New Food Advisory Panel

We are pleased to announce the new members of our Food Advisory Panel. The panel includes representatives from the public and private sectors, UK regions and academia, ensuring our work is informed by a variety of perspectives and experiences. Everyone on the panel is a CIEH member and works with the organisation on a volunteer basis.

CIEH has five member-led advisory panels covering the core environmental health disciplines: Housing, Environmental Protection, Food Safety, Public Health, and Health and Safety. To highlight the vital role members play within the organisation, and to strengthen their voice and influence in shaping our policy and campaigning activities, we embarked on a refresh of all of our policy advisory panels. This refresh has allowed members who want to be involved to engage with us and ensure that each policy panel has a diverse membership that truly reflects the wider profession.

Consisting of 17 environmental health professionals, the Food Advisory Panel includes CIEH members with an array of expertise.

• Colin Kelly - Head of Environmental Health - Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council
• Daniel Morelli - Head of Public Protection - Torfaen Council
• Deborah Bailey - Senior Environmental Health Officer - Sandwell Council
• Diana Tumova - Principal Port Health Officer - Ashford Port Health
• Earl Legister - Team Leader - Food Safety - London Borough of Southwark
• Helen Atkinson - Senior Environmental Health Officer - Wakefield Council
• Helen Groves - Chartered EHP/Food Safety Consultant - Worcestershire Regulatory Services/Food Safety Logic
• Jon Payne - Lawyer - Safety Lawyers
• Lisa Cobb - Group & UK Head of Health, Food & Fire Safety - SSP Group plc
• Paula O’Neill - Environmental Health Manager (Food Control) - Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council
• Peter Brett - Commercial Environmental Health Manager - City of London Corporation
• Sam Bacon - Food, Health and Safety Manager - Hull City Council
• Sandra Moore - Technical Director - Hygenisys Environmental Health Consultancy
• Sarah Naylor - Consultant - Saeker
• Sian Buckley - Associate Lecturer Environmental Health (Food) - University of the West of England
• Sterling Crew - Chair - Food Authenticity Network

A busy year is anticipated for the new panel, with the food industry facing unprecedented challenges and regulators emerging from the demands of the COVID pandemic. The National Food Strategy for England, food poverty, food shortages, impacts of climate change, healthy and sustainable food, obesity, changes to the regulatory landscape, imports and exports are all of interest to environmental health professionals and are expected to feature in our work programme.

CIEH are members of:

• The National Food Hygiene Rating Steering Group
• The Sustain Alliance
• The Safe, Sustainable Authentic Food Wales (SSAFW) Committee
• The Border Regulatory Research (BRRG) Group
• The Wales Food Safety Expert Panel
• The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) Northern Ireland
• The Advisory Panel for Belfast Food Network

Kate Thompson, Director of CIEH Wales, said:

“Food is a very active and fast-moving policy area. We are delighted to be able to announce this new advisory panel of highly-skilled environmental health professionals to shape our policy, campaigning and wider activities. I look forward to working closely with our new panel to ensure that CIEH has a strong voice in this important area”.