Millions of inspection records. In one place, in one format.
Our Customers
About Us
Hazel Analytics pairs the largest food safety inspection database with powerful analytics tools and solutions for Fortune 500s and leading organizations in the restaurant, financial services, government, and education industries. Our Food Safety Insights (FSI) and other analytics products transform diffuse and disparate local health department data into actionable intelligence using our proprietary Hazel Score methodology.
Of the top 100 food retail chains by size, 45 are users of Hazel Analytics technology, monitoring over 60,000 locations; our customers include notable national and global brands such as Amazon, Cheesecake Factory, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and Whole Foods. Hazel Analytics is also the proud recipient of Jack in the Box's 2016 Food Safety Innovation Award.
The Problem with Retail Food Safety Data
Across the U.S., local health departments conduct regular food safety inspections for millions of retail outlets, including restaurants, grocers, convenience stores, food trucks, and institutional cafes.
Many health departments make this inspection data available online. This is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough. The problem is that the data is not available in a standardized format or easily consumable for even basic analytical purposes.
Our Award-Winning Solution:
Hazel Food Safety Insights™ (FSI)
A software platform that in near real-time collects millions of inspections from hundreds of health department jurisdictions, enabling chain food retail-operators to protect their brand and manage their compliance.
Powering our analytics capabilities, is our proprietary Hazel Score™ system. Developed and proven through years of university research, the Hazel Score enables relative comparisons of food safety and inspection compliance performance across jurisdictions. Our customers leverage insights from the Hazel Score to improve decision-making in industries ranging from food retail to financial services.
Research
Our founding team has decades of research experience with food safety and regulatory inspections data stemming from Stanford, UCLA, and the University of Maryland College Park. Much of this research has been published in top academic journals around the world and its output has been adopted by companies and policy makers in the US and abroad. Below is a small sample of that research:
Inspection Technology, Detection and Compliance: Evidence from Florida Restaurant Inspections
Published in RAND Journal of Economics (Winter, 2014) by Ginger Jin, Chief Data Scientist
Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice
Published in Journal of Economic Literature (April, 2010) by Ginger Jin, Chief Data Scientist
Impact of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards on Foodborne Disease Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County
Published in Journal of Environmental Health (March, 2005) by Phillip Leslie, Strategy Advisor and Ginger Jin, Chief Data Scientist
Advanced Analytics for Health Departments
We are working on our latest technology to help local health departments make optimal use of their own data to improve public disclosure, optimize enforcement actions, and ultimately help keep their constituents’ healthy and their food safe.
Our health department technology is the product of years of top university research, experience collecting information from thousands of health departments, and data analytics best practices used by our customers across industries. Contact us to learn more.
Our Team
Arash Nasibi
Chief Executive Officer
Ben Bederson
Chief Technology Officer
Enming Luo
Operations & Customer Success
Kat Darvishzadeh
Chief of Staff / Business Operations Lead
Kevin Ruth
Product Manager
Gentry Johnson
Data Scientist
Andrew Harrison
Software Engineer
Richard To
Software Engineer
Colin Chapman
Software Engineer
Alex Tan
Software Engineer
Ryan Bald
Software Engineer
John Diego
Software Engineer
Nahom Abi
Software Engineer
Bety Mehide
Software Engineer
Careers
Interested in joining Hazel Analytics?
If you're passionate about making a positive impact in people's lives by keeping their food safe and ready to work with leading global brands in the retail food industry, we want to hear from you.
Get in touch:
Ben Bederson
Ben has 15 years of experience in developing and studying informational technologies. As a full Professor of Computer Science at UMCP and the former director of the Human Computer Interaction Lab, he co-leads the NSF-funded International Children's Digital Library founded in 2002 (ICDL - www.childrenslibrary.org), and received the 2010 Social Impact Award for his work on ICDL and studying electronic voting machines. Ben is currently Associate Provost of Learning Initiatives at UMD, and is also co-founder and chief scientist at Zumobi, Inc., a startup mobile app publisher.
Enming Luo
A proud veteran, Enming served two tours in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine Captain. While overseas, he led in partnering with NGOs and local Afghan officials to develop infrastructure in Southern Afghanistan. Enming transitioned to the technology sector after earning his MBA, working in consumer electronics before joining Hazel Analytics. At Hazel, he engages customers, develops relationships, and ensures the success of clients and partners.
