Manage food safety and avert a product recall crisis

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, which represents EHOs, has made what it believes to be a strong case for retaining local food safety services rather than moving to a central delivery model.

This issue was discussed at the last FSA Board meeting in July as part of an Agency review of service delivery, which seeks to reduce the regulatory and cost burden of safety enforcement on the sector.

This together with many other business, regulatory and technical issues associated with food safety management within food manufacturing operations will be discussed at Food Manufacture's Product Recall 2011 conference, which takes place at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on November 23.

FSA operations director Andrew Rhodes will outline the Agency's forward plans as its own and local authority budgets come under increasing financial constraints. He will also describe suggestions for adopting a system of 'earned autonomy' by food business operations that can demonstrate a good food hygiene record.

In another presentation, food safety expert Dr Carol Wallis will highlight what makes hazard analysis critical control point systems fit for purpose.

Andy Cuerel, a senior consultant at Razor/College Hill, will describe how to manage a product recall crisis and Richard Matthews from legal firm Eversheds will present examples of where product recalls have been well and badly handled.

How to change management cultures to ensure that food safety is embedded within an organisation will be covered by David Edwards of NSF-CMi, while Simon Flanagan of RSSL will share the latest thinking on allergen controls in the food supply chain.

In the food safety arena, being forewarned is forearmed. To this end, Matthew Yeomans from Social Media Influence will provide tips on how to use social media to spot when problems may be occurring with your brand.

Andrew Dalziel from Lawson Software will outline how traceability systems can avert serious crises, while a speaker from Campden BRI will explain how better risk management can help to limit a company's exposure to danger.

For more details of the Product Recall 2011conference, contact Rachael Cannon. Email: rachael.cannon@wrbm.com, tel: 01293 610433 or visit http://www.foodmanevents.co.uk.