Meet Anitra Payne: Supporting the science of food safety around the world

Anitra Payne is a self-described problem-solver who likes to be challenged. If you look at the span of her career in Food Safety and Quality, you’ll see someone with a curious mindset, a strong technical background, and ultimately, a collaborator and relationship-builder.

“I don’t think people realize how technical agriculture can be. There’s been many growth opportunities and chances to learn here at Land O’Lakes,” she says.

In her current role as Quality Manager, she oversees the Laboratory and NIR Center of Excellence teams which are part of the Corporate Quality Product Safety & Regulatory group at Land O’Lakes. That means she supports all U.S. labs to ensure they’re set up to the highest standards, so that they can produce accurate test results with appropriate equipment and test methods. This ensures that the products we produce are safe and of high quality.

“My favorite part of my job is making a difference. If there's an issue and I can make someone’s life easier, more efficient, or think about ways to be innovative, then I’ve succeeded.”

Anitra has been at Land O’Lakes for 23 years and has grown into her position since starting out as an associate scientist with our Dairy Foods division. She has held several roles, but one constant has been the opportunity to visit and work with many of our manufacturing facilities across the U.S.

“I love working with the labs at our facilities. I learn so much from them. They may have some way they're doing something that I can help pass on to others. If it weren't for the plants producing our products, we wouldn't be here.”

Onto Bangladesh with Land O’Lakes Venture37

Created in the 1980’s, Land O’Lakes Venture37 is an affiliated international agricultural development nonprofit. Venture37 gives Land O’Lakes employees the opportunity to support local food and agriculture institutions as consultants through the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program.

This is what Anitra Payne did in November 2022 when she traveled to Bangladesh to support food safety and quality at several government laboratories across the country.

“I had known about the Farmer-to-Farmer program with Land O’Lakes for years, and the timing just worked out in November. I was in Bangladesh for two weeks, and it was a whirlwind – I traveled to three regions of the country and supported eight different laboratories.”

“It definitely changed my mindset. Food safety is always top of my mind, but when you see it in a new context --- a country with a growing population, a growing economy, that is looking to develop strong trade --- how do you approach building that successful food safety system? Experiencing other cultures gets you out of your comfort zone. I’m anxious to go again.”

Thanks to Anitra’s work and identified improvement areas, the labs have integrated process improvements and automations, organized additional trainings, and have started preparations to apply for accreditation.

Re-imagining the Business of Food

“Land O’Lakes is a company that cares about community: locally and globally. I had work-life balance as my kids were growing up, which was so important to me.”