Awards recognise food safety leaders

The star performers in food safety have been honoured at the HACCP 2015 awards ceremony. Presented by SAI Global, the awards recognise and reward the achievements of those who ensure the safety of Australia’s food supply.

Paul Butcher, chief commercial officer, SAI Global, said: “Food safety needs to be embedded within the culture of an organisation and is often driven by dedicated food safety professionals. The HACCP Conference Awards are an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the important work which happens daily to ensure the safety of our food supply.”

Food safety experts were awarded across two categories, with the winners chosen by a panel of Australia’s top industry-recognised food experts and, for the first time ever, their peers.

The Food Safety Training Scholarship Award was awarded to Thomas Parker, who will be the first person enrolled in the SAI Global 10140NAT Diploma of Food Safety Quality Assurance Management. This new qualification is the only nationally recognised qualification specifically for food safety professionals.

Parker said: “I hope this will propel me on my career, as my goal is to become a quality manager at a small beverage manufacturing plant and embed a knowledge of quality systems. What I love most about my job is identifying quality issues and progressing these issues.”

The prestigious Ross Peters Award, recognising excellence in food safety for the third year, was presented to Linda Ralph, technical manager at The Cordina Food Company. Ralph said: “I’m very fortunate to work in a purpose-built, high-care facility and work with a great team to implement a food safety culture, so I think that’s very exciting, and this is the recognition for the whole team.

“What I most enjoy about this work is the diversity. You can never pre-empt what’s going to happen; it’s not like you can have a card to pull out when an event happens.

“I’m very passionate about food manufacturing in Australia, and I think being able to maintain as much manufacturing in Australia and complete as much as possible here is very important.”