The theme of the Harper Adams UK food chain conference will be quality, safety and the future. Geoffrey Podger, chief executive of the Food Standards agency, Alec Kyriakides, chief microbiologist at Sainsbury's and Professor Hugh Pennington, head of medical microbiology at the university of Aberdeen have all been secured as speakers.

'The conference has been designed for those who are concerned with issues of quality and safety in the production, manufacturing and sale of food,' said Ralph Early, conference organiser and a senior food lecturer at Harper Adams.

Also on the speakers' dais will be Professor Colin Dennis, director general of the Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, and Professor Janet Bainbridge, chair of the UK's advisory committee on novel foods and processes. The conference will be chaired by the Earl of Selbourne, chancellor of the University of Southampton and a past president of the Royal Geographical Society.