 The Processing Standards Committee meets around two to three times per year. We aim to have a wide and representative spread of appropriate expertise on the committee together with consumer and public interest representatives. The Processing Standards Committee's remit is to develop and keep under review our food processing standards and to deal with any relevant issues referred to the committee from licensees, Soil Association members, the public or our certification department.
Agendas of meetings:
We like to keep our standards setting process as transparent as possible. To view the last meetings' agendas, please visit the links below.
PSC 23/04/08 [PDF, 29 KB]
PSC 18/10/07 [PDF, 29 KB]
Minutes of meetings:
To view the last meetings minutes, please visit the links below:
PSC Minutes 23/04/08 [PDF, 35 KB]
PSC Minutes 18/10/07 [PDF, 43 KB]
Issues that have arisen in recent meetings:
Current committee members and their expertise:
- James Ashton: Licensee - food processor
- Dorothy Cullinane: advisor
- Kath Dalmeny: Sustain
- Benjamin Dent: food policy and business researcher
- Helen Franks: Licensee - fresh produce packer
- Rob Freeman: technical advisor
- Richard Lawrey: Licensee - wholesaler
- Eurwen Richards: dairy consultant
- Geetie Singh: Licensee - restaurant
- Rex Tyler: Licensee - retailer
- Keith Vivers: LACORS representative
- Andrew Whitley: Chair, bakery consultant
This page will be updated as consultations/amendments to food processing standards arise.
Please contact Liz Austin for more information at eaustin@soilassociation.org.
Date of next meeting of the committee: 12th February 2009.
Vacancies: Processing Standards Committee Members
The Soil Association is seeking to expand its Processing Standards Committee. We are seeking candidates, whether commercial or academic, with the following skills and/or expertise:
Manufacturing
- Baby foods
- Brewing/drinks
- Milling
- Flavours
- Fermentation methods
- Food technology
- Food service.
To ensure the committee works efficiently and at its optimum, the key attributes we are looking for in prospective committee members are:
- Relevant technical, practical and/or professional expertise;
- Experience of working to reach collective decisions on committees; and
- A commitment or empathy with organic production.
You must also have authority within, or be able to win the trust of, the sector from which you come, so that they have confidence in you. However, a committee members’ role in the committee is much wider than that: it is to work together to reach collective decisions, and if necessary, to set aside your own particular interest for the greater good of the standards and the integrity they uphold.
For the period 2008-2010 we will be carrying out a major review of our processing standards. During a recent evaluation against our principles and criteria, we identified particular areas where our standards deviated from, conflicted with, or did not adequately address the principles. For example, no standards currently reflect principles such as ‘minimally processed’ and ‘minimum use of additives’. There are also a number of standards that are ‘shoulds’ and we need to consider if we can move these standards to ‘musts’ where appropriate. This will involve investigating if this is possible and then setting deadlines for those ‘shoulds’ to turn into standards.
As a Processing Standards Committee member, you will be involved in these discussions and will be part of the decision making process.
You will need to be able to commit some time to the post. The Processing Standards Committee meets around two or three times a year and in addition we have the occasional conference call and email discussion. If you would like more information about the Processing Standards Committee, please email Amanda Woodman-Hardy at awoodmanhardy@soilassociation.org
If you are interested in this opportunity to assist in our vital standards work, please send your CV including details of what you can contribute to awoodmanhardy@soilassociation.org. |