Food safety risk management – learning from other industries to drive resilience and agility

Steve Wearne, Codex Alimentarius

Steve has a career spanning over 30 years in food regulation in UK government and internationally, including over 20 years in the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). During this time, he has worked on issues across food policy and science, from additives and sweeteners, to veterinary residues and other contaminants in food, to modernisation of regulatory practice.

For the past 20 years, Steve has been a senior civil servant leading teams within the FSA. His roles have included Director of Policy & Science from 2013 to 2019 and, most recently, Director, Global Affairs. Steve was elected by Codex member countries to the position of Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in November 2021, after having served over four years as Vice-Chairperson for this global food safety and quality standards setting body.

Steve has also advised other parts of UK government on agri-food strategy, including as joint leader of the secretariat to the Trade and Agriculture Commission (2020-2021) and as adviser to the Food Strategy White Paper team (2021).

Steve is a scientist by training, with a degree in biochemistry and a period of postgraduate research in molecular biology.

Rachael Cowin, Legitimate Leadership

After studying engineering, Rachael spent over 20 years in the chemical industry, where she led a team of engineers and designers, both staff and contract, during a period of sustained growth. By engaging the team and stakeholders at all levels, a varied programme of capital investment was successfully delivered on a busy COMAH top-tier production facility. Through this work she ensured the creation of sustainable skills, empowered individuals and robust systems for projects and design. She also served as a member of the site management team and was closely involved in developing and delivering strategy for the facility as well as general leadership and support.

Maria Masoura, Campden BRI

Maria joined us in 2022 as a Food and Drink Risk Consultant (Regulatory Science), and specialises in risk assessment, as well as regulatory compliance.

Before this, Maria worked as Scientific Officer (Regulatory Science) at EFSA (Pesticides Peer Review Unit), Researcher/ Investigator (Post-Doc Fellow) at Procter and Gamble, a Research Fellow at UTC (France) and KRIBB (Korea), and a Consultant (Food Analysis) at Interlab.

Maria is a certified Food Safety Expert Witness, including expert witness report writing.

Alistair Cowin, Resilium UK

Alistair is a chartered member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers with over 25 years’ experience in high hazard systems. The first 19 years’ experience was gained in aerospace safety and airworthiness in the design, maintenance, and operation of military aircraft. His specific expertise is in safety engineering, having completed an MSc in Safety Critical Systems Engineering at the University of York and developed a safety management system in the continuing airworthiness environment for the maintenance of military aircraft. The last six years he has been consulting in safety and has focussed on communication of risk within user communities through barrier risk management.

Andrew Collins, Campden BRI

Andrew joined Campden BRI at the beginning of 2009. With over 30-years’ experience in a wide range of food businesses (including catering), his current role focuses on consultancy work with the holistic and practical application of food safety management including the role of HACCP and good hygiene practices.

He is a certified BowTie practitioner, and is one of the few food safety experts globally using BowTie methodology – a barrier, risk-based thinking approach to risk management in the food businesses. This approach enables businesses to build holistic, resilient and adaptive systems in a rapidly changing environment.

Andrew also works on supply chain management, agriculture and water use, animal feed and traceability. Plus, he’s part of the team that manages hygiene and allergen management.

Luke Withers, Lockton

Following a degree in Safety, Health and Environmental Management, Luke has spent the last 13 years working in risk and Insurance, focusing primarily on client service and leadership for complex, corporate and multinational organisations. He spent several years working at NFU Mutual and as a group secretary for the NFU; he has worked with some of the UK’s largest food and beverage organisations, placing and managing their insurance programmes, advising on risk management and dealing with complex multi-million pound claims. Luke currently leads the Food, Agri & Beverage practice for Lockton in the UK, which is the businesses largest industry segment with several of the largest food and beverage businesses as their clients.

John Carter, Ferrero Management Service SA

A globally recognised senior leader in consumer goods safety and quality, John has executive level technical leadership experience in both major retailers and manufacturers – and is currently Group Director for Commercial Food Safety and Quality at Ferrero in Luxembourg. In fact John started his career at Campden in the 1980s, and since then has worked at Kraft Foods/Mondelez, Metro AG, Danone and now Ferrero. As a former board member of the Global Food Safety Initiative, he has a track record of driving cultural change in complex, multi-national environments and has deep category experience in confectionery, dairy, plant-based foods, beverages and many other sectors. Wherever he has worked over the last thirty (almost forty!) years he has been a champion of pragmatic risk assessment and management, enabling fast decision making and driving innovation. John has a degree in Chemical Engineering from London South Bank University and an MBA and a Business Sustainability qualification from Cambridge University.