News story: Government Chemist – meetings in Northern Ireland

Since his appointment as Government Chemist Julian has been active in building relationships nationally and in the devolved nations to focus Government Chemist advice on policy on food, feed and on wider topics where the expertise of the Government Chemist and the National Measurement Laboratory can assist other government departments and national and devolved institutions.

Julian was accompanied by Dr Michael Walker, Head of the Office of the Government Chemist, who is based in Northern Ireland.

Their itinerary included a tour of the Precision Medicine Centre of Excellence (PMC) at Queen’s University Belfast, a meeting with Professor Ian Young, and a meeting with senior officials of the Food Standards Agency.

The PMC is a new clinical laboratory bringing together high-throughput genomics, digital pathology and big data analytics in a fully integrated fashion. Dr Braybrook’s meeting with Dr Matt Humphries of PMC discussed the application of metrology to digital pathology.

Professor Ian Young is Professor of Medicine, Queen’s University Belfast and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health in Northern Ireland. Discussions with Julian and Michael were wide ranging over food safety and authenticity, and the application of metrology to molecular medicine.

At the FSA in NI, Julian and Michael met Maria Jennings, Director for Regulatory Compliance, People and Northern Ireland and Michael Jackson, leading on the FSA Regulating our Future programme. Discussions ranged over the technical appeal service offered by the Government Chemist, food standards, including food authenticity, food allergy and food surveillance.

For more information about the Government Chemist’s role or enquiries about food and feed analytical testing contact: