The panel of dragons is made up of key figures from the UK food and drink industry and includes industrial, governmental, professional and media representatives.
Verena Schwick
Scientific & Regulatory Affairs Senior Manager UK & Ireland, Coca-Cola
Verena has over 15 years’ experience in Scientific and Regulatory Affairs in leading food companies including Kraft Foods, Mondelez and Pladis. As a Senior Manager for Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at the Coca-Cola company, her responsibilities include ensuring compliance of formulations, ingredients, products, packages, labels, claims, and communications for the UK, Ireland and European Innovation. Verena is also supporting regulatory advocacy initiatives.
Ash Stretton
Food Regulatory Affairs Manager, Marks and Spencer
Ash has been in the food industry for 15+ years, working across production, operations, process, quality, technical, regulatory affairs and legal in manufacturing and retail. Ash is responsible for all things regulatory and compliance related in the food-side of M&S, previously chair of the IFST Regulatory Group, a Fellow of the Institute, a Registered Food Safety Principal and Chartered Scientist.
Gemma Giles
Head of Innovation, Sainsbury's
Gemma is a product development specialist and leader with over 10 years’ experience in the food industry. Currently working as Head of Innovation at Sainsbury’s, Gemma is responsible for the Dairy and Food to Order categories. As Head of Innovation she looks after the Product Development team who manage the concept to launch process. Gemma has vast experience in the fresh food sector having launched over 1700 products across 45 suppliers. This includes Wicked Kitchen, Tesco Firepit and Sainsbury’s Ready Meal range.
Imran Afzal
R&D Open Innovation Europe, Mondelēz
Imran leads R&D open innovation for Mondelez across Europe. In that role, he works on solving problems leveraging the expertise of external partners. He is a food scientist that has held roles in retail and consumer packaged goods companies
Stuart Jones
Head Of Flour Ingredients and Gluten Free Quality, Warburtons Ltd.
Stuart has 35 years as a quality lead in the food industry, he has both operational technical management and is an experienced innovator with a track record of bringing key new product developments to market. Stuart is a food scientist who brings practical solutions through knowledge of ingredients and raw material, working across the supply chain to make quality leading bakery products.
Martin MacFarlane
R&D Director, Unilever
Martin has worked for Unilever for 20 years. He originally focussed on ensuring the safety of products and manufacturing for consumers, employees and the environment for various products across Personal Care and Foods. He then moved to Ice Cream Design, developing recipes and technologies to give new consumer benefits and experiences. After 4 years as Head of R&D for the Europe, AMESAA and NASEA regions in the Pepsi Lipton Joint Venture, Martin has now returned to Ice Cream where he leads the Global Formulation Team.
Patricia Bally
Science & Technology Lead for Confectionery, Nestlé Product Technology Centre
Patricia has over sixteen years of experience in Nestlé R&D, where she has held various positions across Nestlé’s out of home, Breakfast Cereals, and Confectionery businesses. Currently, she is the Science
& Technology Lead for Confectionery at Nestlé Product Technology Centre in York. In this role, she plays a crucial role in shaping the future of confectionery products by harnessing scientific breakthroughs.
19 years ago, Patricia participated as a student in the EcoTrophelia competition in France and she is honoured to be one of the judges at the 2024 UK EcoTrophelia competition in June.
Sally Luckraft
Senior Product Development Manager, Ella’s Kitchen
Sally has over 16 years of experience working on innovation, and product development from conception to product implementation. She has a passion for entrepreneurship starting work at Ella’s kitchen when it was a small team of 4 working around the founder’s kitchen table and prior to this setting up her FMCG company.
Bethan Grylls
Editor, Food Manufacture
Bethan Grylls is the Editor of Food Manufacture, which commands the largest audience of any online platform dedicated solely to readers working in the UK food and drink manufacturing industry. Prior to joining Food Manufacture (part of the William Reed group), she led New Food Magazine’s content team. She has been working as a professional writer for more than a decade and was responsible for organising one of the world’s largest virtual, scientific food and beverage conferences in 2021.
Francine Dorrian
Lead Technical Manager, Tesco
Francine is a Lead Technical Manager at Tesco, responsible for the Dairy category. She is responsible for a team managing supplier strategy, food quality & safety as well as close links to sustainability and agriculture. During 10 years at Tesco she has held a broad range of Technical roles across Fresh & Packaged Foods. These include working in the Produce, Chilled, Frozen, Meat & Grocery categories. In addition, Francine has worked in the Sustainability team on the Food Waste programme.
Chris Gilbert-Wood
IFST Judge
Chris is a professional Food Technologist with 40 years’ experience in retail and manufacturing, having managed quality, food safety and sustainability in both own label and branded supply chains. Much of this time was spent working at the interface between agriculture and the primary processors. A Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and a Registered Food Safety Principal, Chris is currently working as a consultant In the food industry, using experience and expertise to help others meet their objectives.
Liz Ashton
Marketing and Sales Director, Campden BRI
Liz’s career spans 30 years in the food and media industries. Within food her focus has been on marketing and R & D in the manufacturing and retail space. Latterly Liz started a global company in digital media working for the BBC, TED Talks, the FT etc. She has a commercial pragmatic approach to doing business and understands the issues faced by a start-up or a large company. Her time at Campden BRI has been spent focused on corporate reputation, looking to deliver various initiatives across the business and ensuring we serve our clients and members in the best way possible. Liz is also a food scientist.
Preliminary judging
All entries will be carefully reviewed and then shortlisted by a panel of judges with expertise in new product development:
Vince Craig
Managing Director, Meadowbrae Technical Services
Julian Cooper
Owner/ Director, 342 Consulting Limited
Simon Chattock
Head of Vendor Assurance, Compass Group UK & Ireland Ltd
Carol Phillips
Retired Professor
Kelvin Thomson
Consultant and Workplace Assessor/Trainer, Pinnacle Food and Drink Services
Steve Timms
Commercial Development Manager, Food & Nutrition, Brenntag UK & Ireland
If you are an IFST member and would like to be put yourself forward as a preliminary judge, please contact us.