Food Safety Innovation Conference 2024

Kicking off the conference

As each attendee arrived at the venue, they were greeted by our teams and offered hot drinks and pastries from Vine’s Artisan Bakery to start their day. Once everyone was settled, the Chair of the event, independent food safety consultant Alec Kyriakides, welcomed everyone to FSI2024 and gave a taste of what was to come. As the former Head of Product Quality, Safety & Supplier Performance for Sainsbury’s, Alec was the perfect person to introduce our speakers, go through the agenda for the day, and deliver a fascinating overview of developments in food safety over the last twelve months.

Key insight from food safety experts

Following Alec’s introduction to the conference, four industry leaders delivered individual presentations on a variety of food industry topics. The first was Maddy Wilson, Director of Own Brand at Waitrose & Partners, who explored climate change and the impact on food safety. With sustainability being a core focus for food businesses, attendees were encouraged to consider potential ways to run greener factories.

Next up was Lalaina Randriamanantsoa, Senior Technical Manager at the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), with a detailed description of the responsibilities of the GFSI, its plans for the year ahead, and how delegates can get involved.

Rebecca Sudworth, Director of Policy for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), then took to the stage with her presentation titled Innovation in Incident Prevention: Root Cause Analysis and Industry Learnings. This included the structure of the FSA, how it works, and key trends in food safety incidents.

Last but certainly not least, Rob Artley, QEHS Director for Arla Foods, shared expert advice on innovation in food safety culture. Core take-aways were the importance of maintaining a broad perspective on culture and suggestions on how to innovate the growth of Food Safety Culture through the Modern People Agenda.

Networking and refreshments

Taking in all of this insight can really work up an appetite, so it was at this point that our attendees had their morning break and enjoyed some canapés whilst the Klipspringer band returned to perform. The Food Safety Innovation Conference is as much about networking as it is learning, so this was the perfect point for everyone to mingle, have a chat about their businesses, and exchange contact information.

Workshops One and Two

Delegates made their way to their choice of the first two workshops, which were shaped around interactive discussion and sharing real-life examples. Workshop One was titled Innovation in Hygiene, which was led by FoodClean Director Lars Turner and the Directors of Food Safety Excellence Ltd, Katie Satterthwaite and Laura Luque-Carey. Together they went through recent advances in hygienic design and allergen changeover cleaning, which provided plenty of food for thought.

Running simultaneously was Workshop Two, which was led by Mick West, Global Director of Quality Systems for Kerry, and Debbie Barnes, Director of Central Technical Operations at Sainsbury’s. This session explored how digitalisation could help to enhance food safety and quality management control, with multiple examples showing the opportunities available to food manufacturing companies.

Workshops Three and Four

With the conference in full flow, attendees then made their way to their choice of the second pair of workshops, which ran alongside each other. Workshop Three saw Dr Stephan Speidel, Scientific Advisor for HyServe GmbH, present on analytical advancements in the food sector, specifically innovation in environmental hygiene testing.

Meanwhile, Workshop Four focused on root cause analysis and was led by John Figgins, Senior Technical Manager for BRCGS, and Hugh Mowat, Technical & Compliance Director at Morrisons. Together they delivered a hands-on approach to establishing a root cause and methods for tackling it.

A spot of lunch

What would the Food Safety Innovation Conference be without a mouth-watering lunch? Delegates were treated to a freshly prepared buffet catered by Salted Orange and chatted amongst themselves, further growing their personal networks and discussing what they had learned during the morning sessions.

Panel discussion

Everyone then returned to the main theatre for the interactive panel session, which was chaired by Denis Treacy, the former Chief Officer for Safety & Quality at Pladis Global. Denis introduced the industry experts who would discuss the key learnings of the day: the previously mentioned Maddy Wilson of Waitrose & Partners and Rob Artley of Arla Foods were joined by Reineke van Riemsdijk, Technical Quality Manager & Sustainability Lead at Nestlé Nespresso, and Simon Flanagan, Research Fellow at Global Food Safety, Mondelēz International. The panel delved into the best ways to tackle future food safety challenges and answered a wide range of questions. As always, our delegates really brought the discussion to life by asking about everything from collaboration and auditing to climate change and AI technology.

Closing words

It was now time to wrap up the conference, where Alec Kyriakides returned to the stage to kindly thank FoodClean and Klipspringer for organising the event, the amazing speakers for their presentations and workshops, and the delegates for making the Food Safety Innovation Conference 2024 a resounding success. He was followed by Murray Carlyon, Managing Director of Klipspringer, and our own Managing Director, Ben Turner, who showed their deep appreciation for everyone who got involved and announced the exciting news that the Food Safety Innovation Conference will indeed return in 2025.

Feedback from the 2024 Event

Here are some thoughts shared by participants of the 2024 conference:

• “A brilliant and truly insightful day. The FSI Conference offered a unique opportunity to collaborate with peers in the industry; through knowledge sharing we can advance food safety standards. Interactive workshops, panel discussions and individual presentations have provided inspiration which will further help on our mission to protect the magic of the Marks and Spencer food business through delivering safety as a service.” Bethany Gammon, Compliance Manager at Marks and Spencer
  
• “Slick and professionally organised from start to finish: amazing location, sharp and content rich presentations, expert-fuelled workshops, plus an unscripted, honest and insightful panel discussion. This is what the Food Industry has been missing for years. There is only one Food Safety Conference. Roll on FSI 2025!” Denis Treacy, Chief Executive Officer of Culture Compass

• “Great conference! A pleasure to co-lead the digital session with Debbie Barnes to an audience that was definitely up for the Human Intelligence vs Machine Intelligence exercise.” Mick West, Global Director of Quality Systems at Kerry

• “What an amazing day to learn from incredible professionals from various areas of the Food Industry about topics such as sustainability, climate change, AI, hygiene testing, and – of course – food safety.” Sofia Carneiro, Food Quality Manager for WildBran, LDA

• “An excellent event, so good to be in the presence of so many like minded professionals with such a wealth of experience across the industry. Also, so nice to catch up with some former colleagues from the previous sites I’ve worked with.” John Burkitt, Hygiene Manager for 2 Sisters Food Group
  
  
• “I had the opportunity to delve into the world of Food Safety with George Fiotakis, exploring how retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers all contribute to ensuring safe food reaches our homes. Discussions on climate change, AI, and innovation also shed light on the exciting future trajectories of the industry.” Chris Martin, Business Development Manager UK&I Food and Beverage at Ecolab

• “A well organised and executed event, enhancing many key topics and practices to benefit the industry.” Myles Godden, Director of HVDS Ltd.

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