Rank/Position: Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Board Member of the International Commission on Microbiological Standards for Foods (ICMSF)

Scientific Filed: Food Microbiology

Faculty/Department/Research Institution: Visiting Lecturer at the University of Pretoria

Dr Anelich holds a PhD in Microbiology. She has worked in academia in South Africa for 25 years, as Head of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology and as Associate Professor.
In 2006, she joined the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, where she established a food safety body for the South African food industry — a first in the country.
In 2011, she launched her own international food safety consulting and training business. She is an Associate Professor at the Central University of Technology and was appointed Visiting Professor at the Wits Business School in July 2025. She was an Associate Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University from 2011 to 2014.

Dr Anelich is a member of the ICMSF, former chair of the Scientific Council of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST), a fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST), former president of the South African Association for Food Science and Technology, former chair of the Food Hygiene Committee of the South African Bureau of Standards, currently an advisor to the South African Department of Health on food safety regulations, and a food hygiene expert for the African Union-IBAR.

Received the Award SAAFoST Chairperson in 2021 — the first woman to receive it. Dr Anelich is the owner and organizer of the annual Food Safety Summit™ in South Africa and co-founder of a groundbreaking new initiative, the Food Safety Leadership Initiative, based at Wits Business School.

She has authored or co-authored numerous publications and book chapters, and has given over 200 speeches nationally and internationally.