Who pays the Berryman?

Science is firmly back centre stage at contract research organisation Leatherhead Food International (LFI) following the appointment of its former research director Dr Paul Berryman as the new chief executive.

Berryman, who has taken over from John Bevington, also plans to make best use of his public and private sector laboratory background to tap into government-funded projects both at home and overseas. However, he is adamant that the key focus of LFI's activities going forward will be in improving the services and value for money it provides to its 1,000 or so members. LFI derives about £2M/year from its membership fees.

Prior to 2005 when he joined LFI, Berryman had been head of science and food standards for Hampshire County Council, supervising the largest team of its sort in the UK. He prides himself that during his time there he recognised and took advantage of skills shortages elsewhere in the country, which resulted in Hampshire tendering for and subsequently taking over public analyst responsibilities for 35 local authorities by the time he left.

"We had actually picked up business because we had a focus on the regulatory aspects and secondly we were doing something a bit different," he says.

Not content with one Masters degree, Berryman has two: a Masters in Business Administration from Aston Business School plus a Mastership in Chemical Analysis - a prerequisite for being a public analyst. He originally trained as a food technologist and analytical chemist before doing a PhD in Science Strategy at Portsmouth Business School. So he can lay claim to four science degrees in total. Undoubtedly, Berryman is a very smart cookie.

But, as a former public analyst in the West Midlands, he is also firmly grounded in the real world of food. This manifests itself in a wealth of anecdotes - including one involving the discovery of condemned beef being passed off as horse meat by a shop in Birmingham selling to the local Hindu community.

LFI restructuring

Under his leadership, LFI has already restructured its activities designed to refocus its offering on three clear platforms: food innovation, food safety and nutrition. These are underpinned by LFI's expertise and international reputation in global food regulatory services.

But Berryman will need to marshal all the skills and resources at his disposal to carry through LFI's business plan of five and 10% growth per year against an increasingly competitive backdrop and an environment in which government funded research projects are under severe scrutiny like never before.

Berryman has plans to strengthen LFI's science base in its key areas of activity. While this may not necessarily involve raising the headcount of just under 200 staff, it will mean bringing in more expertise in specific areas, such as regulation, an area already employing around 20 staff.

"It may well be that the skills profile will change," says Berryman. "We want to strengthen our regulatory offering so that if companies have a problem, we are the first people that they think of."

LFI's turnover is around £11M and Berryman projects profits of £250,000 in the next financial year following a "modest profit" last year. As primarily a membership-based organisation, LFI's main priority under Berryman will be to reinvest in the best people and kit in the business. "I am more interested in generating surpluses to reinvest in the business," he says.

"My first big change was that I wanted to focus on the things that we really do best," he adds. "Rather than having six business units and a lab down in Wells, which we have sold off via a local management buyout, we are consolidating activities [into four priority areas] at the Leatherhead site." As well as the Wells laboratory disposal, LFI has also reduced its costs by cutting its executive board from five to four people.

LFI's new Nutrition Unit plans to capitalise on the growing interest in nutrition and health claims substantiation. It will make use of its in-house human nutrition centre, which taps into around 100 volunteers to assess the body's response to eating various new food ingredients. The Unit can also carry out simulated tests using model gut systems, which help in the development of new pre- and probiotic products, says Berryman,

The new Food Innovation Unit includes sensory testing facilities. LFI's work on innovation and new product development will expand on its long-standing expertise in developing new ingredients. This includes work in developing new low fat, salt and sugar alternatives. Combined with its regulatory expertise in areas such as health claims substantiation and labelling, LFI will thus be able to provide a full added-value service for its clients from the lab to the supermarket shelf.

The other key plank of LFI's activities - food safety - will tap into work from overseas EU governments and other public sector organisations, as well as pitching for work from the likes of the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), for which it carried out about 10 projects last year. However, with the FSA increasingly looking into nutrition, health and social sciences, LFI hopes, thanks to its new focus in these areas, to pick up more business from the food watchdog.

Confidential contract research and regulatory services will continue to make up much of LFI's work, says Berryman. Food safety work accounts for around £1.7M of LFI's turnover, with innovation at just over £2M and nutrition about £1.3M. Other scientific areas account for around £1M, while the remainder - about £5M covers member services related to regulatory and technical issues and market intelligence.

One area in which LFI may have to review its future is in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) FoodLINK programme. DEFRA FoodLINK provides around £5M a year of matching funding for collaborative pre-competitive research projects involving industry and academia. However, the whole future of the programme is now in doubt as DEFRA reviews its activities as it strives for huge cost savings.

LFI is currently involved with several FoodLINK projects. One involves the development of water-in-oil-in-water emulsions as fat replacers, while another is studying the mechanisms for inactivating Norovirus in food.

Explosive heat treatment of milk

A particularly interesting FoodLINK project, begun last year, brings LFI and researchers from Cranfield University together. This project is looking into the use of ultra-high pressure treatment of foods such as milk.

"The idea here is we effectively take foods and then blow them up with explosives," says Berryman. "The advantage is that you get instantaneous heating and cooling, which kills the bugs. But you don't get any problems with aftertastes or effect on the protein. So you almost get the taste of raw milk, but it's nice and heat treated afterwards."

What is currently holding back this particular project, says Berryman, are problems in identifying a supplier of the ballistic-grade steels needed to conduct the experiments.

But Berryman knows better than most that in the research field, priorities can change very quickly. And he accepts that LFI may not in future be able to rely on income from DEFRA projects.

Ultimately, it's all about responding to the needs of its potential client base and being fleet of foot. The challenges facing LFI going forward will inevitably hinge on improving its profitability. "That's important because you need to be making a profit so that you can actually pick up the new technologies and recruit extra skills and resources," he remarks.

LFI's business is truly dependent on its intellectual capital and to be the best, you're got to recruit and retain the very best people. Berryman has no doubt about that. FM