Member Interest Group meeting - audience and speaker

Most discussed hot topics resulting from our Spring on-site MIG meetings

16 July 2025

Having recently completed our Spring round of Member Interest Group (MIG) meetings, we have collated our most talked about ‘hot topics’ from members present at our onsite discussions.

Across all of our 2025 onsite MIG meetings, our most discussed topics included:

In the areas of regulation - product development and sustainability – issues around UPF, HFSS, Nutri-Score and Carbon Footprint
Within microbiology - beer spoilage organisms, hygiene, STEC methods, viruses and Salmonella
Across sensory and consumer disciplines – issues including AI in sensory panels and the need for more bespoke services
Within food and drink science - cultured meat, plant-based initiatives, new product development, allergen testing and traceability in the supply chain

Read on to find out more detail on these topics, including helpful information about how we can assist our members and clients in these areas.

Issues related to regulation, product development and sustainability

The health and nutritional value of our foods, plus their wider impact on the environment continues to be a major concern for our members, consumers, food manufacturers and the wider media.

From ultra processed foods (UPF) and products that are high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) to the nutritional quality of our food and beverage products. With topics such as these being increasingly debated in relation to their impact on consumer health, food manufacturers are under growing pressure to obtain accurate facts, reformulate some of their product ingredients, navigate the changing regulatory landscape and communicate updates to their customers. Equally, with issues around sustainability and climate change also increasingly under the media spotlight, manufacturers face similar challenges to reduce their carbon footprint.

As experts in food legislation, regulatory compliancea> and product development, we’ve been helping our member company clients with issues related to these topics. So, whether it’s advice about UPF and HFSS, or help with getting your front of pack labelling compliant with schemes such as Nutri-Score, Nutri-Mark or the Multiple Traffic Light scheme, we have the knowledge and experience to support you through these challenges.

It is also important to highlight the technical problem-solving and quality assessment capabilities of our food and drink science team. Thanks to our understanding of food science, technical consultative skills, ability to measure and test hypotheses about what is causing quality issues, and our ability to predict/advise which ingredients may be best to use including what properties are important to replace when going ‘clean label’ – we can assist with many of the challenges facing the food industry.

Advice and guidance on the latest research into the nutritional effect of UPF
Legislation and labelling
HFSS and other nutritional calculations
Reformulation with alternative ingredients such as plant proteins
‘Clean label’ product development and renovation

Challenges related to food microbiology

At this point, it won’t be too surprising for most of you to appreciate that challenges related to food microbiology remain top of mind for our members, consumers and food manufacturers - with beer spoilage organisms, hygiene, STEC methods, viruses and Salmonella the most discussed microbiology related topics currently.

Firstly, contamination of beer by spoilage micro-organisms remains a considerable challenge for the brewing industry, particularly within the growing range of low and no-alcohol beers, which lack the protective effects of normal alcoholic varieties. This issue has been further exacerbated by the growing number of low and no-alcohol beers available on draught, which requires landlord’s to be fastidious about cleaning, particularly with regards to their beer lines if they are to prevent the development of biofilms within dispense systems.

Similarly, we are also seeing an increase in STEC, Salmonella and virus (particularly norovirus and hepatitis A) cases in the UK, some of which have been linked to food products.

Fortunately, thanks our large and highly experienced microbiological team, we are able to help our member company clients with a wide range of microbiological expertise related to these topics.

Firstly, in the area of brewing microbiology, there is a lot we can do support producers of alcoholic and low/no alcohol beers, from examining those beers for pathogens and checking whether those pathogens can survive or grow, to offering solutions to kill microbes. In support of this we also have a lot of related experience and expertise in cleaning and hygiene in brewing, including guidance on cleaning methods, agent selection, and schedule development, as well as support for implementing effective disinfection practices. We can also offer expertise in assessing the risk of cross-contamination and evaluating the hygienic design of new dispense equipment.

Likewise in the wider area of pathogens, we can also offer a lot of support in the detection, control and removal of viruses and bacterial pathogens like Salmonella and STEC with a range of different techniques. Most recently we were also accredited with an extension to scope for STEC detection in sprouted seeds (TES-MB-225).

In summary, we can help with:

Brewing microbiology – through a range of services designed to support those involved in that industry
Food microbiology – including analysis, testing and techniques for the safe removal of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi (yeast and moulds) and viruses
Food hygiene – including validation of cleaning systems and services specifically related to the food and brewing industries, such as Listeria control and the hygiene of draught beverages. In fact, in the area of Listeria control, the support services offered by our microbiology and wider global food safety teams includes consultation and testing advice on biofilm eradication, and we also offer a guideline publication on the subject entitled: ‘G79 Practical control of Listeria in food production’.

