Lover of all things food. I am an innovations and development specialist with a chef background.  

With over thirty years of experience in the food and drink industry, my journey to date has been diverse and incredibly inspiring.

Beginning in gastropubs and then moving on to award-winning restaurant training with the likes of Gary Rhodes and Raymond Blanc, the culinary training and knowledge I acquired was poured into new product development for retailers' own brands, stretching further into international branded propositions.

My career has taken me from the kitchen to high-profile senior management roles heading up Innovation for a multi-million-pound food and drink business shaping their innovation agenda with leading brands such as Linda McCartney Foods, New Covent Garden Soup Co, Hartley's along with working with the businesses key customers to deliver newness to the retail and food service market. 

I launched Fabric-Food in 2018 combining my culinary expertise, commercial acumen, and vast industry and consumer knowledge to bring to market an end-to-end food and drink consultancy supporting food and drink businesses from start-up to established.

An award-winning Independent consultant with a breadth of experience to Board level; underpinned by more than 30 years’ experience in Higher Education and Public Sector across a range of sectors within the Accommodation, Sustainability, Hospitality, Visitor Economy & Facilities Management Industry. Classically trained Chef - Foodie!

Prioritises developing strong relationships that are built on trust and respect whilst collaborating at Executive level within a national/UK-wide arena, to structure and execute business initiatives.  A collaborator, strategist, forward thinker and networker, comfortable engaging at all levels across organisations either at home or Internationally.   Recognised within the Industry as ambitious, energetic with high levels of enthusiasm and drive and described as a ‘people’s person’ with the ability to engage, motivate to achieve great outputs.

 Chair of East Sussex visitor economy skills group, Ambassador for Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. 

Double Catey winner, voted Public Sector top 20 Most influential for five consecutive years. Winner of Lifetime Achievement award from CUBO and CSC and member of Women1st Top 100 club.

Started career at United Biscuits, followed by New Covent Garden Soup Company in its early stages in the 90s. Senior roles at Shippams / Princes before moving into food importing with Leathams / Merchant Gourmet and then 12 years as CEO of food ingredient importer Lupa Foods.

Paul qualified in 2005 with a Diploma in Professional Catering from the City & Guilds. He started catering in 2010 and learned alot about local producers and markets in south Oxfordshire. He founded the Wallingford Food Fetsival in 2011 and it ran for five years winning three awards for tourism. He also spent nearly four years on local radio, BBC Radio Oxford, taling about food, producers and recipes!

In 2020 he moved to the Isle of Wight and restarted his business in 2021 after the pandemic. Now the Isle of WIght Cookery School offers catering to local and holidaymakers alike. Busy developing courses for the online school he also created a new podcast about fod, drink and hospitality on the Isle of Wight. You can find the Food and Music IOW podcast on most of the main podcast platforms. This is hosted by The Island Chef.

FoodandMusicIOW

Paul Bellchambers - The Island Chef

Lilla is originally a pharmacist who possesses a deep-rooted passion for nutrition and holistic health. With a strong background in the field, she has emerged as an expert in nootropics and fitness. With an unwavering commitment to her beliefs, Lilla has been a devoted vegetarian for over 13 years, advocating for a compassionate and sustainable lifestyle. As a versatile professional, she effortlessly assumes the roles of a chef, writer, and healthy lifestyle enthusiast, seamlessly blending her diverse skills and knowledge to inspire others towards optimal well-being.

With a background in coffee, cocktails, wine and baking, Cosmo is Creative Director for the Moore House Cocktail Company, based in Notting Hill. Alongside curating the brand's core range of award-winning bottled cocktails, Cosmo works closely with long-standing hospitality icons such as Rick Stein and The Savoy Hotel on innovative co-branded projects. Outside of Moore House, Cosmo continues to judge food and drink for the Guild of Fine Food.

Chef of 10 years. Now Editor of Consommé Magazine and Creative Content, Branding and PR Manager for well-known food personalities. 

Previous work includes: Metro, The Guardian, Women's Health. DOSE, H+N Magazine, Huffington Post. Your Coffee Break. HND in Hospitality and Event Management.

Chris Brook-Carter

Chief Executive, Retail Trust

Chris has been a passionate supporter, advocate and champion of UK retail across his entire career.

Prior to joining the Retail Trust, Chris was the Managing Director and Senior Vice President of Retail Week - the most influential media brand in UK retail – and the World Retail Congress, the single biggest gathering of global retail’s leadership each year. Chris led these brands, as editor in chief or more recently as MD and SVP for ten years, transforming the business from a weekly print title, into a digital-first information and global events brand that continues to sit at the heart of global retail by delivering on its mission to inform, connect and inspire the leaders that continue to colour this great sector.

