Congratulations Tim Harwood, winner of the 2026 MPI Significant Contribution to Food Safety Award

To the delight of all at the Centre, Deputy Director Tim Harwood (Manager, Food and Bioactives at Cawthron Institute) was announced this year’s winner of the MPI Significant Contribution to Food Safety Award. Roger Cook, Principal Adviser, Science and Risk Assessment, MPI-New Zealand Food Safety, presented the Award at the NZIFST/NZFSSRC Conference dinner in Auckland on Wednesday, 1st July.

Tim is a key player in food safety science and leads the Centre’s seafood industry taskforce and the government’s Seafood Safety Research Platform. His effectiveness is in no small part due to his diplomacy and warm sense of humour. In short (tall?), he is a pleasure to work with.

The Award recognises his long and practical contribution to New Zealand’s seafood industry and in particular his work supporting customary seafood harvesting and safety in communities like the Bay of Plenty. Recently, he has been helping our trans-Tasman colleagues deal with a mega-algal bloom off the South Australia coast. Tim says New Zealand is well-prepared for inevitable blooms here and research-wise is ahead of other emerging challenges to industry and human health, such as vibriosis and arsenic levels. He has a self-confessed passion for toxin chemistry, and its forensic challenges.

Cawthron Institute is one of the Centre’s valued science partners, with Tim as the main link. Congratulations Tim!

MPI's press release can be found here, along with more information about the award.

As if that wasn’t enough reason to celebrate, Associate Director Gale Brightwell’s BSI Food System Integrity Team then picked up the inaugural NZIFST Collaboration Award sponsored by Produco. “It celebrates interdisciplinary teams and collaboration between research and industry. The focus of the NZIFST Collaboration Award is to highlight how coming together around a shared purpose has created real, measurable impact for New Zealand's food sector.” The Centre couldn’t be happier to see their work, so ably led by Gale, recognised.

This award follows success two months ago at the Beef + Lamb Awards when Gale and her Team won The Ballance Agri-Nutrients Science and Research Award.

The Ballance Agri-Nutrients Science and Research Award was the first to be presented and was won by Dr Gale Brightwell and the AgResearch Food Integrity Team.

The judges said that Dr Brightwell and the AgResearch Food Integrity Team delivered essential science to support the red meat industry’s market access and position it globally as suppliers of safe food. 

Bravo Gale!  We know how hard you’ve worked over many years, and the impressive innovations your team are developing to ensure market access for our red meat, and keep it safe and in optimum condition on the long journeys to market.

Published on: 2 July 2026