Dear Food Safety Professional,
The Arkansas Association of Food Protection has a mission to promote collaboration and excellence in the world of food safety. We at AAFP have worked a long time to build a community of stakeholders – industry, academia, and health agencies – to improve food safety throughout the supply chain in the state of Arkansas. It is my great honor to serve as the President of AAFP for 2026.
I am a native of Arkansas and due to my father being a professor at the University of Arkansas, I practically grew up on the U of A campus! Of course, I attended the U of A and while I was in graduate school in Food Science, I became President of the Food Science Club which meant I was also the student liaison to the local IFT affiliate. My job then was to encourage the students in the Food Science club to participate in the those monthly meetings. However, I presented a paper of my graduate work at the IAMFES meeting in the Summer of 1997. The name changed a few years later to IAFP and since that first experience with this organization, I have maintained membership in the International Association of Food Protection of which AAFP is an affiliate. I finally reconnected with AAFP in 2018 through the Annual Fall meeting and have been an enthusiastic participant ever since. I have found membership in both IAFP and AAFP to have greatly enhanced my knowledge and career in food safety.
For 2026, we are looking to increase our visibility across Arkansas by actively reaching out to the food safety professionals in all sectors of the food industry. We would like to encourage anyone with an interest in food safety to attend our Annual meeting in the Fall and to consider joining our organization. We offer a platform where you can increase your knowledge of what’s current and next in food safety as well as broaden your networking opportunities with other food safety professionals. We want your energy and input to keep our organization vital, growing and advancing the frontier of food safety in Arkansas and across the US.
Finally, a big thank you to all of the members of AAFP for your support and commitment to this organization. That commitment is what keeps us going strong and having an impact on food protection now and in the future.
Deborah L. Sattely
President, AAFP (2026)
Technical Services, Domestic and International
Safe Foods, Division of Fortrex
Deborah Sattely is a graduate of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a B.S. degree in Animal Science and an M.S. degree in Food Safety/Food Microbiology. She also has an M.B.A. from Purdue University in Food and Agricultural Business. She has been involved in food safety for more than 35 years holding a variety of positions in the food industry including Meat Inspector with USDA FSIS, Food Microbiologist for Cryovac Food Packaging, Technical Services for Ecolab Antimicrobials, and Quality Assurance Management with Halpern’s Steak and Seafood in Atlanta GA as well as Cargill Turkey in Springdale AR. Deborah is currently in Technical Services with Safe Foods where she has spent the last 10 years working with both Domestic and International customers to improve their food safety systems in order to ensure a safer food supply.