{"id":3138,"date":"2026-10-20T11:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/?p=3138"},"modified":"2026-10-20T12:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:16:28","slug":"get-to-know-christine-tacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/get-to-know-christine-tacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to know Christine Tacon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Christine\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Tell us about yourself<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From the archive:<\/strong> this interview was first published for The FoodEshow 2020.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I am Christine Tacon, i chair Red\u00a0<\/a>Tractor<\/a> https:\/\/redtractor.org.uk\/<\/a> , which is an Assured Food Standard scheme in the UK, I Chair\u00a0MDS\u00a0<\/a> https:\/\/www.mds-ltd.co.uk\/<\/a> Ltd a graduate recruitment and training scheme for the food and fresh produce sectors and have other NED and advisory roles all connected with the food industry.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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How would describe your professional career?<\/strong><\/p>

I started out as a production engineer which has been excellent training for everything I have done since! I spent 3 years working and getting chartered and then moved into largely marketing of fmcg for Mars Confectionery, Vodafone and Fonterra. A head hunter recruited me to run the Co-op\u2019s farming business, which was the largest in the UK at the time, clearly with no knowledge of farming. I brought my commercial expertise to that and stayed for 11years. I left to have more of a portfolio career and worked for 8 years, part-time, as the first Groceries Code Adjudicator, a government appointed regulator to make sure the UK retailers treated their suppliers properly. I enjoyed that role very much and made significant changes to supply chain efficiency by changing culture at retailers to work better, and in a way compliant with the Code, with their suppliers. I am now advising Canada as they go down the same path!<\/p>

Can you tell us about a time where you encountered a business challenge?<\/strong><\/p>

Starting off as a regulator with a clean sheet, a piece of regulation and no team was quite a challenge. I chose to approach it like any business problem, doing research, putting in place an annual survey so I could see progress and where things needed improving and working with the stakeholders in a collaborative way talking about what I was trying to achieve and working with them, rather than wielding a big stick as a regulator. I had the stick and I wasn\u2019t afraid to use it, which I did on 2 occasions when I investigated Tesco and the Co-op, but these investigations were conducted in a very professional manner and both retailers improved significantly in terms of Code compliance as a result.<\/p>

Which supporting skills do you think are most important when it comes to leadership?<\/strong><\/p>

Coaching and having faith in your team that they can do more than they think they can!<\/p>

What steps do you take to make sure that projects are completed on time, on budget, and to the proper standard?<\/strong><\/p>

I am hands on and probably a bit too pushy on timetables, but I think that comes from working in fresh produce and fast-moving consumer goods: customers and competitors move very fast and so must we. I like numbers and am always on top of budgets. I trust my team to do the work to the right standard, and they do.<\/p>

What are you passionate about?<\/strong><\/p>

Enjoying work!<\/p>

Where do you see yourself in five years?<\/strong><\/p>

More of the same, working part-time but at Chair level in various food related businesses, whether in them or servicing them.<\/p>

How do you see the food industry?<\/strong><\/p>

Secure, fast-moving, exciting and massive potential to change<\/p>

The foodeshow in 2 words<\/strong><\/p>

Great initiative<\/p>

Your advice to the foodeshow community<\/strong><\/p>

Keep up the Continuous Professional Development and we can do so much virtually now<\/p>

Missed the video interview in 2020? no worries watch her<\/strong><\/h4>

https:\/\/youtu.be\/-7vlY9zJmj4<\/a><\/p>

Join Christine Tacon<\/strong> and speak at the FoodEshow<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview with Christine Tacon, Chair of Red Tractor, on food assurance standards, leadership and her career in the food industry.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[122,126,125],"class_list":["post-3138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speaker-interviews","tag-archive","tag-food-standards","tag-foodeshow-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4985,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions\/4985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefoodeshow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}