On Wednesday 2nd April, The New Optimists are bringing an impressive group of people at their Elliott Review Birmingham workshop next Wednesday.
Food manufacturers and retailers, plus environmental health and trading standards people and others involved in food regs along with those responsible for providing meals on a tight budget (e.g. for school children or hospital patients) and some regional scientists and social scientists will be exploring how the city can tackle food crime.
Professor Chris Elliott, who leads the team set up by HM Government to review the assurance and integrity of the food supply network after the horse-meat scandal, will be there with his colleagues.
HM Government published the Prof’s interim report just before Christmas. He asked me (with my New Optimists hat on) to set up this workshop so that he and his team, along with us can test his draft recommendations, and generate a case study of how a major UK city (that’s us!) can tackle food crime.
He wants to include this case study in his final Report which is due out in early summer.
You can read more about the Elliott Review Birmingham here.
It’s a great opportunity for the city to be seen as core to intelligence gathering on food safety in the UK — something the Birmingham Food Council sees as very important.