Speakers

Jill Hoffman 

Director, Global Quality Systems and Food Safety, McCormick & Co. Inc., USA

Jill currently works for McCormick & Co. as the Director of Global Quality Systems and Food Safety. In this role, Jill leads standardisation and continuous improvement of quality and food safety practices for McCormick functions and production facilities across the globe. Jill serves as the primary educator for McCormick regarding FSMA regulations and has been a key resource for FSMA preparation for all McCormick facilities..

Jill has 17 years of experience in the food industry, ranging from operations and continuous improvement to quality. Jill holds a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Virginia Tech, is a Six Sigma Black Belt, and recently completed a Masters Degree in Food Safety from Michigan State University.

Watch Jill Hoffman present “Managing Food Integrity in a Complex Supply Chain” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 9:15am

Jo Saunders 

LinkedIn Trainer & Speaker, Wildfire Social Marketing

Jo Saunders is an international LinkedIn strategist, author and social media educator who shows leaders and teams how to increase visibility, amplify authority and earn influence using LinkedIn and social marketing tools.

She was named #2 LinkedIn Expert in Asia Pacific for 2018 by the Social Media Marketing Institute and is the only Australian LinkedIn expert to be invited to speak at Social Media Marketing World, the biggest social media conference in the world. And she was named one of the Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers by TopRank Marketing for 2019.

Watch Jo Saunders present “Build a Professional LinkedIn Presence” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 10am

Tristan Kitchener 

HARPS Management Team, Kitchener Partners & HARPS

Tristan is an ex-retailer, having previously held senior positions with Sainsbury’s (UK) and Coles supermarkets in technical and commercial roles.

He is now a management consultant providing advice and support along the grocery value chain, from major retailers through to manufacturers and primary producers. Tristan has a focus upon fresh foods and particularly fresh produce.

Tristan is a regular speaker at industry conferences and appears as a sector expert in shows such as Switzer Daily on Sky Business TV. He has worked with a range of businesses including major and independent retailers, manufactures, private equity firms, state and federal government and other SMEs. Tristan’s formal qualifications include a MBA, MPhil Horticulture Management and BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences.

Watch Tristan Kitchener present, “The Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme Updates” on Wednesday, 21 August @11am

Belinda Millard

HARPS Management Team, Kitchener Partners & HARPS

With over 20 years experience in the Quality Assurance industry, Belinda is a passionate and enthusiastic professional having been involved with the HARPS Project since 2014.

Belinda is an active promoter of harmonisation solutions for supply chain members assisting with the development of auditor competency tools for the GSCP (Global Social Compliance Program). Belinda has also represented Woolworths Ltd in the Auditor Competency Scheme Committee operated by the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Watch Belinda Millard present “The Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme Updates” on Wednesday, 21 August @11am

Dr Craig Shadbolt 

Biosecurity & Food Safety Compliance, NSW Department of Primary Industries

Dr Craig Shadbolt is Manager of the Food Incident Response and Complaints unit with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI), Australia’s only through-chain food safety agency with regulatory responsibility from farm-tofork.

Craig has been with NSW DPI since 2004 and has over 15 years experience in ensuring that outbreaks of foodborne disease and other food hazards are managed effectively to prevent harm to human health and limit damage to the food industry. This has led to Craig’s involvement in primary production and on-farm activities, through to manufacturing and retail/foodservice, into both incident response capacity and industry awareness campaigns.

Watch Dr Craig Shadbolt present “Recent Outbreaks With High Risk Horticulture” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 11:20am

James Whittaker

Head of Quality and Responsible Sourcing, Coles

James works as Head of Quality and Responsible Sourcing for Coles Group based in Melbourne Australia and has been with Coles for 7 years. James’s role is to lead Cole’s strategy for product Quality, Safety, Sustainability, Animal Welfare and Nutrition. James has delivered some key programs including Cole’s approach to managing food safety through the Coles Food Manufacturing Audit Program, Coles Code Red recall management program, Coles Fusion, Coles approach to quality management, ethical compliance programs, sustainability including the business lead for removal of single use plastic bags.

