On the 23rd April 2015 – a number of people from the wider food industry, past, present and future descended on Imperial College London this year for the annual spring conference brought to you by the IFST.
For me, it was a day filled with many learning opportunities. It started by having a friendly conversation with Marie Ellen Camire who is the current president of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in America. Marie Ellen is a food science professor at the University of Maine’s School of Food and Agriculture. Following the insightful conversation on the IFT as an organisation, the newest recruits of the IFST in the form of Young Ambassadors began to arrive at the conference. Young Ambassadors much like student members are an asset to the organisation! To become a Young Ambassador for the IFST you have to enter specific competitions throughout the year and if you are successful then the likelihood is that joining the IFST in such a role will be the result for your efforts. Your role consists of 1 year’s free membership to the organisation, chance to join the student group and also the opportunity to attend the conference.
The conference involved a number of presentations from a wide range of members but all focussing around one topic which was...Food Safety.
To get the conference off to the appropriate start, Maureen Edmondson OBE the current president of the IFST introduced the day and the reasons behind why such a subject had been chosen and the importance of it not just to the food industry but also to the wider population. Maureen also acknowledged the collaboration between the IFST and the IFT across the pond which is currently on going.
Following such a fitting introduction and a presentation on the perception of food risk regarding the wider public in the form of a case study by Leatherhead Food Research and also Which?, had to be a true legend to the Food Safety sector – Gale Prince. Having spent over 45 years in the sector of food safety and dedicating a career to such an important aspect of the industry, you could say that he has pioneered what has happened over the course in the advances in food safety over the length of his career. Gale talked about product recalls on an American and also global scale. With such a vast number of recalls in 2014 (specifically ~2300), most of which occurring on a Friday it showed that there is a constant check by the FDA and USDA and with the ability to now spot minor ingredients not just their larger counterparts in products thanks to scientific advancements more products can be quarantined. When you put this into perspective, there are about 50000 SKU (products) in supermarkets and 365 days a year there are around 6 recalls per day for products in your supermarket!
When break time in the morning came around, I spent it talking to one of the industry’s all time greats, a former Director General of Campden Food & Drink Research Association (now Campden BRI) and currently the President-Elect of the IFT – Colin Dennis CBE.
The rest of the morning consisted of an insight to PAS 96 and TACCP to help improve the resilience of supply chains and then a Q&A session with a panel chaired by my very own Director-General Professor Steven Walker. The panel allowed me as a younger member of the institute to hear what people really had to say and general concerns of highly important professionals at the forefront of their fields about the subject of food safety!
During lunch, I met up with the young ambassadors to see how they were doing and getting involved with conversations. Having mentored them slightly and encouraged them to go and get involved in the conversations arising in the room, as who knows their future employer may have been standing there in the room. I went to talk with the well known Melanie Brown who is currently the editor of the magazine “Food Science and Technology”, the IFST’s own publication. There we talked about how the institute is using the magazine as a tool to address the skills gap facing the industry to which everyone is keen to address.
In the afternoon, the cohort split into two groups and focussed on different aspects of food safety. One was the supply chain as a whole and the other microbiological and allergen specific.
Being more interested in public enemy number one – Campylobacter, future trends in microbiology and also anaphylaxis as well as allergens - that steered my choice swiftly as to which I would attend.
For me, as I am now working on food preservation, pasteurisation and sterilisation of a wide range of products, microbiology plays a key role in the fundamentals to what I am doing during process validation so that will directly help boost my knowledge.
Jeremy Hall from Bernard Matthews provided a fascinating insight to a new technology of applying cryogenics to the surface skin of poultry bird carcasses to reduce the amount of Campylobacte present by almost 2 log reductions in just 20 seconds with direct contact from liquid nitrogen.
Roy Betts from Campden BRI followed Jeremy. Leaving Campylobacter behind went on to talk about general microbiological trends. Considering 25% of the UK population get some form of food poisoning every year and the trend on the increase (43% higher in 2008/9 than in 1993/6).
The final presentation of the parallel session which I attended was by Lynne Regent who is CEO of the Anaphylaxis Campaign and was talking about consumer attitudes to a variety of thresholds.
The afternoon concluded with Simon Taylor providing a detailed insight to the impact of social media on reputational risk and how 1 tweet from a customer can impact on a business and how to deal with crises should they ever arise in your business. Truly fascinating to think that technology we all take for granted can in fact be the downfall we forget to address!
Jon Poole then provided the final presentation of the day before Maureen Edmondson closed the conference. Jon talked about the skills gap and schemes that the IFST are putting in place to begin to address this as well as the importance of two highly significant organisations (IFST & IFT) joining from across the pond to tackle things head on together.
The IFST did a fantastic job and a thank you must go to both Erin and Sophia for all the help they gave me before and during to assist me in helping welcome our newest recruits. The day has been so rewarding I could not put it into words but I shall try... The insight you receive as a younger member of this organisation allows you to learn from people who are at the forefront of their respective fields and that is something that is honestly invaluable should you want to progress you career. You never know one day in years to come, you or I might be the one presenting to the next generation!
James Huscroft, IFST Student Group