Before he joined Retail Week, Chris was a pioneer in the age of digital information, launching his first online news service in 1999 for the FMCG sector. He has edited and led a number of intelligence and information media brands in industries as diverse as agriculture and automotive but has specialised in media brands that serve consumer-facing industries all his professional life.

Chris is a passionate campaigner for the positive impact of retail on the UK economy as well as a leader in the fight for diversity in business, having been recognised by both the Women’s Business Council and Management Today as an agent of change by fighting for gender equality in business leadership.

He has a passion for sport, music and whisky and in 2009 was inducted into the Keepers of the Quaich for services to the Scotch industry. In 2016, under his editorship, Retail Week was named Business Media Brand of the year. 

35 years in and around the food industry including 10 years with Brake Bros plc, and 10 years on bakery with Finsbury Food Group plc (until 2008)

Now an experienced non Exec / advisor to various consumer facing & public bodies across the UK, in many sectors

Having completed a Food Marketing Science degree at Sheffield Hallam, I started my career as an M&S graduate in development. We were actually called ‘Selectors’! Since those early years I have spent 7 years in poultry manufacturing, 3 years at Harrods in a vertically integrated role (development, buying and selling!) and time at Morrisons and Natures Way Foods to name but a few. I’ve now been at Bakkavor for 9 years and head up development for Marks & Spencer.

A passionate foodie with a love of all things culinary. You can follow me on Instagram @Foodie_Brit1 where you’ll find a lot of food, some pretty scenery and some random things about fitness and peloton which is my other passion

My journey in food started as a chef, I spent 5 years working in restaurant kitchens, including 1 & 2 Michelin star establishments in London. From there i made the step across into LSG group where i worked as a development chef in their central innovation team, developing for high end airlines.

From there i had the opportunity to work for Charlie Bighams working on their upmarket ready meals brand & looking after their own label business with Waitrose, Pret & Itsu. After 3 years i was approached by Waitrose to move into their brand innovation team & to work on their N1. proposition. My role within Waitrose saw me work across many categories & very closely with the supply base & developer teams. 

My next role saw me relocate to the middle east, basing myself out of Dubai & working for the French retailer Carrefour. I was recruited into a start-up division to launch chilled private label categories within the region. This saw me oversee the design & scale up of a brand new innovation & manufacturing site. We launched around 150 dishes within 2 years in the market across food to go, meal boxes, ready meals, counters & deli. We passed our IFS audit & the site became fully operational just after the Covid restrictions came to an end. 

This takes me to present day, I joined food innovation solutions after i relocated back to London. My role is to lead the innovation business & the team of developers, chefs & innovation consultants. Working on a varied portfolio of clients & projects, we support on everything from strategy creation, all the way through to 3PM & prototyping. I love the variety & pace of being a consultant & how closely i can work with our consumer research business to really elevate concepts & drive a consumer centric approach to innovation & NPD. 

Michelle manages the GB market for the  Food and Drink Business Development Team in Invest Northern Ireland, working with buyers and trade associations to identify opportunities for NI suppliers.  

For 21 years I was a part of the McDonald's Russia team, holding various roles in finance, market research and marketing. I arrived in London in 2018 to study at the prestigious Le Cordon Blue, graduating with a Grand Diploma  in cuisine and patisserie. I've returned to market research as a director at Circana  - a new company created through the merger of two leading market research companies, The NPD Group and IRI.

I am a London-based freelance writer and copy-editor specialising in food and wine. I write about a full range of tasty topics, shorter news items and longer more intensely researched pieces. I also write about restaurants, chefs and winemakers as well as food-related books and travel. Links to some of my published work and additional content can be found on my website: bencolvill.com

I have trained over a number of years with the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) and the Academy of Cheese, and have undertaken online training with Le Cordon Bleu, the Comité Champagne and the advanced courses of the Wines of the PDO Jerez - Sherry Academy. I also have practical experience in the wine and cheese trades.

I am a member of the Guild of Food Writers and have degrees from the universities of Warwick, Oxford and Goldsmiths, University of London.

David started his career working as a qualified chef in the hospitality and leisure sector for ten years. He then started running a food ingredients company, followed by moving into the food production and NPD sector where he successfully set-up and ran a food manufacturing company for twelve years. 