Prior to Coles, James worked in the United States where he led product safety, quality and responsible sourcing for Tesco’s US business. James is originally from the UK and has worked in retail, manufacturing and packaging roles.

Watch James Whittaker present “Consumer Trends and the Importance of Sustainability and Product Safety in Modern Food Retail” on Wednesday, 21 August @11:40am

Jennifer Crawford

Supplier and Audit Compliance Manager, Coles

Jennifer is the Supplier and Audit Compliance Manager at Coles, managing the Coles Supplier Standards for food and non food and their auditing team, ensuring Own Brand suppliers deliver the best products for customers.

Jennifer has worked in a variety of roles in the food industry globally over 30 years, including meat inspection, microbiologist, quality manager, product technologist roles as well as auditing and managing an amazing team of auditors. Her experience in the food industry covers the majority of food groups including dairy and bakery, but she has a particular passion for the meat industry, produce industry and high risk foods.

Jennifer is also a member of the HARPS (Harmonised Australian Retail Produce Standard) committee as well as the newly formed GFSI Local group for Australia and New Zealand.

Watch Jennifer Crawford present “Introduction to GFSI Local Group AusNZ” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 1pm

Amanda Evans – Lara

Food Safety Compliance Specialist, HACCP Mentor

Principle Food Safety Consultant and Compliance Specialist, Amanda Evans-Lara, has over 25 years’ experience working with Australian and International food businesses. A strong platform of skill and knowledge has been built after initially working for 7 years as a Food Inspector for the NSW government and for the past 20 years, as a food safety auditor, educator and compliance consultant.

Amanda is an FSPCA Lead Instructor for the Preventive Controls for Human Food in addition to the Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessments standardized curriculum, both which are recognized as adequate by the FDA.

Watch Amanda Evans – Lara present “Importing Requirements in USA as a Result of FSMA” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 1:25pm

Lauren Kolstad

Senior Food Safety Coordinator, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand

Lauren Kolstad joined Food Standards Australia New Zealand in 2008. She is currently a Senior Food Safety Coordinator and has experience in the areas of food safety risk management and national response coordination. Lauren was a member of the expert committee which developed the WHO/FAO guide for developing and improving national food recall systems.

Most recently Lauren is part of the FSANZ team working on the review of chapter 3 and 4 of the Food Standards Code.

Watch Lauren Kolstad present “Review of Food Safety Management Requirements in Australia” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 1:50pm

Ian Beer

Senior Compliance Investigations Officer, NSW Department of Primary Industries

Ian is a Senior Compliance Investigations Officer with NSW Food Authority which is now part of Bio-security and Food Safety branch of the NSW Department of Primary Industry. Ian has worked as an authorised officer of the various NSW Food Acts since 1985 formally within the NSW Health umbrella before joining the NSW Food Authority in 2004. In this role Ian developed expert understanding of the food laws and regulatory system in Australia and is the prosecuting officer in many of the NSW Food Authority prosecutions. He has developed high skill level in the investigation Food Standards Code non-compliance’s and food safety offences related to food contamination some that resulted in serious injury to consumers.

Watch Ian Beer present “Food Safety Enforcement and Compliance Trends NSW” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 2:20pm

Mark Field

Senior Food and Retail Industry Technical and Commercial Executive

Mark graduated with an MSc in Meat Animal Science from the University Of Bristol, England.

Mark held several senior technical leadership positions within the UK during the period of key food safety scares: BSE, Foot & Mouth, Sudan and E.coli. Prior to joining Coles Supermarkets Mark held the position of Group Technical Director for 2 Sisters Food Group, one of Europe’s largest protein & chilled foods manufacturers as they also accelerated into their acquisition phase covering sites in Europe and the start-up operation of Fresh & Easy in the USA. As food retailing in Australia started to change with the focus on Own Brand & innovation Mark joined Coles Supermarket in Dec 2011, taking a number of senior roles within the Own Brand team, prior to taking the role as Head of Coles Brand in 2015 until July 2019, where he led the award winning innovation agenda delivering over 1000 new lines as year. Mark has supported a number of food safety and food entrepreneur programs on the advisory boards of Monash Food Innovation Centre, Fresh Produce Safety Centre, RMIT and a SME for Australian Research Council on their recent review Engagement and Impact Assessment Report published in March 2019.

