Tuesday 23rd January saw the first meeting of the year for the BFFF Technical Expert Group. It was a fantastic turnout, with the majority attending in person, driving some very constructive discussions on the hottest topics, issues and concerns impacting industry.

We were also pleased to be joined by guest speakers Bradley Eels and Georgios Tetradis-Mairis from Nomad, who presented an overview of the work on what we are referring to as ‘Warming up the cold chain’ i.e. investigations on whether storage temperatures above – 18oC can be used to reduce freezer energy consumption. Intrigued…then take a look here

Amongst other topics discussed was of course the developments around Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) and also the Windsor Framework. This included concerns of having to label ‘Not for EU’ on goods on the NI and GB market and also the shock announcement by Defra to carry out SPS checks on goods coming via the shorts-straights 22 miles inland from the port of Dover at a Border Control Post in Sevington. This represents a massive biosecurity risk and BFFF along with other trade associations are pushing for clarification and an urgent review on this decision.

We also took the opportunity to review the latest updates given from the FSA incidents team on such things as Salmonella in Polish Chicken, peanut contamination of African spices, E. Coli STEC O145 in unpasteurised cheese and food poisoning outbreaks involving melons. Please do contact Deniserion@bfff.co.uk if you would like more information on any of these topics and we will happily provide you with an update.

As many of you will be aware this meeting was also the last to be chaired by Vince Craig. Vince has supported and chaired the BFFF Technical meetings since 1992 so I am sure he will be greatly missed by all. But we wish him the very best with his future plans and extend a huge thank you for all his help and support over the years. A new chair for the group has been appointed and will be announced in due course so please watch this space!