Now he is fully embedded in supporting businesses in their NPD requirements, process improvement and implementation of automated systems.  He is one of those industry titans who can be relied on to always add innovation and imaginative thinking - as well as driving quality standards by continual improvement. 

His craft has been honed by working with some of the best companies in the hospitality and retail sectors – including Bill’s, The Ivy, Gaucho, Paul UK, PRESS Health Foods, Whole Foods Market, Caffé Nero, SSP Group, Carluccio’s, Nestlé, Little Dish, Renourish, Deliveroo, Coop Southern, Deliciously Ella, No. 1 Lounges and Sourced Market.

Jason has spent 4 decades in the food industry and is enjoying starting his 5^th... 

Michelin Star Years - these years saw Jason in his chef’s whites with Roux Brothers and other luminaries leading to the helm of some of London’s most prestigious restaurants.

Café Society Years - Café Rouge took 100 years of café society and swiftly planted them in high streets over the country aptly joined by Dome, Dragon Inns & Mamma Amalfi. Jason’s 10 year journey took the group from 4 to 160+ café bars in roles as diverse as operations director to purchasing & marketing director.

Premium Restaurants - Quality restaurants were flying back with successful brands such as Chez Gérard, Livebait and Bertorelli’s with Jason as their commercial director running food development, purchasing, information technology and property functions.

Gastro Pub Boom - Jason joined the Spirit Group as food director and put pub food firmly on the map, which became a significant growth driver both for their 3,000 pubs and for the rest of the industry. That successful drive continued in his role at SFI where the team took a group with an uncertain financial future to one of the most promising bar groups on the high st such as Slug & Lettuce, Ha Ha! and Havana.

Retail Years - Jason joined M&S and picked up a number of accolades heading up over 100 restaurants, 300 coffee shops & over 60 global operations in excess of £1 billion per annum. Jason was also responsible for the rolling out of 50 new deli counters adding theatre in their food halls as well as revitalising their in-store bakery operation, bringing a new award-winning concept to over 450 stores in under 18 months stealing significant market growth. This followed by Jason as executive director driving LFL, footfall & huge ROI in 140 Garden & Leisure Centres across the UK

Hana Group UK - Jason started Hana Group in UK and in under 5 years has opened over 200 units winning hearts & minds of customers as trend for healthy food and in store theatre reaches across the UK changing face of retail.

An agile category and insight expert with experience across a wide-range of product sectors.

My company, Contigo Management, was founded out of a passion to deliver relevant insights and strategies in the food industry, blending the needs and wants of consumers and those of retailers and food outlets. With a proven track record of adding value, we unlock business potential by working with you to bring consumer insight to the heart of your thinking. Our client base includes major UK grocery multiples, their suppliers as well as established FMCG food brands. 

As a seasoned foodie, I enjoy being part of the Q Awards, as they enable me to combine my knowledge of the industry with judging the array of product entries from a consumer viewpoint.

Fellow of the Institute of Food Science & Technology; Super Taster, Thermal Taster & Flavour Memory [all authenticated by University of Nottingham]. Director of Food Science Fusion, working for clients to develop new ingredients and recipe ranges for commercial success by applying culinary skills blended with Food Science knowledge. Associate of How Many Beans formed to run workshops & mentoring transferring knowledge in commercial ideation from thought to fork. Ruth has worked in selection, innovation and technical roles at Tesco Stores as well as heading R&D departments for all sizes of food and ingredient manufacturers. In addition to her food service experience has taken her from kitchen to boardroom

Accomplished developer for both retailer and food manufacturer with experience across multiple food for now categories and a passion for all things baked and baking.  

Heerum has been a successful food, drink and  packaging buyer for many global businesses for  over 16 years. She understands the buyers  constraints and pains so therefore creates solutions  for them. Her last place of work, Gate Gourmet, is  where Heerum built direct relationships with  airline and train buyers and listed many new start  up brands at the time such as Jo & Seph's, Salty  Dog plus many more.

Our Founder Heerum Fleary has successfully been a  volunteer mentor and business advisor for Virgin  Start Up for over four years and was awarded  mentor of the year in 2020. Supporting and guiding  food & drink brands at any stage of their journey is  her speciality.

I have gained 20 years of experience in the hospitality and food service industry, performing various job roles. For the past 6 years, I have been running my own food company.

I am a dual UK/American citizen originally from New York City, and have lived in London for 17 years.  I am a former art historian and gallerist, now food writer. 

Specialist in food and drink new product development and mission-driven business development. 

