I had the pleasure of chairing a morning of open discussion on key topics at the front of executive’s minds together with structured debates on sustainability and food safety, food fraud, and mental wellbeing.
Front of mind topics
Little surprise that executives were concerned about the impact of increasing costs in the system, particularly from national insurance and the living wage, but also the costs of ‘doing business’ in areas of sustainability and climate change. A common area of interest remains the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into business processes with some interesting applications in sales (margin optimisation), health and safety (accident causation), and in meetings (minute taking). This is definitely an area the forum will return to as sharing real world examples of use cases and experiences is what the forum excels in.
Other topics included difficulties in recruitment and staffing together with the associated challenges in education, especially on food. And, on the topic of people, there was a lively debate on working from home policies with a variety of views on the merits of working from the office or remotely that also extended to in-person versus online meetings. It’s hard to have a meeting with food industry professionals and the topic of ultra processed foods not being mentioned and so this was no exception. The breadth of topics at the front of mind of the forum members was a real eye opener and another benefit of bringing executives from so many different disciplines across the food sector together in one room.
Sustainability and food safety – getting the balance right
The session on sustainability took a slightly different angle by exploring the tensions and opportunities that tackling this topic raises in relation to delivering safe food.
The leaders provided some insight into their businesses’ progress in setting defined sustainability objectives with the majority (≈ 54%) indicating that they had clear commitments.
The risk appetite in a business is instrumental to setting the measures that an organisation takes to the management of food safety risk; and although everyone has an understanding of what ‘safety’ means to them, it is not always consistent nor clear cut. For example, although most people would understand that Salmonella spp. is dangerous in a ready to eat product and that a ‘nut-free’ product should not have any nuts in it, the measures a business takes to eliminate this risk varies and is driven by risk appetite.
In the same way, balancing the delivery of sustainability and food safety objectives can require a compromise of the respective risk appetites. Increasing food safety risk by extending shelf life of food to reduce waste or reducing energy use through lower food processing were identified as potential threats but could be readily mitigated or, indeed, could be turned into opportunities through the application of evidence-based risk assessments. Other areas explored included the risks from closed loop systems such as recycled plastics or even vertical farming. A key enabler to manage these risks and maximise opportunities were identified as people (skilled individuals) and also systems and tools.
Food fraud - improving our resilience
The issue of food fraud is never far from the minds of those of us working in the industry, but it was interesting that this was not considered to be an issue of increasing risk in the supply chains of the leaders at the forum, with ≈ 55% saying the level of risk has remained fairly static. Nevertheless, there had been recent exposure to food fraud in a number of businesses and there was broad awareness of the need to conduct food fraud vulnerability assessments, although many businesses did not have an up to date plan. When asked if their business conducts food fraud vulnerability assessments, ≈ 44% said ‘no’.
Examples of food fraud and adulteration affecting major commodities such as olive oil, driven by availability and price pressures together with counterfeit alcohol resulting in multiple fatalities were widely recognised. Interestingly, the debate extended to food crime more broadly and considered aspects such as non-payment of purchased goods as seen in the recent Neal’s Yard cheese theft and even the circulation of false certificates for laboratory analysis or third party auditing. The benefits of robust ingredient/supply chain systems to map and monitor assurance together with the importance of analytical assurance and information sharing were key points highlighted to support risk mitigation.
Mental wellbeing - making the workplace safe for body and mind
Perhaps the most compelling part of the session was the open discussion on mental wellbeing. The published statistics on this topic were a collective concern for everyone in the room whether that is the high level of workers and managers experiencing burnout, mental health issues including stress, depression and anxiety or indeed suicides.
Leaders were frank in recognising that this remains a topic that many workers and managers continue to be fearful in raising openly but, equally, it was improving both in terms of the willingness to raise the issue and also the receptiveness of organisations to provide support. It was recognised as an area that needed much more open dialogue, and it also raised an interesting point about where the boundaries need to be drawn in terms of a businesses’ responsibility. We heard some inspiring examples of how leaders were tackling the topic by providing opportunities for disadvantaged individuals and also the provision of resources to support individuals. But leaders also need help and support and it was acknowledged that not everyone has the tools and resources available to them. Some industry trade associations were identified as offering valuable support services in this area.
Next session
Wow – this was a real eye-opener for me; how willing business leaders were to openly share their thoughts and feelings with each other on such a wide range of topics. And although the forum cannot provide a solution to all matters facing us right now, there is no doubt that dialogue helps brings some fresh thinking and different perspectives on the issues that many leaders are facing and does offer some potential solutions.
I cannot wait for the next session of the Business Leaders Forum on the 26th June and already have a few thoughts on topics we could discuss, including how to tackle product recalls, optimising our use of AI, and managing safety in the workplace. I hope to see you there.
If you’re a founder or working within a senior leadership role in food or drink production, you can register for the Business Leaders’ Forum here.