Arash Nasibi
Having led the transition of Hazel Analytics from research project to sustainable commercial venture, Arash is responsible for managing the growth and day-to-day operations of the company. Previously, Arash was a founding member of StudentMentor.org, the first free online mentorship platform for U.S. college students. He also has prior experience as a management consultant with a focus on technology and risk serving Fortune 500s. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA Engineering, and a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Richard To
Richard works on the Software Engineering team at Hazel Analytics. His goal is to get food inspection reports standardized in the United States and made available online in easy to consume formats. After that he'll consider a run for president. When Richard isn't programming, he enjoys running, playing basketball, reading, and writing fiction.
Alex Tan
Alex is on the Software Engineering team at Hazel. He previously worked in the Information School at the University of Washington as a research assistant where he helped construct an intelligent tutoring system. He works mainly in web development, data mining, and cloud computing. Alex also taught Scratch programming and HTML to elementary and middle school students in after school programs across Seattle. Alex obtained his B.S. in Informatics from the University of Washington. A fun fact about Alex is that he designed, programmed, and deployed an iOS game to the app store during his sophomore year in high school.
Gentry Johnson
Gentry is on the Data Science team at Hazel and is also a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Maryland. In addition to his traditional training in econometrics, he has expertise in machine learning and computational methods. Previously, Gentry was a full-time researcher at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he worked on large, high-dimensional consumer data as part of the Kilts Center for Marketing. He is passionate about common-sense interpretation of complex economic and statistical modeling, and places enormous value on good data visualization.
Andrew Harrison
Andrew works on the Software Engineering team at Hazel Analytics. He comes to Hazel with a decade of experience at startup-stage companies; his previous position focused on growing a web platform for improving data collection, distribution, and analysis at government agencies. He is passionate about data quality, software security, performance metrics, and engineer mentorship. Outside of the office, Andrew volunteers with Ada Developers Academy and enjoys running, swing dancing, and cooking.
Ryan Bald
Ryan is a part of the Software Engineering team at Hazel Analytics. Previously, he was a software engineering intern at another startup, Levyx. He holds a M.S. in Data Science from the University of Washington as well as a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering with a minor in Statistics from the University of California, Irvine. Ryan’s interests include playing basketball, watching cinema, and statistics in sports.
John Diego
John joined Hazel as a Software Engineer in October 2018. He graduated from University of Washington with a B.S. in Informatics with a specialization in Information Architecture. His programming interests include web development, data mining, and developer tools. Outside of the office, John enjoys volunteering as a basketball coach for St. Edward School and hiking.
Nahom Abi
Nahom is on the Software Engineering team at Hazel. Previously, he interned at Microsoft and a startup company called Webkey. After teaching himself how to code at age 13, he designed and taught a web development course at his high school in Ethiopia. He is currently pursuing a B.S. degree in Computer Science and/or Informatics at the University of Washington. When he's not coding, you can find Nahom playing soccer, watching standup comedy, or producing music.
Kat Darvishzadeh
Kat serves as the Chief of Staff and Business Operations Lead at Hazel. Previously, she worked in local and state government and the nonprofit sector where she focused on data analysis, reporting, and project management. Kat graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and specialization in Science and Policy. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crafting, and hiking.
Colin Chapman
Colin is on the Software Engineering team at Hazel. Prior to joining Hazel, Colin spent nearly a decade working for crop protection and food safety & sanitation startups, and earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and MIT. He loves building employee-facing applications that deliver new capabilities and enhanced productivity to users. When not working, Colin enjoys backpacking, Nordic skiing, and exploring the world with his wife and daughter.
Bety Mehide
Bety is part of the Software Engineering team at Hazel Analytics. She discovered a passion for technology during her undergraduate degree and started teaching herself programming. She has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Nottingham in the UK and a M.S. in Technology Innovation from the University of Washington. Previously, she has been a teaching assistant for a user interface programming class, an assistant at a makerspace and a digital marketing intern at a couple of startups. When she's not writing code Bety likes to travel, take her dog to walks/hikes and go bouldering.
Kevin Ruth
Kevin serves as the Product Manager at Hazel. He has worked in product development his whole career, first as a mechanical engineer building data center hardware and medical devices before transitioning into product management in the enterprise health & wellness space. He has spent too much time in school, earning an MBA at Seattle University most recently while also holding a certificate in User-Centered Design from the University of Washington and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Outside of work you can find him snowboarding, hiking, or cheering the Seattle Sounders to victory.