Food scientist with over 25 years’ experience in food supply and retail including roles at Marks and Spencer and Tesco, and as Managing Director of Liberation Foods CIC. 

In-depth knowledge of creating and running a successful, values-based company. 

Expertise in developing and managing supply chains - from developing country small-scale producers to major retailers - and in project and critical path management, with a food technology focus.

Recent consultancy roles with Costa Coffee, The Fairtrade Foundation and Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

Ian is an experienced product development and innovation specialist with a career spanning over 30 years in the UK Retail and Foodservice markets. Throughout his career, he has held senior New Product Development roles with blue chip companies, including United Biscuits, Heinz, Bernard Matthews, Youngs Seafoods, Aunt Bessie's and Faccenda Foods.

In 2017, Ian established his own food and drink consultancy, In 2 Food Innovation Ltd. Since then, he has had the opportunity to work with clients such as Dairy Crest, Cranswick Prepared Poultry, ABP, Glendale Foods, and many others.

Ian enjoyed his first experience of being a judge with the Q Awards in 2022 and is looking forward to being part of the panel again in 2023.

I work for Lionel Hitchen Ltd who are a flavour ingredients manufacturer. My role is an applications manager. This involves showcasing Lionel Hitchen products in application covering market sectors such as, Beverage, snacks, savoury, confectionary and dairy. A key part of the role is reactive and pro-active customer presentations and project work, working as a solution provider to customer issues.

Previous companies include Newly wed Foods, Givaudan, McCain, Ingredion & International taste Solutions.

Insight Analyst at IGD responsible for consumer, operator and retailer insight in the food-to-go and eating out markets

Karen Green

Karen is a former retail buyer from Tesco and Boots who crossed the negotiating table to take on sales roles selling everything from turkeys to Christmas puddings.  She uses that unique commercial viewpoint to provide  consultancy to UK and overseas food and drink enabling them to to sell more and sell better.  Her clients have had success gaining listings in all the major supermarkets and other relevant retailers.

She is the author of two best-selling books “Recipe for Success” and “Buyer-ology – know your buyer, sell more and sell better”, which launched in March 2023 and regularly contributes to the Grocer and other press.

Karen is a currently UK sales advisor for UN International Trade Centre and is a volunteer mentor for Mission kitchen.  She is passionate about food and regularly judges awards including Great Taste, Farm shop and Deli and quality food awards.  She recently won her own award - Women in Sales 2023

Dawn Gribble is a highly experienced professional with over 20 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. She has worked with various award-winning hotels, restaurants, international food brands, celebrity chefs, and influencers. 

Dawn is also an international speaker and expert guest judge on The Restaurant Talent Show. Her passion for food has led her to appear on MasterChef in 2014 and teach cooking at private colleges. 

Dawn's food writing has been featured in various publications, including the Huffington Post, MissingLettr, This Woman Can, Modern Restaurants, Social Media Today, and Menuism. 

As the founder of DG Consulting, Dawn provides marketing strategies, campaign plans, support materials, and content creation services to help clients in the hospitality, industry. She uses her expertise in strategic planning, market segmentation, brand communications, digital and marketing campaigns, research and report generation, and project life-cycle management to deliver targeted campaigns that drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and generate revenue for her clients. 

Head of Innovation @bartingredients , lover of all things food, Dad, amateur pitt master, gardener, & brewer! Swindon UK

Having worked for most of my career in the food and drink industry, I have extensive experience working across both retail and foodservice channels developing FMCG brands and private label across a wide range of frozen, fresh and chilled categories.

I'm a marketeer at heart with a commercial head and known to be a bit of a consumer insight geek... I live by the belief success only comes to those who understand their customer, inside and out! 

My food career began as a Sainsburys graduate trainee acquiring various managerial roles in a number of large east London stores in the mid nineties.  I later moved to their Head Office in Stamford Street around 2000.  Having spent over a decade developing Sainsbury's own label offer across numerous categories I took a year out to travel the world and expand my foodie horizons.

On my return I published my first novel based on a mixture of food, emotion and the travel genre before taking my next role as a development manager on the manufacturing side.  It was a site owned by Bakkavor Foods that created pizzas for many of the big retailers.

I remained in manufacturing for a further 8 years leading development teams and becoming an Innovation Director for two separate food businesses.

I returned to food retailing in 2019 as the Innovations manager for Waitrose; a role focussed on building capabilities, strategic own brand input and trend reportage.  My core responsibility was the annual trend book.

