John Oakley FSFHT FRSH MCIEH

 

With over 50 years experience in the field of food safety and hygiene both in an enforcement role and in the commercial environment I am well placed to offer sound impartial and unprejudiced advice.

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A graduate of the University of Aston in Birmingham I worked for several years as an Environmental Health Officer and Authorised Meat Inspector before joining Marks & Spencer in 1971.  During 18 years service with that company I was responsible for setting and maintaining hygiene and food safety standards at suppliers’ factories and during that time at M & S  worked in all of the food group departments. From 1971 – 1982 my work was with particular reference to companies producing bakery, confectionery and shelf-stable ambient products. Later during this period, I had experience with the production of recipe dishes and factories producing high-risk food products. From 1982 - 1989 I worked in the Protein Group and gained a reputation as one of Europe’s leading authorities on food safety and hygiene in the meat, fish and poultry industries.  In my career to date I have inspected and advised in over 5000 food factories world-wide.

In addition to having expert knowledge of the European food industry I have worked extensively outside Europe in particular in Chile, China, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Middle East, Phillipines, Singapore and USA.

I have designed factories and production layouts (mostly in the fish and poultry processing industries but also in high-risk sandwich and salads production) in Kenya, Republic of Ireland, Thailand, Malaysia, and Honduras as well as numerous in UK.

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Whilst working for M&S I  was one of only two designated trainers responsible for the induction training programme of all new graduate food technologists and was author of several Codes of Practice and quality management systems. I have  lectured for the British Veterinary Association on poultry meat hygiene and quality to Veterinary Surgeons` engaged on official EU inspection duties in licensed slaughter and cutting plants.

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For several years I was engaged as consultant to the British Retail Consortium and had an executive function as manager of the Approved Training Provider scheme undertaking training against the complete range of BRC Technical Standards and managed the day to day activities of over 120 tutors worldwide.

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I am a registered centre for the delivery of Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) food safety courses at Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced level since 1990 and has organised and conducted numerous seminars on Food Safety & HACCP in Europe, Central America and SE Asia. I am currently involved in carrying out lead auditor training for staff of European Certification Bodies for the purpose of product inspection and authentication under EN45004 & EN45011.

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I am a member of the expert committee on HACCP for TüV in Germany and as such advises this organisation on all aspects of food safety management.

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I am a Fellow and former Chairman of the Society of Food Hygiene Technology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health and a member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.  I am included on the UK Law Society’s Register of Expert Witnesses as an expert on food contamination.