A unique workshop focussed on improving laboratory methods with the aim of them being able to confirm whether or not STEC is present in a food within its shelf life was held in November. Instigated by CFA in response to STEC outbreaks (CFA News 62), the workshop was attended by 80 food producers including growers, government agencies and researchers, and followed CFA’s call for a review of the suitability of STEC test methods and the interpretation of non-confirmed findings. A briefing document drafted by CFA with SRUC, shared widely in industry, the trade and agencies, was taken forward by CFA […]

Costs to the GB food industry for the completion of EHCs by certifiers to export products of animal origin are now averaging around £5m pcm. So the CFA-led SPS Working Group was pleased to be invited to give evidence to the EFRA inquiry on the critical issues impacting on GB food and biosecurity by the Border Target Operating Model (CFA News 60, 61 & 62). Its wide-ranging response commented on issues including the adequacy of controls on personal and commercial imports, with an increasing potential for illegal meat imports and fraudulent EHC certificates. The capacity of systems (in the UK […]

CFA has said a fond farewell to Sustainability Consultant Dr Gus Atri. Gus’s connection  on to CFA dates to the late 1990s (whilst at Northern Foods). He chaired the Government’s Food Industry Sustainability Strategy Waste Champions Group from 2006-7, and in 2011 he joined the CFA secretariat as a consultant to lead on the Associati on’s sustainability work. Under his guidance CFA provided input into a range of initiatives including WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment, through which industry made a food waste reduction commitment. As Karin Goodburn explains, he supported CFA to become a trailblazer in many other areas: “Gus’s knowledge, coupled […]