TUCO chief executive Mike Haslin, who recently featured as one of Public Sector Catering’s Most Influential Top 20, will open the Winter Conference. The conference follows a networking dinner on 3 December at the medieval Cardiff Castle.
TUCO will launch the last of this year’s Intelligence Food and Drink Trend Reports and attendees will be able to use phone-charging bikes.
Mathew White, chair of TUCO, said: “I’m extremely excited to say, in order to meet demand we have increased availability for this year’s Winter Conference. An occasion, which has grown exponentially into a must-attend industry event.
“Sustainability is on everyone’s radar, but the key question is how do we as caterers make that both successful to our customers and commercial for our institutions? Innovations in this area are making huge leaps and bounds and the TUCO Winter Conference programme is set to deliver some exciting answers.”
Helen Harwatt, a social scientist from Harvard University, will be the first keynote speaker and she will deliver a presentation on food systems, climate change and planetary health.
Dr Marco Springmann, senior researcher in population health at Oxford University, will then discuss health and nutrition topics around plant-based diets.
Professor Wouter Poortinga, from the host University of Cardiff, will take an in-depth look at coffee cups and plastic. This is followed by a discussion on social value and sustainable drink containers led by Suzie Owen co-founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee.
After lunch, Hugh Jones programme area manager for Food Waste Prevention in Wales will deliver a speech on the broader issues of food waste. Maciek Kacprzyk and Karina Sudenyte, founders of Flawsome Drinks will look at the specifics of ‘wonky’ and waste fruit.
Next, Charlie Huson from the Humane Society International takes on sustainable diets and Ben Greensmith from Tony Chocalonely will address social value.
Randy Rampersad, founder of The Green Vic and The Better World Group, will deliver a presentation on sustainability and social value following his ethos of ‘planet over profit’.
Attendees will have the chance to attend the TUCO Cardiff Study Tour on the evening of the 4 December. The Study Tour will further explore the sustainability theme by visiting sites and restaurants around Cardiff.
TUCO has reduced their paper usage at the conference by developing an app, which will show delegates all the necessary Winter Conference details.
For more information about the Winter Conference, visit: www.tuco.ac.uk