Episode 9: Recalls and food safety

This month, we spoke with Patrick McNamara – global innovations and quality manager at testing lab leader Intertek – to learn how to avoid food safety issues that result from severe weather events, as well as the importance of preparing for potential regulatory changes.

Key takeaways from our interview with Patrick include the importance of giving context when asking labs to test your food and drink products – what you’re testing for and against what baseline – and making sure you have someone in your business skilled in recognising issues before they happen.

Laboratory support

“When you’re looking for third-party support from laboratories, work with labs that understand your products, your risks and your testing requirements,”​ said McNamara.

“You can ask them, ‘do you work with people in my sector’ and they’ll tell you. Why is it important they work in your sector? They’ll understand the risks that are inherent to the product and they’ll optimise they’re testing to manage them. ​

“They’ll understand how the product will perform under analysis, understand what adverse results mean and sometimes they can help you understand the results.” ​

Good Month/Bad Month

In this month’s editions of Good Month/Bad Month, we discuss the Welsh Government’s support of the food and drink industry at its bi-annual international trade event Taste Wales, while lamenting the state of the UK’s horticulture industry in a recent House of Lords report.

For all this and more, tune in to the latest episode of the Food Manufacture Podcast. Meanwhile, you can explore our entire podcast playlist on our site​​ or via your podcast catcher of choice.

You can listen to last month’s podcast here​​, where the team discuss our gathering of the top minds in the food and drink industry at this year’s Business Leader’s Forum, as well as an exclusive interview with Ecotone UK chief executive Emma Vass and chief people and sustainability officer Stendert Krommendam.