The Government Chemist 2021 Conference “Safe food for tomorrow’s world” took place online on 23 and 24 June. The conference included talks from 20 national and international speakers on topics from regulatory perspective, how food science can impact health outcomes and novel solutions for food authenticity and sustainability. The talks were well received by the 240+ participants who attended the conference for at least one talk.
This event had originally been planned for June 2020, then postponed to June 2021 and finally delivered as an online event. The transition to the online platform did present technical challenges and limited the interaction between participants. However, it also presented an opportunity to engage a greater number of stakeholders at UK and international level.
Participants
A significant proportion of participants (approx 50%) represented UK government departments and local authorities from all the nations.
There were also participants from trade associations, industry, consultants, consumer advocacy groups, press and independent attendants.
The vast majority of attendants joined from the UK. However, people joined from Turkey, Slovakia, Latvia, Uruguay and Hong Kong.
Feedback
In feedback received from a selection of participants approximately 42.5% of respondents felt it was better than expected, 9% said it was much better than expected and 48.5% said that the conference met their expectations.