My most recent role is my first real foray into development within a branded business.  Empire Bespoke foods import managed brands from all over the world but its the brands that we own such as Mrs Elswood, Thai Taste and Malay Taste that are my responsibility for building, evolving and developing. 

I am an accomplished manager with over 35 years of experience in the food industry, Highly motivated and continuously seeking to improve my knowledge and skills in the field, and am eager to share my breadth of experience with others.

Over 35 years in Chill, Frozen, Health & Beauty, Ambient and B2B food and non-food sales.  Experienced in brand, retailer own label, NPD, EPD across all major multiple accounts and routes to market.  

Caroline is a commercially focussed senior Marcomms Director with extensive management experience working on food and drink brands across multinational Blue Chip and SME businesses.  

As a strategic thinker, she has the ability to analyse data and develop insight into a compelling vision for others through multi-channel strategy and communication programmes that drives engagement and conversion. 

This is her second year judging at the QFA awards.

Current:

1) Marketing Consultant for SMEs

2) Musician in Pixelstorm 

Previous: 

FUEL10K (B-corp) Consultant 2023-

The Spice Tailor, Global Mktg Director 2021-23

Nomad Foods, Mktg, Comms Director 2008-21

Coca-Cola Enterprises Sales & Marketing 1997-2008

Caroline has spent 11 years in food, across some of the leading UK manufacturers and retailers. Caroline has a passion for food, having spent time buying tomatoes from Italy and leading cheese categories. 

Caroline is currently working for the leading speciality cheesemaker, Butlers Farmhouse Cheese, who specialise in hard, soft and blue cheese from their family farm. 

I have been involved in the cash and carry/wholesale industry for over 40 years. I offer advice to food and drink suppliers on how best to navigate the cash and carry/wholesale sector and sell  into buying groups. In the past twelve months I have helped write scripts and given advice on buying groups for TV and appeared on Channel 5 and Netflix.  

A dynamic and agile individual who has a genuine passion, drive and creative flair for global product innovation. Highly experienced with over 15 years focused on International marketing and innovative product development.

International Trade Consultant in buying and range development, strategic planning & sourcing.

Uniquely positioned to provide a detailed insider perspective on how buyers think, what they are looking for and deliver advice on how to fit in and adapt succinctly with a retailer's on-line and off-line business model.
Through these key skills I provide advice on supermarket and e-commerce retailing and the food & horticulture industry. Sharing my knowledge to help clients develop their businesses, as well as working to strategically build their assortments to drive profitable sales for their company.

Core skills include Negotiation, Strategic and Brand Development; creating Sustainable, Profitable, value and volume growth for the business.

I'm Becky and I have been working in the food industry for nearly 10 years. All of that time I have been working in the food innovation team at Sainsbury's and have been lucky enough to launch hundreds of products working across some truly delicious categories including Dairy, Meat Fish & Poultry, Frozen, Produce and i'm currently in the Grocery team looking after the Impulse category. I'm a passionate foodie, constantly scouting out the latest food innovations in flavour, formats and packaging and still think the best feeling in the world is seeing products you've worked on standing proud on our shelves!

Stephen A Minall - Stephen is one of the owners of Moving Food Ltd, (www. movingfood.com) which has a successful track record in launching new products into the major Retail Multiples within the UK and Europe and within High Street Brand launches within the Hospitality Sectors. Moving Food works within innovation in food technology (long shelf life FMCG brands to chill chain expertise) helping SME’s and foodies the “idea creators” get to market. Moving Food has launched www.wowbutter.com a no nut peanut butter , to FMCG branded products for Ocado to Aldi to Holland & Barrett. Moving Food is unique in that it can ‘speak’ both Retail and Catering, as the owners / directors have worked on food brands and continue to work in both sectors. Moving Food Ltd advises or consults in areas in food production from new start up innovation in products or packaging and advices in the opportunities in sectors such as grab n go, ambient longer shelf life FMCG ranges. Moving Food takes the strain out of finding sources for production to packaging to access to buyers Moving Food’s experiences in food production offers a unique insight into the overall farm to fork issues facing manufacturers, brands and consumers. Stephen writes for trade journeys, presents at Retail Consortiums in UK and Europe and has been seen on BBC Business News as the leading expert in food related stories. Stephen judges both the Food Service Awards ‘The Cateys’ and The Quality Food Awards. Stephen is an entrepreneur who has extensive experience within retail and food service operations on a global basis.

Stephen recently founded www.fdreviews.com to aid start ups with limited busgets get access to Experts at affordable costs.

