Skip to main content

Consultative Council Meeting - 10th March 2022

Members Present

  • Ray Bowe, Musgraves [RB]
  • Alice McGlynn, Consultant [AMG]
  • Paula Barry Walsh, DAFM (retired)* [PBW]
  • Conor Mulvihill, DII [CM]
  • Cormac Healy, MII [CH]
  • Sorcha Kavanagh, Repak [SK]
  • Maree Gallagher, Food lawyer [MG]
  • Janis Morrissey, Irish Heart Foundation [JM]
  • Annette McSweeney, TUD [AMS]
  • Siobhan Murphy, HSE [SM]
  • Dermott Jewell, CAI [DJ]
  • Martin Roper, Food Safety Consultant [MR]
  • Regina Sexton, UCC [RS]
  • Caroline Keeling, Keelings [CK]
  • Catherine Morrison, BIM [CM]
  • Jonathan Griffith, IHTA [JG]
  • Eamonn Quinn, Kelsius [EQ]
  • Patrick Farrell, ex IFA [PF]
  • Marcella Rudden, LEO, Cavan [MR]

FSAI Staff Present

  • Pamela Byrne [PB]
  • Gail Carroll [GC]
  • Jane Ryder [JR]
  • Gerard Power [GP]
  • Rob Phillips [RP]

Apologies

  • Sorcha Kavanagh, Conscious Cup [SK]
  • Jamie Knox, Dr Pepper [JK]
  • Tim O’Brien, Restaurateur [TOB]
  • Louise Reynolds, INDI [LR]
  • James McCrudden [JMC]

Introduction

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided a summary of the plans for today’s meeting.

Agree Minutes of Previous meeting (9 December 2021)

The minutes were agreed without amendment.

Actions:

  • GP to post the agreed minutes to the FSAI website.

Matters Arising

There were no outstanding matters arising that were not agenda items.

Governance Framework update

Gail Carroll [GC] gave the Council a recap of the discussion from the previous FSCC meeting on 9 December 2021. GC advised that the Governance Framework was nearing completion and the final sign off should happen after GC, Ray Bowe [RB] and Kevin Roantree (Director of Corporate Affairs in FSAI) meet again to go through the latest draft. RB requested that any agreed Framework after the proposed consultation be circulated to the Council for review and constructive input.

GC updated that as part of the more formal nature of Council membership in the future will involve more structure around tenure duration and documentation expected of Council nominees in advance of appointments:

1. Conflict of Interest
2. Confidentiality agreement
3. Code of Conduct

Actions/Agreed:

  • GC & RB to meet Kevin Roantree to finalise proposed Framework document
  • GP to circulate Framework document for Council feedback

Update on appointment of Council members

GC updated the Council on the 11 expired Council memberships identified. All expired memberships agreed to extend their tenure to 31 December 2022, to remain consistent with the five-year tenures granted to recent Council appointees on behalf of the Department of Health. One position remains vacant of the Council due to the resignation of Dermot Gates in 2021. In lieu of this tenure update for historic members of the Council GC confirmed the appointment process for new Council memberships would begin throughout 2022, in line with appointment practises to be confirmed in the new Governance Framework Document. The FSCC will need to also prepare a paper to present to the board in advance of their intention to appoint new members in 2023, GC stated that as well as seeking extension for some current appointees the FSCC would also try to identify new candidates.

Actions/Agreed:

  • Formal application process to begin in 2022
  • FSCC to prepare paper to present to board in advance of new applications in 2023

FSAI Update

GC elaborated on the document that was circulated to the members in advance of the meeting, apologising for the later than usual delivery and stating future updates will be circulated further in advance of future meetings. GC also updated the Council of the recent appointment of Rob Phillips to the role of Chief Specialist, Environmental Health within FSAI.
GC opened the floor to comments and suggestions and the members raised the following:

  • Annette McSweeney [AMS] praised the inclusion of the 2021 review infographic charts providing a breakdown of work carried out by FSAI throughout 2021.
  • Maree Gallagher [MG] queried FSAI protocols around protected disclosures, to which GC advised of the below links from the FSAI website relating to the Customer Charter. Pamela Byrne [PB] also provided MG with further detailed FSAI opinion on this matter. 

Food Safety Crisis Management Overview

Presentation by Andy Goodwin & Callum Lott from Fonterra

Representatives from Fonterra in New Zealand Joined the call to talk the Council through their presentation dealing with the WPC80 incident in New Zealand in 2013 and various practises that emerged in the aftermath at Fonterra:

  • The business continuity framework at Fonterra
  • Their Incident Management Team (IMT)
  • Relationship with regulatory bodies
  • Incident management process
  • Product traceability capability

After the presentation Andy and Callum fielded queries and observations from Council members. RB and Paula Barry Walsh [PBW] queried the process within Fonterra around alerts and when an incident should be escalated. Andy Goodwin confirmed escalation is encouraged within Fonterra and any issues identified now followed their agreed internal process for dealing with such incidents. MG followed up to question when Fonterra’s legal department may become involved in an incident and Andy confirmed this was dealt on a case-by-case basis. RB thanked both Andy and Callum for their attendance and presentation.

Presentation by Piaras Kelly from Edelman

Piaras gave a presentation titled ‘Crisis & Issue Management’ to Council members discussing how the modern digital world can accelerate and amplify any incident or crisis facing business owners.
Piaras spoke through the presentation in detail, covering such topics as:

  • Crisis in a digital world
  • Information and demands between audiences
  • Impact of social media on how stories break to the public
  • Crisis response protocol
  • Organisational resilience through strategic business priorities.

Piaras also kindly fielded queries from Council members after the presentation. Eamonn Quinn [EQ] held a brief discussion of recent industry stories and mirroring the examples stated within the presentation as to how quickly social media can escalate a situation for modern businesses. Maree Gallagher [MG] then led a conversation around the documented E-coli outbreak in Germany in 2011 and how social media framed the incident. Cormac Healy [CH] closed out the post presentation conversation by speaking of the need for the implementation of standard procedures within companies before communicating to the public, thus ensuring the information provided will be correct and allowing more informed notifications to be circulated.

Actions/Agreed:

  • GP to circulate copies of both presentations pending agreement from Edelman and Fonterra to Council members.

AOB

RB confirmed that the next FSCC meeting is scheduled to take place on 16 June 2022. The next sub-group committee will involve the topic of ‘Reusable and Safe Packaging’, with both committee members Sorcha Kavanagh and Alice McGlynn sourcing guest speakers over the coming weeks.