Watch Mark Field present “Consumer Demands Driving Product Innovation and Emerging Food Trends” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 3:15pm

Felipe Favaro

General Manager, Hemp Foods Australia

Felipe Favaro is the General Manager of Hemp Foods Australia, a fully-owned subsidiary of Elixinol Global (ASX:EXL). With a bachelor in Business/Finance and a master in science in Renewable Energy / Sustainability, Felipe discovered the amazing properties of the Hemp plant back in 2011 and has been helping people to live a healthier life by adding hemp seed based products into their lives daily.

Product quality and food safety have always been the #1 focus at Hemp Foods Australia that is why the company is HACCP and BRC certified.

Watch Felipe Favaro present “Hemp Foods & Food Safety – Challenges and Opportunities” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 3:45pm

Paul Saeki

Kakadu Plum Business Development, Indigenous Land & Sea Corporation

Paul Saeki is the Kakadu Plum Business Development Manager for the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, and manages the Secretariat of the Northern Australia Aboriginal Kakadu Plum Alliance (NAAKPA). NAAKPA is a consortium of nine Aboriginal Corporations operating across northern Australia representing about 60% of annual volume of Kakadu Plum harvested.

Watch Paul Saeki present “Australia Native Foods – The Journey to Creating Benchmarks for Wild Harvest Food Safety” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 4:15pm

Daniel Havers

Technical Account Manager APAC, SAI Global Assurance

Daniel has an extensive background, working as a technical professional specialising in the development, implementation, assessment and verification of food safety and quality management systems. Daniel started his career in the food industry through both production and quality roles with leading manufacturers, including Murray Goulburn, Domaine Chandon and Portavin IWS.

He has supported numerous food and beverage manufacturers and retailers across Australia and Asia Pacific over his 11 years with SAI Global driving improvement in system and site standards.

Watch Daniel Havers present “Australia Native Foods – The Journey to Creating Benchmarks for Wild Harvest Food Safety” on Wednesday, 21 August @ 4:15pm

Ron McNaughton

Head of the Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit, Food Standards Scotland

Ron was initially a consultant for Food Standards Scotland and became the Head of the Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit in 2016 after being asked to build a food crime capability by the Chief Executive. A former Senior Police Officer in Scotland, he retired from the Police in 2015, after 30 years’ service. During this period, he served in a number of operational policing roles. For the last five years of his police service, he was specifically involved in leading the investigation into serious and organised crime as Force Authorising Officer and Head of Intelligence for Tayside Police. In that role he was responsible for all force covert activity. Latterly Ron worked within the Police Service of Scotland’s intelligence function and performed the role of Intelligence Commander for the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

Watch Ron McNaughton present “An Intelligence Led Approach to Tackling Food Crime” on Thursday, 22 August @ 9:05am

Chandaka Ratnapala

Head of Quality – Fresh Food and Customer Sensory, Woolworths Group Limited

Chandaka Ratnapala is currently the Head of Quality Fresh Food and Customer Sensory at Woolworths Food Group and have been with Woolworths Group for 12 years. He leads a team of experts within Food Safety and Quality across all areas of the Woolworths Fresh Food business to deliver safe, quality and trusted food for customers.

Over the years at Woolworths, he has worked across various areas within Quality at Woolworths from Fresh Food, Global Sourcing to Non-Food. Prior to Woolworths, Chan worked in the manufacturing across various industries including cereals, drinks, meat and smallgoods.

Watch Chandaka Ratnapala present “What 5 Minutes of Fame Cost an Industry” on Thursday, 22 August @ 9:45am

Craig McGrath

Detective Inspector, Queensland Police Service

Detective Inspector Craig McGrath – Queensland Police Service, State Crime
Command. Craig is the Operations Manager for the Major and Organised
Crime Squad, which had carriage of Operation Quebec Rosella, the deliberate
contamination of Queensland strawberries products in 2018.

