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Janet Raddatz (Jerovetz) '78, Biology
Vice President, Quality and Food Safety Systems, Sargento Foods, Inc., Plymouth, Wis.
Family: Husband Andy

Say cheese: Her job helps keep Wisconsin a national leader
Taking the chance it might date her, Janet Raddatz ’78 compares her work to an act made popular on the old Ed Sullivan show — spinning multiple plates on poles without letting them stop or drop.
      Raddatz juggles provolone, mozzarella, cheddar and pepper jack, to name a few, in her position as vice president of quality and food safety systems for Sargento Foods Inc. Ensuring the quality and safety for each Sargento Foods product is the real talent.
      “Sometimes I feel like I’m juggling an awful lot, but I love my job and the industry,” she says.
      Sargento, based out of Plymouth, about 50 miles south of Green Bay, is a leading manufacturer, packager and marketer of natural shredded, sliced and snack cheeses, cheese appetizers, ingredients and sauces. The company’s net sales are in excess of $650 million. Raddatz plays a major role and — especially with media preoccupation on food-supply safety — one of the most visible roles in the organization.
      “All the attention to the subject reinforces safety management to provide wholesome products,” she says.
      Her department manages the quality and safety of more than 300 suppliers, 2,500 raw materials and 1,000 lines of finished goods. There are 1,500 standard operating procedures, 2,000 specifications, and training programs for 1,200 employees.
      Raddatz helps oversee three production facilities in Wisconsin (Plymouth, Hilbert and Kiel), and one each in South Dakota and Washington.
      Trained as a scientist, it was an independent study during college with a local meat company that propelled her into food science. With the help of her professor, the late Dawson Deese, she set up a laboratory.
      When she transitioned to the cheese industry in 1984, she brought a little family history along. Raddatz’s grandfather, Richard Lensmire, was a longtime cheesemaker in the Luxemburg area.
      Raddatz worked closely with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to develop the nation’s first degreed program for food and environmental laboratory technicians.
Nostalgic for statistics class:
It was actually the statistics classes that Raddatz liked the least but uses the most on a day-to-day basis. “We are constantly analyzing data asking what the data reflect, what’s the variability of our process, can we meet a customers’ specification, etc…”
Time well spent:
“Was there any other building but Laboratory Sciences? I spent a large amount of time there and also worked for the chemistry department outside of class.”

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