Margaret Patterson
The food industry is facing a shortage of future talent, according to Prof Margaret Patterson, President of the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST) (UK), who is tackling the issue head on.
“Surveys predict that there will be a shortage of talent in the next generation of food scientists and technologists coming through at all levels throughout the food industry,” she says.
A microbiologist with an interest in using hydrostatic pressure to control microbes in food, Margaret is currently business manager for the Sustainable Agri-Food Science Division at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Belfast, and she is an honorary professor at the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's University Belfast.
IFST (UK) is on the case. Now in its jubilee year, it is putting the focus on the “fantastic future of food” and has just launched FoodStart, which encourages students aged 16 or over to get experience on placement in the food industry. Chef Jamie Oliver has thrown his weight behind the initiative, notes Margaret, who predicts that FoodStart will be a long-lasting legacy.
Another legacy will be IFST (UK)’s newly launched Register for Food Safety Professionals, which Margaret believes will help to ensure the integrity of the food-supply network.
“The register is for all levels in a company, and to be on it you have to go through quite a rigorous assessment,” she says. “This delivers the confidence that the person has the correct qualifications to do the job.”
Off to the Palace
Earlier this year she was named in the UK Science Council’s top 100 list of practising scientists, and, to her delight, was also on Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honours list. In January, she will go to Buckingham Palace to receive her OBE for services to the food industry, especially relating to food safety and quality. “That was such a big surprise, I still can’t quite believe it,” she says.
Margaret has also provided expert advice to safefood from its earliest days, and she currently sits on the safefood Scientific Advisory Committee, where she sees the importance of all-island co-operation.
“We are an island, we have a body of sea around us, which gives us some protection against incoming diseases for animal health,” she says.
No borders for bacteria
“But within this island, bacteria don’t recognise borders, and we need good communication – if an outbreak happened in Newry, people in Dundalk need to know too. I think the all-island dimension has worked well at a scientific level. From the very start, people seemed keen to share information and work together.”
So what does she see for the future of the food industry on the island of Ireland? “I think our food supply here is extremely safe in terms of microbiology – though you can never be complacent of course,” she says. “And I think the emerging challenges now are obesity, poor nutrition and the need to build up our self-sufficiency and have less complexity in our food supply.”
Margaret’s life and likes
Lives: On a farm outside Belfast
Hobbies: Travelling (Hawaii is a favourite), gardening, walking, Sudoku on the iPad
Pets: Three cats (Sam, Ella and Ernie) and a parrot called Jimmy
Favourite type of book: Crime novels
Favourite radio show: The Archers
Interesting fact: Margaret recently helped to achieve a new Guinness World Record for the longest line of food cans (44,966 cans stretching more than 3.2km!) while attending the International Union of Food Science and Technology 2014 conference in Canada. The food was donated to charity.
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