Joanne Burns, Reformulation for Health Manager at Food and Drink Federation Scotland, shares her vision for a healthier future in the food industry
Can you tell us about your role at Food and Drink Federation Scotland and what inspired you to join the Reformulation for Health programme?
FDF Scotland is the voice of the UK’s vibrant and resilient food and drink manufacturing industry in Scotland, we have successfully contributed to policy making and legislative development, championing our members’ views on the critical issues that are important to their businesses. My role at Food and Drink Federation Scotland is as manager of the Scottish Government funded Reformulation for Health programme. We work to support and guide SME Scottish food and drink manufacturers to reformulate commonly consumed products to improve the health of Scotland’s produce and people. Public health, food and nutrition has always been at the core of my whole career and being able to make Scotland’s everyday foods healthier by creating the Reformulation for Health programme just over 5 years ago seemed like a perfect progression for my career. I have loved looking at food and health improvement in a slightly different light by working to change and improve the product and not the person.
How has the Reformulation for Health programme evolved since its inception?
When the programme first started I planned on working more as a connector function, linking food manufacturers to other stakeholders who could assist them with their reformulation work. As I spoke to businesses and learned more about the challenges they faced I began to develop a range of solutions driven resources to directly support businesses with common challenges. Another evolution that has greatly assisted the programme deliverables was the addition of Harriet Heath who now assists me in delivering the programme and developing resources.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced while working on this programme?
One of the biggest challenges I faced was the impact of covid so early in the setting up the programme. We had to pivot the work of the programme to directly support the industry at a time when they were facing such unimaginable challenges. One way that we supported the food and drink industry was to launch the first round of our Reformul8 Challenge Fund to help manufacturers with the associated costs of reformulating; including trialling recipes, process changes, improving production capacity, nutritional testing and technical support. A more recent challenge has been trying to source additional funding for the food industry for projects to help improve health. Many large grants of money are available where there is an academic or research angle to a project or for projects looking at different drivers such as automation and sustainability, however where it is industry managed project focussed on health there is much less opportunity.
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