Donald Snyder

Donald Snyder spent his more than 50 year career working so that the food we consume is safe and properly labelled. Working for various food production companies, he wrote regulations for food safety, food specifications, food fraud and developing food standards.

Snyder was born in Waterloo. His father co-owned Maple Lane Dairy in Kitchener with his uncle. Snyder started the first quality control laboratory at Maple Lane to test dairy products coming into the plant to guarantee the safety and quality of the products being produced.

Maple Lane’s laboratory and production methods were considered innovative. The dairy was one of the first to move away from transporting raw milk in cans to bulk haulage and high temperature short-term pasteurizing.

In the 1970s, Beatrice Foods bought Maple Lane and Snyder was placed in charge of quality control at their milk production facilities, in addition to small animal feed and cookie wafer operations in Ontario and western Canada. Snyder became Corporate Vice-President of Technical Services. In 1997, Parmalat bought Beatrice Foods and Snyder was made Vice-President of Technical and Environmental Affairs for Parmalat Canada.

Snyder was actively involved in manufacturing associations, including the Ontario Dairy Council and the Food Consumer Product Manufacturers of Canada. He was also a member of the committee who created the National Dairy Code, and has been made an honorary lifetime member of the International Dairy Federation Canada for his outstanding contributions to the Canadian dairy industry.

In Waterloo Region, Snyder has been involved with many community organizations including serving on the Board of Conrad Grebel University College, Secretary of the Mennonite Conference of Ontario, and volunteering with the Ontario Mennonite Relief sale and Kitchener-Waterloo Out of the Cold Program.

Photograph courtesy of Ken Jantzi.