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Widget Pioneer is Public Analyst Number One
Top National Appointment for Council's Head of Scientific Services
A north east scientist who helped develop a modern day boon for canned beer drinkers has been made the UK's "public analyst No. 1".
Alan Richards (right), Head of Scientific Services for Durham County Council, who was a member of the project team that developed one of the first "widgets'" used in canned beer to give it a frothy, draught beer quality, has been appointed President of the Association of Public Analysts - the boffins whose key job is to test foods to make sure they are safe to eat, that their composition is correct and that they are labelled correctly.
Working as the public analyst on behalf of seven local authorities in the North East, Alan, 50, heads a laboratory in County Hall, Durham which monitors food standards for almost two million consumers.
"We test around 2,000 food samples a year for composition, contamination and labelling, and it's still surprising to find faults with almost 20 per cent of them," he said.
"Most problems relate to labelling and it's reassuring to know that very few foods are found to be unsafe these days."
But Alan said that's no cause for complacency.
"While most food produced within Europe is of a high quality, the world is a big market place and there are still unscrupulous producers around the globe who are looking to make a profit by wrongly describing or adulterating foods," he added.
"Recent surveys funded by the Food Standards Agency, looking at foods bought over the Internet for example, and recent safety scares about illegal dyes found in chilli products and palm oils confirm this is the case. However, if there were no public analysts looking for these problems, I suspect the situation would be a lot worse."
Alan, who lives in South Shields, has been Durham County Council's Head of Scientific Services for the past 13 years.
Having done his early training with the Authority, he moved back to the council in 1993 from Scottish and Newcastle Breweries where he was a quality manager.
It was during his time at the brewery that he was a member of the "widget" project team.
Speaking of his two-year appointment as President of the Association of Public Analysts, he said : "It's a privilege and honour to be recognised a leading analytical chemist in the country."
Councillor Bryan Myers MBE, Durham County Council's Cabinet Member for Consumer Affairs said "I am very pleased Alan has gained this national recognition and fully expect him to carry on the good work he has been doing for Durham County Council on food safety".
Background Note :
The public analyst is a legal appointment that local authorities have made since 1864 following public outcry over the poor quality of foods and extensive contamination.
Some examples of the state of food in those days included sawdust and millstone grit being added to flour used for making bread, sulphuric acid added to vinegar and toxic lead salts being added to wine casks to simulate aging.
These adulterations, along with many others were commonplace and were having such a marked impact on the population that the government at the time were forced to act and introduced the first regulations covering the safety of food in 1860.
This first Act was strengthened ten years later when controls on sale of drugs were added. Food controls have been further strengthened over the years and there are now hundreds of regulations in the UK and Europe that are protecting the foods we eat and drink.
For further information, please contact Alan Richards, Head of Scientific Services, Durham County Council. Tel : 0191 383 3610