AMI President to Step Down

WASHINGTONAmerican Meat Institute (AMI) President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle will step down at the end of 2013 after 24 years of service to the meat and poultry industry. Boyle is the longest serving president in AMIs 107-year history.

Boyle joined AMI in 1990 after serving as administrator of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)s Agricultural Marketing Service. Before that, he worked as an attorney at several food trade associations and as agricultural legislative assistant to former Senator Pete Wilson (R-CA).

It has been an honor and a privilege to lead this great industry for more than two decades," Boyle said. "With the organization in a sound position to meet the challenges of the future and given the many accomplishments of the last two decades, this year seemed like an appropriate time for me to move onto another phase of my professional life."

During Boyles tenure, AMI formally petitioned USDA to require nutrition labels on meat and poultry products and to promulgate a regulation requiring that meat and poultry plants implement food safety control based on hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP). USDA subsequently issued final regulations on both proposals.

Boyle joined AMI prior to some of the industrys most notable recent challenges. When E. coli O157:H7 emerged as a new pathogen of concern in the early 1990s, Boyle led the reestablishment of the AMI Foundation, which made its mission to reduce and ultimately eliminate E. coli O157:H7 in raw ground beef and Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat products. During his tenure, the Foundations research and education programs have contributed toward the food safety progress that is evidenced by the declining levels of bacteria on many meat and poultry products.

During the 1990s, Boyle and his team also were the early adopters of the animal welfare approach of Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University. AMI first partnered with Grandin in 1991 on its Recommended Animal Handling Guidelines for the Meat Industry, and later on an animal welfare audit program that has become the global standard around the world.

Also under Boyle's leadership, the AMI board voted to make key issues non-competitive, including food safety, animal welfare, worker safety and the environment.

Under Patricks 24 years of leadership, AMI has been an influential voice for the meat and poultry industry successfully addressing numerous public policy challenges," said AMI Chairman Nick Meriggioli, president of Kraft Foods, Inc. and Oscar Mayer. "He has led AMIs efforts that have enhanced the safety of our products, the protection of our workers, the welfare of our animals and the preservation of our environment."

For additional information on new trends in the meat industry, view the Food Product Design slide show "The Changing World of Meat."