Food Processing Group

The Food Processing Group provides members interested in matters related to manufacturing, technology, and equipment with an opportunity to engage and share knowledge with others.

The scope of the group includes:

• Engineering, manufacturing, continuous improvement, equipment (materials and hygienic design), preservation, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI)
• Knowledge exchange around validation of processes and equipment 
• Troubleshooting and manufacturing best practice 
• Future technologies 
• Education excellence

They will be involved in a wide range of activities, including face-to-face events, webinars, and discussion workshops, to engage IFST members, share ideas and knowledge, and support the food sector. Read their 'Spotlight' article, to find out more about the SIG's most recent activities and future plans.

Meet the Food Processing Group Committee

Chair: Mariella Barra

Vice-Chair: Kavya Krishnamurthy 

Events: Vacant

Secretary: Rhian Blake

Communications: Yemi Francis Odunaya

Other members of the committee: Simon Burns, Jibin He, Christopher Holland, Simon Langley, Fiyin Makinwa, Peter Sadd, Peter Simpson, Mark Swainson.

Mariella Barra CSi FIFST has been working in the food industry for over 12 years, for the most part in product and process development roles. She has experience in the chilled, ambient and frozen sectors. She spent four years in Nestlé Italy working on frozen baked products - both new product development and process optimisation, then moved to the UK and spend a period in chilled ready meals product and process development. She then moved to the ambient sector and worked for six years in Premier Foods, progressing to process development manager for Research and Development (R&D). She is passionate about bringing more process expertise in R&D and bridging the disconnect between Operations (OPS) and R&D. Her current interests are new process technologies and thermal process preservation. She is a fellow of IFST and a chartered scientist.

Jibin He CSci is a senior lecturer in Food Science and Technology at Teesside University. Before his career at Teesside, Jibin completed a PhD at Rothamsted Research, in cooperation with Oxford Brookes University and Campden BRI, working on wheat grain compositions. Jibin has always collaborated with the food industry since the beginning of his academic career. He enjoys problem-solving and putting theoretical knowledge to practical use. In past projects, he has worked with oil and frying processes/products, retort processes/products, and wheat flour and milling. Currently, Jibin is working on novel oil/fat ingredients and microencapsulation of nutrients.

Kavya Krishnamurthy is a Food Innovation Technologist at the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre. Prior to this, she has worked in a variety of roles in the food industry and began her career as a qualified chef and member of the UAE Junior National Culinary Team in Dubai. She later moved back to Bangalore, India to lead product development for her family’s instant packaged foods business ‘Veekes & Company’. Keen to merge her skillset and experiences, she completed her MSc. in Food Science and Innovation from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her area of interest is working with food & drink SMEs to deliver practical solutions and technical/scientific guidance in areas of product development, product and process optimisation, applied sensory, and product applications. 

Simon Langley MIFST is Process Development Manager at Dalehead Foods (Pilgrim’s Pride Ltd), with extensive cooked meat processing experience within the group. Interests lie in; preservation, thermal processing, and process and recipe improvement. A new and growing interest is the circular versus linear approach, and how these principles can be applied to food manufacturing.

Yemi Francis Odunaya is the founder of Ajeb Investment Limited. since October 2020 with a focus on Tropical Foods Concept and Products to wider consumers and also has experience in education, agriculture and healthcare. Yemi has a bachelor’s degree in Health and Social Care from the University of Sunderland and also a master’s degree in Food Processing Engineering from Teesside University. Yemi is interested in food innovation, development processing, production and sustainable packaging, ensuring low environmental impact.

Dr Peter Sadd FIFST  is a chartered chemical engineer with 35 years experience of in process development in food manufacturing. He has worked extensively on the formation of process-induced contaminants, the science of bakery products, and process-driven product innovation. His work has led to fifty scientific publications and patents.

Peter Simpson FIFST is Head of Food Technology at the College of Agriculture Food & Rural Enterprise in Northern Ireland. He is responsible for building the capacity of food businesses to adopt and exploit appropriate technologies through technology transfer. His team works closely with all sectors of the Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Industry - upskilling the workforce and providing technical support in areas such as product innovation, sensory analysis, factory design, quality assurance, process development and packaging. He is based at Loughry Campus which has world-class innovation, pilot food processing and food incubation facilities. My current interest is working on a collaborative project with the Queen’s University Belfast to encourage the adoption of robotics and automation in the local industry.

Professor Mark Swainson FIFST is Deputy Head of the National Centre for Food Manufacturing where he leads the Higher Education and Research agendas. His food manufacturing sector expertise was developed whilst working in senior technical and operations management roles within the high risk chilled and frozen food industry. As Professor of Industrial Food Technology Mark progresses food industry-based engagement and research to address specific food system needs/challenges.