Summary
Flanagan, a former environmental health officer, founded Shield Safety Group in 2003 and has grown it to become the UK's largest employer of environmental health practitioners, with clients including Tesco. The company developed award-winning software RiskProof and the Safe to Trade standard, a voluntary third-party assurance scheme for hospitality businesses that goes beyond Food Standards Agency requirements to cover allergen safety, labelling and front-of-house operations.
Safe to Trade was rapidly developed and launched in spring 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown to provide hospitality and retail businesses with safety certification and customer confidence at a time of acute uncertainty. The scheme was created in collaboration with food business operators and local regulators, using independently trained assessor teams.
Shield Safety Group reported sales of £8.86 million in 2022 and now operates across the UK and Europe. Industry figures including John Barnes, former senior civil servant at the Food Standards Agency, have praised Flanagan as an innovator who has introduced digital solutions to reduce regulatory burden while improving staff and customer safety in the hospitality sector.
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Common questions
- What is this article about?
- Mark Flanagan, founder and CEO of Manchester-based Shield Safety Group, has been shortlisted for the national 'Food Defender of the Year' title at the Apples awards, recognising his work developing food safety standards for hospitality, leisure and retail sectors. The £8 million turnover business, which employs 123 people, will be represented at the awards ceremony in London on 17 October.
- When was this published?
- This article was published on 1 September 2023.
- Who published this article?
- This article was published by Business Manchester.