CIEH announces flagship food safety conference

CIEH will be hosting its flagship food safety event from Tuesday 29 June to Wednesday 30 June.

The annual conference will take place online over two half-days and will examine the regulatory changes and challenges facing the food landscape. As business operations return to a degree of normality, the conference will explore food safety priorities and challenges, with a particular focus on food fraud, workforce planning, allergens, and outbreaks.

Notably, CIEH will interrogate the Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) proposed strategies and the concerns around the future of food safety after the pandemic and EU Exit, alongside hearing best practice case studies about front-line management of the challenges of imported food control and the building of infrastructure to meet the challenges of exported food controls.

It will also access the practical challenges that businesses faced over the past year and how the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPPS) has worked with environmental health professionals to support business recovery and continuity plans to rebuilding communities.

Highlights

• Examine how EU exit has impacted future strategies
• Discuss the challenges of the UK trading as a third country after the EU Exit
• Assess the urgent recommendation made in part one of the National Food Strategy
• Discuss how the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit has led to concerns about an increase in food fraud and crime
• Environmental Health’s role in Public Health and the importance of co-ordinated strategies

Confirmed speakers

• Emily Miles, Chief Executive, Food Standards Authority
• Lisa Ackerley, Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner
• Selvarani Elahi, Deputy Government Chemist, Nominated Officer, Programme Manager, and Project Manager, Government Chemist
• Graham Russell, MBE, Chief Executive, Office for Product Safety and Standards
• Chris Tyas, Chair, GS1 UK and Director of Food Supplies, Defra
• Kristin Bash MFPH, Chair, Food Special Interest Group, Faculty of Public Health
• Ian Andrews, Head of Trading Standards & Commercial Environmental Health at London Borough of Greenwich
• Sterling Crew, Trustee, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)
• Una Kane, Environmental Health Manager, Rother District Council

Dr Phil James, Chief Executive of CIEH, said:

“This is a great opportunity for health and regulatory professionals to examine the changes and issues in the food safety landscape as we hopefully move towards a full lifting of COVID restrictions and revival of business and consumer activity.

It is important that we make sure that the effect of the UK’s EU exit are fully understood and frameworks are put in place to protect environmental health professionals as they continue their vital work to protect the general public”.