sofht focus

I hope the lengthening days and returning sunshine have energised you, as they have me. In April, for a birthday treat, my family whisked me away to Malta, a place where I’ve always enjoyed good food —unsurprising, given all its influences from the Mediterranean and North Africa. However, even when resting we cannot escape the practical application of food safety, especially when as a group we had food allergies related to nuts and seafood to cater. So, it was to my surprise that while staying in an upscale international brand hotel, its club lounge paid little attention to food allergies – an incredible risk to its brand! Which was the topic covered by Dr Jordan Edridge, the invited speaker at our recent SCM meeting, who delivered an interesting perspective on allergens and appropriate industry responses to allergen issues – further details on page 6.

This edition also reports back on the successful Pest Management Conference & Exhibition we held at the beginning of March in Northampton, proudly sponsored by Ecolab. This event brought together leading experts, technical specialists, and food industry professionals to discuss the latest strategies in pest prevention, datadriven controls, and cutting-edge technology focussing on arming attendees with actionable knowledge to strengthen their pest control programs – page 8.

The important subject of product recalls was then covered through an interactive seminar held in Leeds at the end of March not just focusing on mitigating risks to consumers but also minimising reputational damage via best practice on media and consumer communications. You’ll see we drew together an exceptional panel of speakers with legal, administrative, technical and industry insights, and I am pleased to say that this included one of our very own Directors, technical expert and consultant Jackie Healing (page 5). This edition also puts Jackie in the spotlight, highlighting over four decades in the food industry – read all about it on page 7.

I hope you find this issue interesting and perhaps I’ll see you at one of our future events which we have conveniently put into a new ‘for your diary’ section on Page 17.