Home » Multimedia » Podcasts » Food Safety Matters » Ep. 40. Chris Elliott: Food Crime: A Global Challenge
Food Safety Matters
Food Safety Matters is a podcast for food safety professionals hosted by the Food Safety Magazine editorial team – the leading media brand in food safety for over 20 years. Each episode will feature a conversation with a food safety professional sharing their experiences and insights of the important job of safeguarding the world’s food supply.
Professor Chris Elliott is the founder of the Institute for Global Food Security and professor of food safety at Queen’s University Belfast. From 2016–2018, he served as pro-vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences in the University, but stepped down from that post recently to concentrate on his world-leading research.
Chris has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food, and environmental related contaminants.His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across complex food supply systems. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic. Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal.
Over the years, Chris has developed a high-level network of collaborators across Europe, the U.S., and Asia. He is a visiting professor at the China Agriculture University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship, and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Biology, and the Institute of Food Science and Technology.
Chris has received numerous prizes and awards for his work. In 2017, he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Prize and was also awarded the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Chris Elliott about:
The 2013 horsemeat scandal and how he unexpectedly became involved in the investigation
How a complex food supply chain made it easy for cheating and fraud to occur
His recommendation to set up a special police force to begin tracking food-related crimes, which eventually became the UK's National Food Crime Unit
The Food Industry Intelligence Network (FIIN)
The cutting-edge technology that's known as "food fingerprinting" to detect tampering or adulteration
The problem with constant auditing for compliance
The three ground challenges at Queens University
Genetically modified (GM) foods, and the importance of pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides
Concerns about the cocktail effect of eating every day GM foods
Advancements and achievements in the U.S. and Europe vs. in other parts of the world
Brexit and how it may affect current food safety work
James (Jim) Jones joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2023 as the agency's first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. In this position, he leads the charge in setting and advancing priorities for a proposed, unified Human Foods Program, which includes food safety, chemical safety, and nutrition activities. He currently oversees the leadership of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR), until the proposed Human Foods Program reorganization is implemented.
Robert (Bob) Manning, M.B.A., M.S., M.E.M., has worked in the food and beverage industry for over 25 years in various facility and senior corporate positions. He is currently CEO of Liquid, and formerly worked as Vice President of Technical Operations at Niagara Bottling. He has spent most of his time in Operations and Quality roles for large companies such as HP Hood LLC, Campbell's Soup, and Niagara Bottling, as well as consulting for major domestic and international firms.
Brittany Sambol is the Vice President of Operations at Wildtype Foods, where she is responsible for leading the scale-up of the company’s operations function, including product commercialization and manufacturing facility expansion. Prior to joining Wildtype, Brittany spent six years at Clif Bar & Company, leading in various areas including supply chain and contract manufacturing management, product innovation and scale-up, and sustainable packaging development. Earlier in her career, Brittany worked as a chemical engineer and then spent over 12 years directly leading manufacturing operations in the CPG industry.
Khyati Shah, Ph.D. is an esteemed molecular biologist with a distinguished career spanning over ten years in the development and promotion of innovative pathogen testing of products for the food and beverage industry. Serving as a global product manager for the Food and Beverage segment of the Life Sciences business of MilliporeSigma, Dr. Shah is instrumental in creating and spearheading the product roadmap for the cultured meat and alternative protein business. With MilliporeSigma's strong focus on providing research and development (R&D) to scale-up solutions in this emerging industry, Dr. Shah enables cost-effective, sustainable, and efficient supply chain solutions to bring cultured meat and seafood products to market.
Jason Richardson, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Global Quality and Food Safety of The Coca-Cola Company, a position he has held since January 2021. In this role, Jason leads a team of quality and food safety professionals who are accountable for delivering global strategic and operational leadership for the performance and progress of quality and food safety programs across the Coca-Cola system.
Brian Ronholm, M.A.,is the Director of Food Policy for Consumer Reports, where he leads advocacy efforts to advance a safe and healthy food system. He was in public service prior to joining Consumer Reports, having served as Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and before that, as a congressional staff person for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
Natalie Dyenson, M.P.H. is the Chief Food Safety and Regulatory Officer for the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA). She has nearly three decades of experience in food safety that encompasses the entire produce supply chain, from farm to fork. In her role at IFPA, Natalie and her team actively work to guide the industry on food safety issues and connect with regulators and policymakers to advocate for a science-focused and risk-based approach to food safety worldwide.