Issues related to sensory and consumer services

Besides food safety, the quality of the food we eat, particularly its sensory qualities, and the satisfaction and enjoyment consumers gain from eating it are crucial too. If consumers love the taste and texture of a food, they will be more likely to purchase that product again.

The sensory qualities of food can be especially helpful in enabling food manufacturers to differentiate their products and entice more customers. And sensory and consumer science has a key role to play in product formulation and reformulation, and the subsequent satisfaction of customers. In fact, many of our client/members rely on sensory and consumer data for a whole host of reasons, from substituting ingredients, investigating issues such as taints and validating formulations prior to launch to setting product shelf-life and substantiating sensory claims.

Subsequently, the role of sensory and consumer services and the issues relating to them remain a high priority for our member clients. In particular there has been great interest to see how these services will evolve in this increasingly competitive and digital space - with the growing use of AI and the need for more agile services among the most discussed topics from our members in relation to these services.

With the use of artificial intelligence creeping into all areas of our lives, there have been increasing conversations and already the initial emergence of some tools related to AI use in sensory panels and consumer panels. The thinking here is that AI-powered tools can enhance some areas of the sensory evaluation process such as the analysis of large consumer feedback datasets particularly open comments, automating more routine data analysis and reporting tasks, summarising large amounts of information and more – essentially helping to improve the overall consumer experience. It is also something that Campden BRI is already looking at, with preparations currently underway for a research project, which will look to explore the use of AI in monitoring the performance of sensory panels.

Compared to more traditional, non-agile and expensive approaches, clients for these services are increasingly demanding a more agile approach to meet the objectives of the growing number of areas within a business where that sensory evaluation data can be used.

Consequently, we have shaped and continue to evolve our services, so we are able to offer a bespoke approach that better meets our clients’ budgetary and timeline requirements.

Some of the key areas we can help with include:

Issues associated with food and drink science

Within food and drink science, due to growing consumer demands for healthier, more sustainable and cleaner foods, we are seeing issues such as cultured meat, plant-based alternatives, new product development, allergen testing and traceability in the supply chain being discussed more frequently by our member client companies and the wider food industry.

When it comes to healthier and more sustainable food options, plant-based ingredients and cultured meat food products are becoming more popular, with an increased need for new product development support among food manufacturers, as they continue to introduce new product lines onto the market. In addition, with a larger variety of food products on the market this can also drive up the need for allergen testing, particularly for food products that contain more complex ingredients.

Similarly, the need for greater traceability in the food supply chain has also become crucial. This is because customers are demanding greater transparency about the ingredients and processes involved in producing their products, whether that concerns claims about how healthy, sustainable or ‘clean label’ that product may be and more.

Fortunately, we can offer our member client companies a mix of support, solutions and advice in these areas.

In the area of cultured meat and plant-based initiatives we have several ongoing trials and research projects, which highlight our strengths and capabilities in this area.

For example, in the field of cultured meat, we are currently progressing a two year Innovate UK funded project, featuring a novel bioreactor design optimised for food manufacturing with the aim of developing a low-carbon, low-cost pilot production system for cultivated meat. Likewise in the area of plant-based ingredients we are currently working on projects looking at the ‘Safety, Quality and Functionality of Plant-Based Meat and Eggs Alternatives’ and the ‘Efficacy of Plant Protein Functionality Testing’.

Consequently, we can also help clients in this area with new product development and reformulation if they need it, as we have knowledge of key areas involved in this including ingredients, processing techniques, packaging materials, legislation and consumer demands and preferences.

In the area of food allergens, our wider departments and teams at Campden BRI can provide a range of services including allergen analysis and testing, allergen management, allergen labelling and legislation advice and more to help manufacturers better manage food allergens and other substances that can cause food hypersensitivity in their products. They can also provide advice and guidance on traceability throughout the food supply chain, including developing and implementing traceability systems.

In summary, we can help with:

Sign up to our MIG meetings to benefit from insights, networking and more

Our hot topic discussions are just one aspect of the many MIGs that we run. In fact, with 15 different MIGs to choose from, and our members able to join as many as they wish – there are plenty of opportunities to gain insights and network with others across many different food disciplines. In addition, members also have opportunities to put themselves forward for chairperson roles.

Any member of Campden BRI can attend MIG meetings – MIG attendance is free to members as part of their member benefits. Our MIGs are chaired by member companies to ensure meeting content is relevant to the needs of the industry.

The meetings run twice annually (Spring and Autumn) and are great opportunities to discuss topical industrial issues, meet with industry peers, consider the impact of emerging legislation, select and steer research projects and enjoy early access to research results and the latest insights from industry leaders.

Members can book on to the upcoming MIGs through the following link: Member Interest Groups, food and drink industry research at Campden BRI. For non-members – we encourage you to explore our membership and membership benefits pages, or get in touch to find out more.