Jackie Mitchell, freelance journalist and blogger in the food, drink and health sectors, has worked on newspapers, magazines and digital media in the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and New York. Specialising in the foodservice, hospitality and “free from” sectors, she writes for several UK and European publications and web sites and is also a radio presenter on Brooklands Radio.

Several early roles that taught me how the world of food works that lead into senior positions in the natural ingredients arena (flavours, juices, compounds, agave, fibres, sweeteners & other innovative products). Finished my corporate life running the India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal territory for a global flavours house and set up self-employed in 2015. Now with 5 clients and the seed of a family business developing, there is still plenty to be excited about.

Originally starting his work career in food service, James worked as both front of house and in the kitchens of various restaurants in Cornwall and Plymouth while studying for a degree in Geology. After a brief hiatus away from food using his degree in Environmental Consultancy, James realised that his love of food was where he wanted to focus his time, joining Facilit8 & Flourish and selling ingredients in 2022. 

Always engrossed in food, whether it be sourcing, experimenting or eating, James is always looking to broaden his knowledge across the industry and learn about new and exciting products on the market. 

Leanne Osborne, Managing Director (UK) at BioPak

Leanne has been BioPak UK’s Managing Director since 2019. During this time, Leanne has led the UK branch of the business to nearly double its revenue and is successfully overseeing the company’s current expansion into European markets. In her role as Managing Director, Leanne has built strong relationships with major players in the food and drink industry, including Deliveroo, Pasta Evangelists, Hard Rock Café and Big Table Group, to name just a few. With BioPak recently being named as winners at the WorldStar Packaging Awards, Leanne knows what it takes for businesses to stand out from the competition and Leanne will be bringing this eye for detail to the judging panel. 

I am a passionate foodie that strives for what good looks like and am massively into barbequing!!!

I have had some great years as an Interim development, process, specs, projects and packaging person working across all the retailers, B2B and food service clients.

Companies I have worked for include:

Moy Park, Princes, Cargill, Bakkavor, Greencore, Billingtons, UK Poultry, Cranswick, Branston, Hilton Seafood, Oscar Mayer, Fenmarc, ABP, New England Seafood, Copernus, Sleaford Quality Foods.

Passionate about great tasting food with 13 years of experience developing and delivering high quality products across retail, manufacturing, start-ups and food tech. Knowledge of a large variety of categories across chilled and ambient, gained whilst creating best in class offerings across both private label and branded businesses. Most recently leading global product strategy across 16 countries and 4 brands for the world leader in fresh, nutritious recipes delivered to your door.

I now work with ambitious people in the food industry to coach them to the next level of career success. 

HelloFresh: meal kits

Leon Grocery: taking QSR brand in to grocery at Sainsbury's

Kerry foods - Waitrose: ready meals

Metcalfe's Skinny: snack start up working directly with the founder of Pret A Manger and Itsu

Greencore - Waitrose: food to go

Sainsbury's: bakery, produce, meal solutions

I started and built my early career at Greencore in product development working with majority of the retailers and specialising in Salads, Sandwich Fillers, Food to Go Salads and Snacking. This was an amazing experience as it gave an understanding of chilled and own brand.

After Greencore, I had the opportunity to move to Jordans, Dorset and Ryvita in their newly created innovation team and I am currently their Senior Innovation Manager. This role has given me the opportunity to work with some amazing brands and ambient products. I also love working in innovation as every day is different and I get to explore all of the new ingredients, trends and technologies that are emerging. 

From a personal perspective, food is truly my passion, as soon as I wake up in the morning I am thinking about what I am going to eat that day and what new ingredient, cuisine or technique I can try. Food brings people together and there is nothing I love more than cooking for friends and sharing that joy. 

I feel so lucky to be able to combine my work with my passion and am privileged to be a part of the Quality Food Awards where I can continue experiencing exciting products and categories.  

I have a long background in Sales working in FMCG and family owned Businesses before setting up my own business in 2018.  I have experience in multiple product categories within ambient grocery, such as: Pet Food, Baked goods, Soft Drinks, Confectionery, Cooking sauces, condiments and relish,Rice, pasta and grains and Hot beverages.

Graduated with 2nd class Honours Chemistry, Aberystwyth. 1962. Started career in Food industry with Cadbury's as Research Chemist , developed Marvel Milk Powder. Early career spent with major companies -Unilever,Shell, Pfizer. Appointed Works Director with Pura Foods in 1976, followed by appointment as Factory Director with Pendletons Icecream in 1980. Formed own company in 1996, Genice Foods, as main supplier of icecream to TGI Fridays and Pizza Hut. Branched out into non dairy development products, via Natural Bites( Natural Wholefoods), and produced first long life soya yoghurts in Europe for both Linda McCartney and Heather Mills.

