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News release

16 September 2011 - NR 45/11

Food and drink giants gather in Nottingham

Figureheads of the food and drink manufacturing world will try to perfect the recipe for good health and safety at the industry’s flagship event next month.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) hosts its food and drink manufacturing conference 2011 in Nottingham on 4 and 5 October, with the aim of getting the right health and safety mixture to best protect workers on ever-tightening budgets.

Key speakers at the event will include Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chair Judith Hackitt CBE, IOSH’s president Steve Granger and chief executive Rob Strange OBE, plus speakers from giants of the supermarket, bakery, confectionary and drinks worlds.

IOSH Food and Drink Group chair Neil Catton said: “We’ve seen a great deal of progress in health and safety over the last 12 months. The Government has thrown the spotlight onto our profession, recognising the importance of workplace health and safety and beginning a review of legislation in this area.

“That makes the conference very timely for the food and drink sector, as it’ll be a landmark on where we go from here, as we recover from recession and the HSE – the UK’s work-related health and safety regulating body - faces changes which will affect us all.

“We’ve got a really strong set of speakers covering in-depth topics to give practitioners practical tools to implement strategies and ideas into their own workplaces. This is all with the end-goal of reducing work-related death and injury, and improving the working lives of people in the industry.”

During the conference, the National Food and Drink Health and Safety Awards 2011 will also recognise the year’s most innovative health and safety project, which has improved a company’s output and incidents of injury and ill-health through problem solving.

Last year, Leicestershire’s Bradgate Bakery won the award for its sandwich cutter invention that saved the company £100k a year, while protecting its 1,000-strong workforce from excess noise.

Mr Catton added: “These awards celebrate real innovation in our profession on two levels. They recognise projects that have and still are improving the wellbeing, health and safety of staff. By ticking that box, we often find they also save companies a lot of money by cutting waste and reducing the amount of time people have off work through sickness.”

The winner(s) of the awards will present their project on Wednesday 5 October. Other topics at the conference will cover the future of the HSE, a case study of an accident investigation, workplace transport risk, cleaning safety, hygiene, and health and fitness.

The event is organised by IOSH, with support from the HSE’s Agriculture and Food Sector and the Food and Drink Manufacture Health and Safety Forum.

For a full list of speakers and details on the event, visit www.iosh.co.uk/fooddrinkconference. To book a place, contact the events team on 0116 257 3378 or email events@iosh.co.uk.

- Ends -

Notes for editors:

IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. With more than 40,000 members in 85 countries, we’re the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation.

We set standards, and support, develop and connect our members with resources, guidance, events and training. We’re the voice of the profession, and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people.

IOSH was founded in 1945 and is a registered charity with international NGO status.