FOOD CHAIN CONFERENCE WILL CONSIDER QUALITY, SAFETY & THE FUTURE

Posted 9 November 2001

A NATIONAL Food Chain Conference to be staged at Harper Adams University College, Shropshire, early next year, will follow the theme “Quality, Safety and the Future.”

The Harper Adams Food Chain Conference 2002 will take place next April and will bring together a panel of distinguished speakers to consider the issues of food safety and food quality and to turn delegates minds to the challenges that will face them and their companies in the future.

Geoffrey Podger, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, Alec Kyriakides, Chief Microbiologist for J. Sainsbury plc and Professor T. H. Pennington, Head of the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Aberdeen, are among the speakers.

Professor Colin Dennis, Director General of the Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, and Professor Janet Bainbridge OBE, Chair of the UK’s Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, will also address the Conference.

The Conference Chairman will be the Earl of Selborne KBE, Chancellor of the University of Southampton and past President of the Royal Geographical Society and organisers also hope to attract at least another two top-speakers from within the industry.

Conference Organiser Ralph Early, a Senior Lecturer and food specialist at Harper Adams, set the tone of the conference: “The Conference has been designed for those who are concerned with issues of quality and safety in the production, manufacturing and sale of food.

“All food businesses work to provide consumers with products of the right quality, which are safe to eat. But, being able to prevent the recurrence of problems from the past is not enough. Being prepared to deal with the problems of the future is vital.”

The Harper Adams Food Chain Conference 2002 will build upon the success of last July’s Regional Food Business Conference, for Small and Medium sized food Enterprises in the Midlands. Organisers now hope to make the Food Chain Conference an annual fixture.

Tickets for the forthcoming event Food Chain Conference 2002, which runs between 9.45 and 16.30 on April 9, 2002, will cost £125 per person including lunch and refreshments.

For further information or to book, please contact Hannah Robinson, on +44 (0) 1952 815 407 or E-mailhlrobinson@harper-adams.ac.uk, or visit the Harper Adams web-site at http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/v3/short/food/food.htm