Watch Craig McGrath present “Police Investigative Perspective – Lessons Learnt” on Thursday, 22 August @ 10:10am

Allen Gardiner

National Sales Manager – Product Inspection, Mettler-Toledo

Allen started his career in the packaging equipment industry followed by periods in the printing and labelling fields. Beginning his career working in technical roles and then onto management positions including operations.

With over 10 years spent with METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection, Allen’s knowledge spans across the full suite of Product Inspection solutions including Safeline Metal Detection, Safeline X-ray Inspection, Garvens Checkweighing and now CI-Vision equipment. As the Australian and New Zealand Sales Manager, Allen assists his customers in improving OEE while maintaining a high product quality and meeting compliance and regulatory standards.

Watch Allen Gardiner run “Food Safety Technology for Minimising Physical Contamination” workshop, Introductory/Refresher Session on Thursday, 22 August @ 11:30am

Dr Sharon Jones

General Manager Technical, OneHarvest

Dr Sharon Jones has broad global experience with over 25 years in the Food Industry. Developing, implementing & maintaining Food Safety Management Systems supported by commercial understanding and focus on the demand of changing legislation and customer expectations. Servicing clients including the United Nations, British Ministry of Defence, Australian and International retailers.

Dr Jones graduated from University of Queensland, with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Food Technology) and PhD (Food Science Management), graduated from Deakin University with a Master of Business Administration and the University of New England with Graduate Diploma in Education (Science). Currently working with OneHarvest, who are the leaders in fresh produce in Australia. OneHarvest are a third generation family owned company who have been serving Australian families with fresh salads for over 30 years.

Watch Dr Sharon Jones run “Food Safety Culture” workshop, Advanced Session on Thursday, 22 August @ 11:30am

Sandon Adams

Managing Director, Oritain Australia

Sandon leads the Australian business for Oritain Global Limited. As a member of a fourth-generation Australian farming family, Sandon is passionate about promoting transparency and trust for food products and brands in both domestic and global supply chains.

His experience spans cropping, grazing, horticulture, aquaculture and FMCG, where he has managed global brands for one of the world’s largest food & beverage companies, Nestlé.

Watch Sandon Adams run “Food Fraud Mitigation” workshop, Advanced Session on Thursday, 22 August @ 11:30am

Fiona Fleming

Managing Director, Australian Institute of Food Science & Technology

Fiona is Managing Director of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST). She is an experienced Corporate and Regulatory Affairs professional who has been involved in leading and facilitating change and developing management strategies across a portfolio of food policy and regulation matters in global FMCG and NGO environments.

Fiona has more than 30 years’ experience in the food industry in the areas of dairy, seafood, cereal based foods, smallgoods, tea, simmer sauces and pastes, ingredients and infant formula. Fiona has previously worked for a large FMCG company in the role of Group Quality and Corporate Affairs Manager. In this role she was responsible for providing leadership across Australia and New Zealand in the areas of food policy and regulation; consumer affairs and communication; issues and crisis management and food quality and safety.

Watch Fiona Fleming run “Labelling for Food Safety – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” workshop, Introductory/Refresher Session on Thursday, 22 August @ 11:30am

Keith Chessell

Education Team, Australian Institute of Packaging

Keith Chessell has over 50 years packaging expertise with 46 of these working with the one company in the Food, Beverage & Confectionery industry (Parsons, Cottee’s, Schweppes, Pepsi, Cadbury, Kraft/Mondelez). Over the last 17 years his focus has been in the training, education and assisting individuals and manufacturers in understanding the importance of sustainable packaging design.

In more recent years he has been actively involved with the AIP in providing packaging technical expertise for industry-based Save Food Packaging and Fighting Food Waste programs for Australia and NZ. Keith is the AIP representative on the APCO Board and Standards Australia Environmental Labelling EV-021-05 committee.

