Turkey boss wins Food personality Oscar

Pioneering work to cut campylobacter – Britain’s top cause of food poisoning – won Jeremy the prestigious award in the face of stiff competition from other food and drink manufacturing industry leaders. Jeremy’s achievements were recognised in front of hundreds of industry guests, as he collected the trophy from the awards host and star TV presenter Mark Durden-Smith.

The personality award celebrates the man or woman who has made a key contribution to the food and drink manufacturing sector over the past year – whether by brokering deals, transforming the fortunes of his or her business or simply delivering exceptional results.

The FMEA awards’ independent judging panel – led by Paul Wilkinson, chair of National Skills Academy – praised Jeremy’s tireless and passionate campaigning to encourage retailers to adopt new processing measures to cut the high incidence of campylobacter on fresh chicken.

Slash campylobacter contamination​

An ardent supporter of rapid surface chilling technology, he believes the technology could slash campylobacter contamination levels, for the modest price of about 10p a bird. Jeremy joined Bernard Matthews 15 years ago and has served on the British Poultry Council technical committee for over 20 years and a host of other industry bodies. For Jeremy, combatting campylobacter is not so much a job ambition as a personal crusade.

Also shortlisted in this category were: Kevin Brennan, chief executive, Quorn Foods, Lucinda Bruce­Gardyne, founder, Genius Foods, Christine Tacon, Groceries Code Adjudicator, Chris Thomas, chief executive, Tulip and Roger Whiteside, chief executive, Greggs.

The shortlist was prepared by the Food Manufacture Group editorial team. The winner was selected by FoodManufacture.co.uk’s 100,000 independently audited, unique monthly visitors.

Previous winners​

Previous winners have included: Patrick Covenney, ceo of Greencore, Richard Clothier, md of Britain largest independent cheese producer Wyke Farms, TV personality Jimmy Doherty and Helen Colley from Farmhouse Fare. 

The overall Food Manufacture Company of the year​ was awarded to Northern Ireland head quartered meat and poultry firm Moy Park, which also won the Meat and poultry manufacturing company of the year earlier in the evening.  Moy Park was the judges’ unanimous choice, based on its strong meat category leadership, financial performance, training and environmental credentials.

Read the full list of food and drink manufacturing Oscar winners here​.

The annual FMEAs, organised by William Reed Business Media’s Food Manufacture Group, now in their 15th year, have become the premier event in the food and drink manufacturing calendar. This year's carnival-themed event took place on Tuesday (November 3).

Could your business be among the winners of next year's food and drink manufacturing Oscar? Register for the 2016 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards here​.