Prof Elliott was speaking at a seminar at The Cambridge Belfry Hotel in Cambourne this week (Tuesday 10 February) to discuss food supply networks. The seminar, jointly organised by Mills & Reeve and Grant Thornton, considered how moves to improve the integrity and assurance of food supply networks could impact on businesses.
Prof Elliott, who is currently Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, told the audience: “Unfortunately the chances are another challenge to the integrity of our food supplies will occur .” He stressed that buyers needed to ensure the risk process is taken into account and not tolerate any shortcuts when it came to ensuring compliance.
Despite the stark warning, Prof Elliott was generally positive about the situation in Britain, and believes businesses here are taking a lead globally on food security. He feels the move towards modular and unannounced audits can only help the situation as will the new Food Crime Unit.
“Ultimately responsibility for future incidents may well rest in the boardroom and if for example you have a situation where a contract is made under the market-value that leads to problems further down the line, then there is a case that you’ve been complicit in the fraud,” said Prof Elliott. “The key to this is simple. Keep the bad guys out of business.”
Prof Elliott was joined on the panel by Jessica Burt, a food lawyer at Mills & Reeve with 14 years’ experience in advising on food regulatory and product liability issues; the Rt Hon Michael Jack, agriculture and food advisor;
Nick Andrews, partner and chief operating officer of Grant Thornton’s Forensic and Investigation Services; and Dr Simon Kelly, research laboratory manager at the Faculty of Science, University of East Anglia.
Image: Jessica Burt and Prof Chris Elliott
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