Tina Coil: Safe Food on our Tables

Tina Coil
Title: President
Company: Food Safety Systems

Tina Coil, a native of Bloomingburg, Ohio, had a few connections to agriculture. She was involved in 4-H with her horses and her father was an aerial applicator/crop duster for farmers in south central and south east Ohio. Tina said she would help load the airplane with product and flag fields. 

Without a clear idea of what she wanted her long-term career to be, this self-described creative found herself studying fashion merchandising at Midway College until she figured it out. There were other plans for Tina, however, as Midway decided to eliminate its fashion program. Students in the program were told they could finish at the University of Kentucky. Once there, she made friends in the College of Agriculture who encouraged her to try a new path. 

Tina also reminisced that there was a critical moment she realized how important agriculture was to local communities, yet how humble farmers are about their role. 

“I attended a church service at home, and the pastor held a blessing of the farmers, the feed, and the soil for the rural community,” she said. “When he asked anyone who was a farmer or involved in agriculture to stand, only 5 out of 150 people stood up.” 

Tina said she knew many more who were involved in farming, but they chose not to stand because they did not feel they needed any special recognition, including her dad. 

After completing an associate’s degree in Fashion Merchandising, Tina started her bachelor’s degree in agriculture education at UK, which required concentrations in plant science, agriculture economics, animal science, and meat science. Once she graduated, she ended up at North Carolina State University to earn her Master of Science in agriculture education. Tina also taught high school in North Carolina for two years. 

Kentucky called her back when Tina decided to work on a PhD in meat science at the University of Kentucky. While she never finished her doctorate due to the expense, she started to gain valuable experience in the Kentucky food industry. 

Her first job was with Laura’s Lean Beef, where she was involved in production scheduling. Tina then landed a job with Tyson Foods, as a quality assurance manager in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She said that is really where she took a “head-first dive” into the career she has today. She has also spent time working for Mead Johnson Nutritional’s and Sarah Lee. 

While working in the industry, Tina decided to take on some consulting work for extra spending money in 2007. That eventually grew into a full-time gig, and Tina started Food Safety Systems in 2016. She spends most of her time conducting food safety auditing for food manufacturing plants, and part of her time preparing food companies so they can avoid any food safety issues. Tina must know food regulations in several countries since many manufacturers she works for import raw materials and sell finished products outside the U.S.

Tina, who now calls Owenton home, said that her job is a great marriage of her personal life and professional life because she has a great passion for food and cooking. 

“I love seeing how food is made,” remarked Tina. “This is real life. I typically visit two facilities a week and they are all different. In the past month, I have visited a mining operation that provides minerals for animal feed, a dairy operation that makes dairy beverages, fruit juices and ice cream , a pepper sauce plant, and facilities that make fig bars and fish oil.” 

She does travel a lot, averaging 150 to 175 thousand miles per year. In fact, she said she reached million mile status in 2018. 

“The more flexible you are with travel, the better availability of jobs you will have,” advised Tina. 

“We need more food safety auditors and more food industry professionals as a whole,” she continued. “It’s hard to find people willing to work in food processing facilities. There is nothing glamorous about it, but if a person is willing to pay their dues for the first two to five years, it opens a lot of doors. Some supervisors can start earning $40 to $50K a year.” 

Tina said she loves talking to people about careers and finding good roles for them. She said she really encourages them to look at all the options available in the food industry as there is so much involved in putting safe and good food on tables. 

“There are a lot of food manufacturers in Kentucky,” said Tina, “so I encourage everyone to ask questions and give it a second look. There are so many different facets of this industry.”

Activity/Lesson: Food Scientist for a Day