Watch Keith Chessell present “The Role That Packaging Plays in Reducing Food Waste” on Thursday, 22 August @ 1:30pm

Krista Watkins

Food Waste Innovator, Natural Evolution

Krista Watkins is a leader in agricultural innovation and the co-founder and Managing Director of Natural Evolution, a company specializing in green banana and other waste produce products. She is an advocate for innovation and disruption, and passionate about reinvigorating the Australian food manufacturing industry. Krista’s interest in reducing waste and finding uses for unsaleable produce led to the development of Natural Evolution in 2015. Following tireless work and research, she and husband Rob built the world’s first pharmaceutical grade green banana processing facility and pioneered the process of turning produce into functional foods and cosmetics. Krista’s efforts have earned her the prestigious Agrifutures Rural Woman of the Year 2018.

Watch Krista Watkins present “Minimising Food Waste” on Thursday, 22 August @ 1:50pm

Ben Thomas

National HSE Manager

Ben is Sodexo National HSE Manager for Sodexo, global leader in quality of life services, and provider of integrated facilities management. Ben holds a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Management and has spent the last seven years working in HSE leadership roles within Sodexo, across multiple industries including corporate services, education, aviation and energy and resources.

Watch Ben Thomas present “Sodexo’s Approach Towards a Better Tomorrow” on Thursday, 22 August @ 2:10pm

Prof. Jennifer Burn

NSW Interim Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Director of Anti-Slavery Australia

Jennifer Burn is the Interim Anti-Slavery Commissioner for NSW with responsibility to drive the implementation of the NSW Modern Slavery Act. She is Professor of Law at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and former director of Anti-Slavery Australia at UTS, a research and policy centre with a legal practice dedicated to providing legal representation to men, women and children who have been trafficked and enslaved in Australia.

Jennifer’s background as a human rights lawyer and academic with over 17 years’ experience researching international and domestic law and policy relevant to human trafficking and slavery led to her active and influential involvement in the development of Australia’s response to human trafficking and slavery. Since 2008 she has been an inaugural member of the Australian Government National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery.

Watch Prof. Jennifer Burn present “The Modern Slavery Act.
What Does It Mean To You?” on Thursday, 22 August @ 3pm

Anne Gabriel

Program Director, Marine Stewardship Council

Over 25 years as a sustainability professional in international and regional roles involved in national schemes by various governments and the private sector in their procurement vision and policies on certified sustainable commodities; environmental, social and animal welfare initiatives; crisis & issues management; stakeholder mapping and engagement; consumer advocacy movements as well as traceability and eco labelling programs, spanning South East Asia, Europe, India, China, US and Oceania.

Anne has won numerous awards for regional campaigns and has also contributed her perspectives in a book on new digital media environment and its impact to communications trends, which was published in Malaysia and distributed in SEA.

Watch Anne Gabriel present “Tightening the Net on Seafood Fraud” on Thursday, 22 August @ 3:25pm

Adam Moore

Corporate Chef, NAFDA Foodservice

Adam Moore is the chef behind some of the biggest brands in Australian supermarkets. His expertise is in product development and innovation from concept to shelf, turning ideas into recipes and supervising their production, packaging and marketing. He is regarded as one of the world’s top corporate chefs. Yet in his youth, Adam couldn’t decide whether to be a chef or a teacher. In his last years of high school, he attended technical college after hours to gain cooking qualifications. Putting his skills to immediate effect, he opened a charity soup kitchen – earning a Commendation of the Order of Australia for community service at 18.

With more than 25 years in the industry to his credit, Adam has worked in restaurants, foodservice, retail, food manufacturing, marketing and sales. In the corporate sector, past employers include Mars Australia, George Weston Foods, Campbell Arnotts and Cerebos. Currently employed by NAFDA Foodservice, he is in high demand as a product development and innovation consultant.

Watch Adam Moore present “A Great Menu or Food Display Should Begin with Food Safety – Challenging the Industry to Think Differently” on Thursday, 22 August @ 3:50pm