Lisa Ackerley

Dr Lisa Ackerley

Dr Lisa Ackerley is one of the UK's leading food safety experts and consultant adviser.

In 1984 Lisa gained a First Class Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Environmental Health from Bristol Polytechnic (now University of the West of England). Her thesis examined the survival of Campylobacter jejuni on kitchen surfaces and also uncovered that many GPs were unaware of the organism. This led to the publication of her first academic paper with Dr A Jones.

Lisa went to work at Cherwell District Council in 1984 as an Environmental Health Officer. Following this, she moved to Thames Polytechnic (now University of Greenwich) where she became Senior Lecturer in Food Law and Practice, teaching on the undergraduate Environmental Health programme.

In 1990 she was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship ^[1] to travel to the USA and Canada to study concepts of HACCP. This involved visiting the Pilsbury factory in Minneapolis where HACCP was invented as part of the NASA space programme. She visited a number of cook-chill outlets, academics including Pete Snyder and spoke at the National Environmental Health Association Conference in Carolina^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

Lisa’s PhD (University of Birmingham) covered the subject of consumer awareness of food poisoning and food hygiene. She examined the factors that influence behaviour change – for example people will not change their behaviour unless they see there is a value in change – if they think that they are unlikely to get food poisoning, or cause it, then maybe they can’t be bothered to change. Equally if they think that food poisoning is not likely to be anything more than an upset tummy, then perhaps they would not think it is worth the effort to follow food hygiene practices.

The work on uncovering the secrets of what people believe in relation to food safety continues, with Lisa’s work for the UK Hygiene Council’s ^[2] survey of home hygiene. Last year’s study revealed that 75% of dishcloths were extremely dirty – indicating that when people think they are cleaning, they are actually “dirtying”. Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2 interviewed Lisa in February 2009 on this very subject, as he was concerned about why his dishcloths smelled so bad.^[3]

Lisa is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health ^[4] which gives her the title Environmental Health Practitioner. She speaks regularly at events for the institution to her fellow members – for example, presented a paper on E. coli O157 in November 2008 to the Sussex Group, a presentation on Home Hygiene to the Herts Beds and Bucks branch in December 2008 and a talk on Rogue Restaurants to the CIEH Commercial group in December 2008.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health ^[5] Lisa is involved in Member’s events, for example speaking at the June 2008 Members evening on E. coli O157.^[6] She is also the food safety adviser to the Society, producing the regular Food Safety Update. Hygiene Audit Systems provides a free hygiene helpline for members of the RSPH.^[7] Lisa will be speaking at the E. coli conference on 13 May 2009 at the RSPH.^[8]

Lisa is a Member of the Society of Food Hygiene Technology ^[9] and is a regular speaker at their events. Her most recent presentation was in March 2009 in Barnsley where she presented a paper on Rogue Restaurants: the implications for food safety training.

Lisa is now Managing Director of Hygiene Audit Systems Ltd, an independent consultancy specialising in food safety and health and safety. Lisa is still hands on, appearing as an Expert Witness from time to time, notably at the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the deaths associated with the John Barr Butchers’^[10] and also more recently a Salmonella outbreak in a nursery and another Fatal Accident Inquiry in Scotland.

Lisa has worked with TV and local and national Radio, including BBC Watchdog ,^[11] and most recently, as the food safety expert on BBC1 Rogue Restaurants, a spin-off of Rogue Traders, with Matt Allwright and Anita Rani. Lisa is the health expert on the BBC 1 program Secret Tourist where she travels to an array of locations examining the conditions of the hotels.

References

1. ^ http://www.sor.org/stories/winston-churchill-fellowship-awards-need-you
2. ^ http://www.hygienecouncil.com/uk/H_Matters_UK.pdf
3. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrisevans/2009/02/to_dummy_or_not_to_dummy_the_d.shtml
4. ^ http://www.cieh.org/
5. ^ http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/index.cfm
6. ^ http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/membership/individual_membership/benefits-of-membership.cfm
7. ^ http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/qualifications/centre-search/centre-case-study.cfm
8. ^ http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/courses-conferences-and-events/index.cfm
9. ^ http://www.sofht.co.uk/
10. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/154107.stm,
11. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/

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