Last week (11th October 2017) saw us host The Catering Equipment Industry Technical Conference, a conference we jointly organise with CESA. The theme for this year’s conference was “Focus on the Future”.

The conference included two “firsts” namely the launch of the new DW172 “Specification for Kitchen Ventilation Systems” which was introduced by Peter Rogers of BESA and the launch of a new document entitled “Guidance on best practice for the safe installation, operation and maintenance of solid fuel fired catering equipment in commercial premises” which has been jointly produced by ceda and HETAS. This was delivered by Peter Kay of ceda.

Other sessions covered Apprenticeships, Updates on Regulations and Standards and an update on the ceda/CESA Engineer Training courses which are delivered by our licensee Combico.

One of the highlights of the day was a Q&A session relating to manufacturers’ warranties where it became clear that most distributors were dissatisfied with many manufacturers’ policies and performance. ceda will be working closely with members and partners to try to develop a standard or set of options that meet everyone’s requirements.

We had two seminars; one covering water quality within food service and the effect water has on equipment led by Steve Buckmaster of BRITA; and recruitment and training of ex forces personnel as service engineers led by Tony Mooney of Live the Dream with support from Martin Dagnall of Combico.

Delegates could also have one-to-one meetings with specialists on such topics as Refrigeration, The Gas Regulations, Warewashing problems and Apprenticeships.  The conference was hosted by Richard West who also delivered an interesting session highlighting how some companies are thinking outside the box when planning for the future.

Nick Oryino, Chairman of the Catering Engineers Standards and Regulations Board said that the conference was the best he had ever attended adding that every presentation was very interesting and held his attention.

Following the conference business day there was an awards dinner, details of which can be found here.