At the age of 82 still engaged fulltime in development and production of dairy and non dairy food products for major companies, with my son Nial. 

Kateline has built a career in identifying new and changing food evolutions across the world and converting them into relevant ideas for consumers and diners. 

A food science degree and time in professional kitchens led Kateline to strategic product development for national and international retail and food service chains before immersing in the world of trends. Creating practical methodologies to identify changes in the world of food and drink she’s worked across sectors to bring ideas to life for retailers, global QSR, manufacturers, hospitality and F&B brands. 

At Egg Soldiers Kateline identifies what type of insight clients need in order to create food-forward successful businesses.

Illustrator and designer with a chef background . . . mixing it up for a unique take on all things food!

I have worked in catering industry for nearly 30 years, starting my career as a chef and then moving through hotel management, to event catering,  contract catering, head of F&B for a large hotel company and now as a consultant working for clients helping them get the best at work catering solution they can.

I also worked for Sainsburys where I developed and opened the first Organic Supermarket restaurant.  I also have an interest in food the helps support and develop the gut's microbiome

My name is Laura and I run a Food Marketing Consultancy & Events business called Nourish. I've always had a passion for food and you can often find me at foodie events, enrolling on cooking courses, learning about food photography or supporting local foodie hot spots to provide me with inspiration for Nourish.



AJ Sharp is passionate about great tasting, sustainable food and drink. She’s an entrepreneur, a food writer, food judge and a broadcaster. Her mission is to help good businesses to grow, by telling their story.

AJ knows good food.  She has been a judge for the Great Taste Awards since 2016, she Hosts the popular podcasts and radio shows Food Rebels and The FoodTalk Show and is a member of the Guild of Food Writers. She is Editor at Large for Taste Kent Magazine and Founded the award-winning food communications agency Sharp Relations.

Katharine is an experienced product development and innovation specialist with over 18 years’ experience across a number of retailers namely, Asda, Morrisons & latterly head of innovation at Coop. She had a true passion and excitement for food and delivering what customers want and need now and in the future from direct customers to end users all alongside ensuring this forms part of making a profitable business.

In 2022 Katharine set up Food Curious Food, a food & drink consultancy. Services include: Trends & Market Insight, Product Strategy & Proposition, Product Development & Innovation and Training, Culture & Engagement. 

Andrew has over four decades’ experience in the food industry.  Starting way back in 1977, his first industry job was putting pieces of salami on the top of pizzas for M&S.... Fast forward 46 years and as the founder of TQS Food Consulting, he has extensive experience in food safety, legality, labelling, HACCP, product integrity, quality assurance and hygiene across many areas of the food industry, encompassing raw materials, food processing and manufacture including import/export and distribution. 

During his forty plus year career to date, Andrew has worked with a diverse cross-section of the food industry, from small private firms to multi-nationals and with two of the UK’s largest food retailers.

Andrew's main business interest, TQS Food Consulting, primarily advises and assists UK and overseas food businesses in meeting the food safety, legality, regulatory & compliance, including quality assurance expectations of local, legislative and customer requirements and in particular the BRC Global Standard for Food and SALSA Standards.

The TQS Portfolio of activity also includes Spec-Tecs, an award winning business for which he was the catalyst in starting during the Spring of 2003.  Merged with TQS Food Consulting in 2010, TQS-Spec-Tecs specialises in providing technical support service in the creation and writing of UK retailer product specifications.  TQS-Spec-Tecs technologists have worked with a diverse range of businesses in the UK, across Europe and with a number of major UK food retailers.  The TQS-Spec-Tecs book "Write it Right'.... or how to avoid the seven silly slip ups of supermarket spec writing, is available via www.tequalsys.com

Andrew’s personal experience encompasses chocolate and sugar confectionery as well as other ambient stable grocery product categories, chilled and frozen foods.  He has, in his professional capacity, travelled extensively over the past thirty plus years throughout the world and is well positioned to understand and appreciate many of the “cultural difficulties” and “attitudes” that often prevail to food safety, legality and integrity in countries outside the UK.  

Andrew is a Fellow of The Society of Food Hygiene and Technology (FSOFHT), is a member of the Royal Society for Public Health (MRSPH) and is also involved with a number of food safety related committees and working groups in the UK.  He has also historically lectured in HACCP assessment for enforcement officers across the UK.

