Winners have been announced in Oxoid's annual competition for best food industry laboratory technician, best laboratory, and best innovation
Winning first place in the Oxoid Technician of the Year 2001 Awards came as a complete surprise to 20-year old Sera Roberts, laboratory quality systems controller for South Caernarfon Creameries (SCC) in Wales.
At the awards ceremony in Stratford upon Avon, UK, on 29 January 2002, Sera was presented with her prize by Oxoid's vice president sales and marketing, Patrick Roberts.
This consisted of a specially engraved trophy, £1000 in cash, plus accommodation and travel to the International Association of Food Protection Meeting, to be held in San Diego, California in July.
Sera was especially delighted and surprised to have won as she did not even know that her name had been put forward.
Her entry had been submitted by SCC's technical manager, Enid Gregory, who described how Sera had set up all the necessary systems in their laboratory to gain third party accreditation.
The award judges (Chris Bell, Alec Kyriakides of Sainsbury, Roy Betts of Camden and Chorleywood Food Research Association, Geoff Mead, and Oxoid's Elaine Fraser) felt that the entry demonstrated Sera's self motivation, initiative, willingness to undertake responsibility, decision making, planning and communication skills.
"There is also clear evidence of her personal and academic development, and her employers obviously see Sera as an extremely valuable member of staff", they said.
Certificates of merit were awarded to three runners-up in the Technician of the Year category.
In second place was Michelle McNeil of Wessex Environmental Microbiology Service who submitted an entry describing her development of a new and improved method for detecting pathogenic vibrio species in seafood.
Claire Valentine of East End Foods, Birmingham, won third prize for an imaginative food hygiene training package.
Highly commended in this category was Alex Roland of Reading Scientific Services for his work in establishing RSSL's new BSE testing service.
Laboratory of the Year.
The Laboratory of the Year category also produced four winners.
First prize went to Wessex Environmental Microbiology Services (part of the Southampton Public Health Laboratory Service) which has made developments in a wide range of areas since January 2000, including extending the scope of its UKAS accreditation and gaining Investors in People recognition in only three months.
The breadth and scope of this laboratory's services were described by the judges as "second to none".
In second place was the laboratory of ET Sutherlands (a division of Hazlewood Foods), which has also significantly extended its range of services and implemented many new facilities and procedures to cope with increased workload.
Third prize went to Tatlock and Thomson of Fife, whose staff have recently created a completely new food safety service from scratch.
Highly commended in this category was Southern Salads of Tonbridge, Kent, whose laboratory attained CLAS accreditation for a new in-house pathogen testing service in the space of just six months.
Award for Innovation.
There were three prizes in the Oxoid Award for Innovation category.
In first place was DiverseyLever, whose new all-in-one disinfecting and hand washing product, Sensisept, offers an effective and user-friendly alternative to the two-stage handwashing protocol traditionally used in the food industry.
"Use of this product could definitely lead to increased levels of food hygiene and safety", the judges said.
Reading Scientific Services gained second place for establishing the UK's first commercial BSE testing service, while Quality Management of Bury took third prize for developing three new specialised proficiency testing schemes which extend the established QA programmes for beverages, chocolate, and water analysis.
"The overall standard of entries was very high in all categories", said Elaine Fraser on behalf of the judges.
"We are delighted to be able to reward individuals throughout the industry whose efforts ensure that we can enjoy food knowing that it is safe to eat." Entries are soon to be invited in the same categories for the Oxoid Awards 2002.
To register for entry forms, use the email facility on this page.
