly contributor to Packaging Digest. She is an IFT Fellow, the Riester-Davis-Brody Lifetime Achievement in Food Packaging Award recipient, a member of numerous Editorial Boards, the author of the Packaging Value Chain, and the cochair of pacfoodwaste.
 
Claire has previously worked at Total Quality Marketing, Nestle, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Safeway, and academia, as well as in basic research, development market research, and marketing in Germany, Colombia, and Thailand.
 
Dr. Sand received her  doctorate in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Minnesota, as well as a master's and bachelor's degrees in packaging from Michigan State University.
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Current Affiliations
Owner and Founder

• Packaging Technology and Research, LLC.  Minneapolis, Minnesota.  

Adjunct Professor​

• Michigan State University.  E. Lansing, Michigan MS/PhD program
• California Polytechnic University (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo, California

​Columnist

• Food Technology Packaging monthly column
• Packaging Digest, Food Packaging monthly column

       
Leadership and Service
Recent Awards

• Riester-Davis-Brody award for Lifetime achievement in food packaging
• Fellow, Institute of Food Technologists

Association Leadership

• SPRING, Advisory Board
• pac, Co-Chair Food Waste
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Reviewer
• Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Executive Board, Food Packaging Division
• Lifetime member of Phi Tau Sigma
• Strategic Relations & Chapter Affairs committee Phi Tau Sigma (food science honorary society)
• University of Minnesota Alumni Association and CFANS

Editorial Boards

• Packaging Science and Technology, John Wiley and Sons
• Critical Review in Food Science and Technology 
• Journal of Food Science 

Respectful leadership in food packaging

To view Dr. Claire Sand's cv, click here.

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