Anabelle Broadbent
CEO & Founder at Verde Ops
Dr. Anabelle Broadbent, is an internationally renowned pathogenic food microbiologist, food/nutrition research scientist, biochemist, and food safety expert with over 35 years of experience working in government, private industry, and academia.
She was the President and Chief Science Officer for Fusion Farms, a hurricane-protected indoor vertical aquaponic farm she is leading the path to creating food security and food sovereignty for Puerto Rico. Fusion Farms builds and manages modern farming solutions using sustainable, controlled aquaponic environments for communities that face environmental, climatic and economic challenges.
Controlled Environment Aquaponics (CEAq) combines elements of hydroponics, aquaculture and renewable energy in a fully contained and controlled, high-output farming environment. This unique combination of technologies allows for the organic production of a variety of vegetable products, as well as fish, all within a CEA facility. Fusion Farms’ goal is to provide a local, reliable source of fresh, nutritious food to Puerto Rico, eliminate its reliance on expensive, sub-par food imports, and restore the island’s food sovereignty, security, and independence.
Dr. Broadbent is the CEO & Founder of Verde Ops providing food science operational services and delivering food safety risk reduction strategies to plant-based and alternative protein food and beverage companies. Areas of food science expertise offered by Verde Ops included: Food Microbiology, Food Processing and Preservation, Food Product Development, Sensory Evaluation of Foods, Food Chemistry, Food Analysis and Nutrition Science.
Prior to launching Verde Ops, Dr. Broadbent was part of The Acheson Group, LLC (TAG), a prestigious strategic global consulting firm for food and beverage companies and those providing technical support to the food industry. As Director of Food Safety, she served as a Subject Matter Expert in food safety and scientific affairs/regulatory affairs/public health, both domestically and internationally, helping food companies throughout the food supply chain more effectively mitigate risk, improve operational efficiencies, and ensure regulatory and non-regulatory compliance.
In her role as Vice President of Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Dr. Broadbent spent years immersed in the raw, plant-based, minimally processed, gluten free, vegan, organic, non-GMO, kosher snacks segment of the food industry providing strategic leadership, direction, and guidance on Food Science, Nutrition Science, Food Safety, Quality Assurance, Environmental Monitoring and Sanitation Management programs.
Dr. Broadbent’s association with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has spanned over 30 years. She began as a NASA Spaceflight & Life Sciences Training Program undergraduate researcher. Her NASA-funded graduate work examined the survival of potentially pathogenic human-associated bacteria in the rhizosphere of hydroponically-grown wheat, a NASA candidate crop for life support in long-duration space missions.
As a Senior Scientist/Microbiologist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Intervention Technologies Research Unit in the Food Science and Human Nutrition peer group, her research focused on the development and optimization of competitive exclusion treatments to suppress the growth of food borne pathogens on sprouts. During her tenure with the USDA she established scientific research collaborative efforts with NASA, United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Research Center for Food and Development (Mexico) and the National Food Research Institute of Japan. As a Senior Scientist/Microbiologist in private industry (Rohm and Haas, now Dow Chemicals), Dr. Broadbent was a Team Leader in Process Chemicals & Biocides working on the development of new antimicrobial technologies for use on textiles/non-wovens and surface disinfection (focused on kitchen and bathroom surfaces).
Dr. Broadbent has over eight years of teaching experience as a College Professor developing and teaching both lectures and laboratories courses in microbiology, biology, human anatomy & physiology, and food science. During her time as a food science professor, Dr. Broadbent collaborated with and was a source of advice to major food companies including: Campbell’s, Nestle, Purina, Blommer’s Chocolate, WAWA Food & Beverages, WAWA Bakery, Moyer Specialties (Nuts and Candies), local poultry plants, and Clemens Group (formerly, Hatfield Quality Meats).
Dr. Broadbent is a member of the NASA Spaceflight & Life Sciences Training Program Alumni Association, the University of South Florida Alumni Association, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA).