It's time to renew trust in the food industry

Establishing a safety culture is key

The horsemeat scandal has severely damaged consumer confidence in the industry's ability to regulate itself and will have major implications for the way food safety is regulated in the future.

These issues will be examined in detail at a new conference being planned by the Food Manufacture Group. The one-day conference 'Learning the food safety lessons from horsegate' will take place at the National Motorcycle Museum on Thursday October 17.

Not only has 'horsegate' raised questions about the food industry's ability to pick up fraud through its monitoring and traceability regimes, it has thrown into doubt plans by regulators to move to more risk-based inspections.

Why traceability systems failed

'Learning the food safety lessons from horsegate' will investigate why existing traceability systems failed to pick up the problem. It will also explore what lessons can be learned to avoid other foodstuffs becoming contaminated with chemicals and pathogens that pose a far greater risk to human health.

The conference will be chaired by Professor Colin Dennis, former director general at Campden BRI and former president of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. Opening the day will be Sue Davies, chief policy adviser for consumer watchdog Which? who will discuss how consumer trust has been damaged by horsegate and how this can be regained.

Latest thinking

In a session dealing with limiting the damage of product recalls, Professor Tony Hines, head of food security and crisis management at Leatherhead Food Research, will describe the latest thinking on crisis management. Legal expert Dominic Watson from DWF will highlight real cases where product recalls have been handled well and cases where they haven't.

Further sessions will examine how to establish a good food safety culture in your business and the latest thinking on allergen controls.

Click here for more details on 'Learning food safety lessons from horsegate'.