Food Incident Prevention and Management Workshop for Small and Medium Sized Food Businesses

3rd March at the JJB Stadium, Wigan - Free event

A food incident is any event that creates concerns about the safety or quality of food requiring intervention to protect consumers’ interests.

Food incidents cost time and money to deal with and they damage businesses reputations and undermine consumer confidence. That means that they can hurt your business.

In a recent survey:

• Food company executives believe strongly that the food and drink industry in the UK has been extremely responsive to consumer demand.
• The food industry plays a key role in the UK market – by ensuring that customers have choice and confidence in the safety of the food they buy.
• However, various incidents have hit the food chain.
• These have undermined the industry's reputation and research shows the public in the UK do not trust information on food emanating from farmers or processors.
• The industry sometimes feels it is made a scapegoat by Government[1] .

If you agree with any of this,  this workshop will be of interest to you.

The Food Standards Agency has been working with stakeholders to build better working relationships to improve mechanisms for preventing and responding to food incidents. It is holding a free one day workshop on Food Incident Prevention and Management at the JJB Stadium, Wigan on 3^rd March 2009.   The workshop will:

• tell you what the Food Standards Agency is doing about incident prevention and management
• show you what it means to you and your business
• give you the chance to talk directly to the national policy makers and incident managers.

Building incident prevention measures into your business will cut down the incidents you experience.  This will save you time and money and ensure you keep your customers’ confidence.  It can help you avoid food waste and enhance your sustainability credentials. It could save your business.

Who should attend?

The workshop is aimed at small to medium sized businesses that manufacture, package, label, distribute and sell food.  In particular, technical mangers, quality assurance and quality care managers, compliance managers and incident managers should come along. 

Please note that places on the workshop are limited and we may need to limit places to one person per company, if you would like more than one place, please list your delegates in priority order.

What will it cost?

Your time and participation is all.  The workshop is paid for by the Food Standards Agency.

How long will it take?

About five hours including lunch (and that’s free too).

Where is it?

JJB Stadium, Loire Drive, Robin Park, Wigan WN5 0UH

When is it?

03 March 2009, starting at 10:00 and finishing at 3:30

What will the workshop cover?

Incident Prevention

• Introduction to food incidents.
• The Food Standards Agency’s role in incident prevention.
• How you can protect your business from incidents.
• Principles for reducing incidents.
• Open forum on incident prevention.
• Provision of Incidence Prevention guidance and guidelines

Incident Management and Response

• Defining and reporting an incident
• What the Agency needs from you
• How information is publicised

Background Information

Food hygiene legislation affects all food businesses. The application of the 2006 EU Food Hygiene Regulations places the responsibility for safe food explicitly on the food business operator. All food business operators have to have appropriate controls that demonstrate they are managing food safety within their business.

Registration

If you are interested in attending this event, please register your interest as soon as possible - deadline for registration is 16th February 2009 .

To register download and complete the registration form or email / telephone the contact below.

Detailed joining instructions and workshop information will be sent to you before the event.

For further information, please contact:

Solomon Okoruwa

Food Protection Division, Food Standards Agency, Aviation House - Room 4C, London WC2B 6NH

Tel: +44 (0)20 7276 8790 Fax: +44 (0)20 7276 8446 Email: solomon.okoruwa@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

[1] From research by the Food and Drink Federation.