Genre:      Food

About me:        I’m an ex Environmental Health Officer and food safety expert with over 20 years experience of inspecting food premises of all shapes and sizes and helping them to improve. Far from being a boring official, I have enjoyed a varied career which has led to me gaining the respect of a wide range of contacts in local and central government, academia, the food industry and professional bodies.  As a well-regarded expert witness for prosecution and defence, I can see both sides of the problem! My peers congratulated me for giving practical advice and a balanced viewpoint on the BBC 1 Rogue Restaurants series.  One of my clients calls me “The Voice of Reason”!

I interact well with presenters and media journalists, combining a sense of fun with an ability to communicate the hazards of food in an interesting and understandable manner.

Brief Synopsis:        A food business is closed by the EHO / caused an outbreak of food poisoning / has been prosecuted – it’s absolutely disgusting – think cockroaches, filth, mice or rats, food on the floor, slime, dirty food handlers not to mention mouldy food! The local press has had a field day – customers are interviewed and feel angry and sick. But why and how did the business get to this point? In comes the SOS team to help out! Guided by food safety expert Dr Lisa Ackerley, a team comes in to sort out structure, cleaning and pest control. Using wacky training methods, given practical advice and furnished with the right tools for the job, food handlers are shown how to improve, and Lisa engages them to help produce meaningful policies and procedures. Lisa may ask a guest chef to help if she thinks the menu is too complicated for safety.

Instead of only showing what went wrong we are helping to put it right. The business needs to get back into action as soon as possible, so we are working against the clock. The EHO is invited to come in and assess the new premises and get it re-opened. Everyone is happy – EHO is amazed at progress, business is making money again, and people can eat there with confidence that they won’t be poisoned.

As part of the process we would get to learn about the owners and staff at the establishments:  are they just ignorant of the effects of food poisoning (we might have some fun with this!) and the best ways to ensure health safety or are they wilful offenders who will always cut corners to make more money – regardless of the impact on customers?  Will they have real pride in being part of a safe, well-run establishment that customers keep visiting? 

Revisited
There is scope for a “revisited” series as well – how well did they do a year later – did they slip back into bad habits? 

Key factors:
• disgust of the filthy premises
• human factor – why it went wrong
• what the victims say (if food poisoning occurred)
• excitement of getting the place sorted out
• helping viewers understand messages DO try this at home!
• dispelling myths about food safety
• serious subject but entertaining

It’s a brand new angle on the show and shame format – we are actually going to make a difference and show businesses how to improve. No F words, but lots of filth, grime, pests, and at the end a great restaurant with happy customers.

Another twist:
One episode idea could be to send the SOS squad to an “interesting” start up, for example, a pub or rural village cafe bought and run by villagers, a restaurant run with disadvantaged employees etc. and build the quality into the operation from the start.  In this the angle would be more about the business with the SOS team forming a key part of the start up support.

For more information, please get in touch