Denise has worked in the food & drink industry for over 25 years.  and currently develops and food styles all the recipes and videos for the AHDB Domestic and Export Marketing projects and campaigns.

 Her extensive experience ranges from working in food & drink PR,TV and media, at the world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu Cookery School, as a Senior Home Economist for Nestlé and Food Advisor at the Sea Fish Industry Authority and Food Advisor at the Sea Fish Industry Authority as part of the marketing team, where Denise worked across all sectors of the seafood industry to promote good quality, sustainable British seafood. She has a Masters in Culinary Arts from the University of Brighton and is a member of The Guild of Food Writers.

Paul started his career in Marketing and Buying with the Co-Op and then joined Aldi UK as their very first buyer, constructing the initial range prior to the first UK store opening in 1990. Paul developed private label ranges from scratch across many ambient, frozen, chilled, and non-food categories, being responsible for supplier negotiations, category strategies and private label new product sourcing and design development.

Paul then held the post of Group Director, managing teams of buyers across diverse categories focusing on executing category strategies, ensuring a dynamic level of new product development whilst also managing sales and margin mix within the fiercely competitive UK grocery market.

After leaving Aldi in 2020, Paul joined up with IPLC, International Private Label Consult, private label specialists operating across 9 European countries. Paul assists manufacturers in building profitable sales within the private label arena and speaks at International fairs and webinars.

Paul is married with four children, one grandson and lives near Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Katy Truss is an expert in artisan and speciality food; championing outstanding small and independent food and drink producers, brands and start-ups. She is a food writer, presenter and consultant, with work in BBC Good Food and Olive Magazines and regularly judges and reviews products. She curates the Food Champions area at the BBC Good Food Shows and manages and hosts the Fabulous Food Finds Tasting Theatres at the Shows too. 

Katy is the director of Fabulous Food Finds which she set up to connect amazing artisan and speciality food and drink producers with food enthusiasts. This is done through their website, social channels, live tasting theatres at the BBC Good Food Shows, demos and pop ups at other festivals and a Tasting Box Subscription too.

Katy lives by the sea in North Norfolk. She is a keen home cook, having grown up in her family’s pubs and restaurants, and loves eating out, cookery programmes and cookbooks, and visits lots of food markets and festivals.

Luis specialises in developing international businesses for companies based in the UK and overseas. His experience spams from a wide range of products from exporting honey bee to China, spirits to the Middle East, seeds to continental Europe, olive oil to Asia, bottled water to India, alcoholic drinks to the US, etc. Luis has also worked importing food and drinks from Spain, fresh produce from the Caribbean and exotics food ingredients from Latin America. In recent years, Luis has started working with innovative compostable/biodegradable materials for both agricultural and food packaging business.

Brought up in the South West of France, food has always played a huge role in my life. I am passionate about food history, processes, development and innovations, and have over sixteen years experience in the industry.

I am a highly dedicated and innovative individual with a significant track record of professional achievement and over 20 years’ experience in marketing strategy, brand development and sales. I have a wealth of experience over a number of marketing channels inclusive of trade, brand, consumer and International marketing. In addition to marketing, I have established a strong and reputable sales track record - implementing and driving key sales strategy and growth notably within the UK Major Multiple Retailers. 

I am a very passionate individual with strong communication skills. I pride myself on my organised approach to my work and I am meticulous on all projects and tasks.

I have worked for a number of high profile brands including Penny Skateboards (Absolute Board Co), Benefit Cosmetics, Animal Clothing, SEA LIFE (Merlin Entertainments), Ski In Luxury, Bonne Maman/St Michel and Organix baby snacks.

Rowan is the Commercial Officer at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) UK and Ireland team. Having researched overfishing problems in East Africa as the topic of his Master’s thesis at the London School of Economics, Rowan joined the MSC in the autumn of 2022 to develop his passion for sustainable seafood into a career. His work at the MSC is currently focused upon expanding the range of MSC-certified products in the nutraceuticals space and on university canteen menus within the UK and Ireland.

Born in the UK, my background is in finance and technology where I spent many years in and out of the Eastern Europe and the Far East, including over 25 trips to China.

In 2010 I moved into social media and content creation and have been in this space ever since. We cover food, fashion, travel and tech. Along with reviewing afternoon teas and tasting menus, I've been a food judge with the Great Taste Awards, Bellavita, the Academy of Chocolate, and of course QFA.