The Allergen Bureau is delighted to congratulate on of our founders, Dr Tom Lewis, on receiving the 2026 Keith Farrer Award of Merit at the The Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology – AIFST‘s highest honour, recognising a truly remarkable contribution to the Institute and the Australian agrifood sector.
Tom’s instinct has always been the same: bring industry people together, create a safe space to solve shared problems, and build something lasting from it. Back in the early days of the Food Safety Centre of Excellence, food companies across the country recognised that they were all struggling with allergen management, largely in isolation. Tom responded to this need, helped them gather into the same room, and the industry-funded, industry-led Allergen Bureau was born, with Tom helping guide its development. That work went on to develop VITAL® – now recognised internationally, recently acknowledged by FAO/WHO as best practice, and underpinning the Precautionary Allergen Labelling guideline adopted into the Codex General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods.
We are so lucky to have Tom’s vision behind the Allergen Bureau, and his fingerprints are all over Australia’s broader food and agrifood landscape too – alongside over a decade of dedicated service to AIFST itself.
While honoured to receive this recognition, Tom says “he’s reminded of the famous Paul Keating jibe about being ‘all tip and no iceberg’. He says he’s just the visible tip, underpinned by the enormous iceberg of colleagues and collaborators who have all worked so hard to develop and commit to ways in which true industry collaboration can thrive”
Tom, this recognition is so richly deserved. Thank you for everything you’ve built and for the collaborative, pre-competitive spirit you brought to this industry long before it was the norm.
Congrats!
