Tina Potter

Head of Prevention, Food Standards Agency

Tina Potter is Head of Prevention at the Food Standards Agency (FSA), leading the organisation’s prevention focused approach to incident management. She works to identify and reduce the potential, impact and scale of food safety incidents and emergencies before they occur, through multiple tools including signal monitoring, industry engagement and root cause analysis. Formerly, FSAs Head of Incidents, she led oversight of operational responses to food and feed incidents, emergencies and crises, including foodborne disease outbreaks, major recalls and cross-government threats. Tina has led the oversight of several Listeria incidents affecting the NHS, initially in 2019, and most recently an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to desserts in 2025. She contributed to the food review commission by the Secretary of State that followed this outbreak.

Since joining the Civil Service in 1999 from the meat industry, Tina has held several roles across meat inspection, enforcement, and food crime. Her passion for crisis response was shaped through the Horsemeat incident, where she spent two years embedded with Dyfed Powys Police’s criminal investigation team. Other high-profile incidents that she has overseen at the FSA include the global Listeria contamination in frozen vegetables; the Ferrero Kinder Salmonella outbreak; and the FSA’s early response to Covid19.

Recognised internationally as a thought-leader, she has appeared on the BBC World Service’s The Food Chain, spoken at a series of domestic and global forums such as the IAFP European Symposium. Her expertise is frequently sought by national and trade bodies, authorities and media on issues spanning allergens, contamination risks, product recalls and food-safety threats and response strategies.