Holchem’s Dr John Holah becomes Honorary Professor

John Holah, Technical Director of Holchem and member of the New Food Editorial Board, has become an Honorary Professor of Food Safety at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

He was appointed after a rigorous process and the esteemed position is initially for five years. It will see Professor Holah work with the University to help underpin its Food Safety modules within its Food Technology and Food Safety degree and masters courses and will involve delivering lectures on Food Safety, setting exam questions and their marking, working with MSC students on their dissertations and helping define and review research projects.

Dr Holah is an applied microbiologist whose work has focussed on the prevention of microbial, chemical and foreign body contamination of food during its manufacture,  distribution and retail. In his role as Technical Director at Holchem, he is responsible for co-ordinating the development of innovative cleaning and disinfection chemicals and technologies and their successful utilisation in sanitation programmes so as to meet customer’s cleaning objectives. 

John has specific expertise in food hazard management, the hygienic design of food factories and food processing equipment; factory services and water systems; maintenance; cleaning and disinfection; personnel hygiene and environmental sampling. Prior to joining Holchem, John was Head of Food Hygiene at Camden BRI for over 25 years.

“A real honour”

Dr John Holah

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Holah said: “The appointment is a real honour and I’m delighted that I will be working with Cardiff Metropolitan University on its Food Safety and Technology programmes and sharing the knowledge that I have gathered throughout my career, especially my work at Holchem, to the students and research staff. The research work I hope to carry out with the University will provide a real insight into the safety of food manufacturing and food service operations and will also significantly benefit Holchem and the application of its products and services.  I’m looking forward to welcoming some of the students from the Food Safety course to gain vital industry experience here at our Pilsworth site.”

David Lloyd, Director of Cardiff Met’s  ZERO2FIVE  Food Industry Centre, commented: “We are very pleased to appoint John as an Honorary Professor of Food Safety here at Cardiff Met. We draw on the knowledge of a range of experts in order to provide food businesses with advice and support to enable them to compete more effectively. Our areas of expertise cover Food Safety, Food Legislation, Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Food Science, Nutrition, Dietetics, New Product Development and Biomedical Sciences. John has a great deal of knowledge and experience to share and we look forward to working with him further.”