Since the early 1990s Mark Swainson has worked extensively both in and with the Food Industry. His industrial food manufacturing sector expertise developed whilst holding key Quality, Technical and Operations Management positions in the high-risk chilled and frozen food sectors producing a wide range of product categories including Ready Meals, Soups, Sauces, Dips, Dressings, Risottos, Salads and Pasta Snacks. This involved close engagement with all parts of the food supply chain to assure food quality, safety and legality from supplier control of ingredients and packaging, through operational and technical oversight of food factory processing, storage and distribution, and finally liaison with the end customer including the major retailers and food service groups.
Highly experienced and well qualified in industrial food technology, food processing & packaging operations, and in their underpinning technical standards and audit systems, his industry engagement continues, currently leading the Research and Higher Education agendas of the UK National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) - University of Lincoln.
Since joining the University of Lincoln he has worked extensively on the development and delivery of a range of Food Sector Employee Training and Education Programmes (both undergraduate and postgraduate), making a significant contribution to the skills and staff development needs of the industry. He has also structured the successful NCFM "industry focused" approach to Research & Development, always working with the food sector to progress multidisciplinary projects and initiatives which address specific food sector challenges across food safety, quality and productivity agendas.
