Why Women Led Food Businesses Work – The Future of Food is Female – IFE – International Food & Drink Event – Wednesday 27th March 2024

IFE- International Food & Drink Event, is the UK’s largest and most successful event for product sourcing for buyers from across the retail, foodservice, hospitality, wholesale, distribution, import and export sectors. It returns to Excel from 25-27th March. Our co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, is delighted to be chairing a session in the Future Food Stage on 27th March called Why Women-Led Food Businesses Work – The Future of Food is Female. Read on to find out about the esteemed women in the food industry on the panel and what you will takeaway from the panel and the event.

Globally women only make up 35 – 45% of the workforce of major food businesses, despite being over 50% of the population and 60% of grocery food shoppers being female.

We’ve brought together a panel of accomplished female leaders in the food industry and we delve into their initiatives fostering women’s wellness and empowerment. Beyond meeting EDI criteria, we explore the tangible advantages of investing in women-led food businesses, emphasising the meaningful impact on both the industry and society.

Who’s on our panel:

Bethan Thomas – Co-Founder HotTea Mama

Bethan is a renowned tea expert, with over 18 years commercial experience blending and buying tea for the UK’s most prestigious tea companies before establishing her own successful brand, HotTea Mama.

After graduating from Oxford University with a masters in Chinese Studies, Bethan was the first non-Chinese national to gain a degree in Tea Science from the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Fujian, giving her a unique knowledge of the bio-chemistry of tea, production methods, blending techniques and tea culture.

The tea blends that Bethan has created, have won a total of 34 Great Taste Awards, 14 Global Tea Championship medals, a UK Baby Award, Mother & Baby Award and many more.

Listen to our podcast with Bethan Thomas of HotTea Mama

Saskia Roskam – Co-Founder The Biskery

The Biskery is an online-only biscuit bakery. The Biskery create bespoke artisan biscuits for everyone wanting to get their message across in the sweetest way – businesses and consumers alike. Their focus is on quality, a personalised service, and sustainability in all areas. Their core mission is to connect people by spreading kindness in biscuit form. All whilst empowering women and working mothers by normalising part-time employment, and family-friendly approaches to work.

Read Saskia’s feature for us – The Biskery – Bespoke, Personalised Biscuits Brand led by Mothers

Anna Chalov – Co-Founder, Bemuse

Anna Chalov is a co-founder of Bemuse, a London-based maker of the curiously modern effervescent honey wine – unique award-winning non-alcoholic fermented blend.

With honey at its core, Bemuse is refined and refreshing with an unexpectedly dry finish. The raw honey’s character, aroma, and taste reflect its terroir, the forage the honeybee pollinators gather and preserve the honey’s beneficial nutrients.

Bemuse is a proudly Made in Britain and Buy Women Built brand, and a B-Corp. Anna is one of the Top 10 Highly Commended 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch by Natwest and The Telegraph.

Our panel takes place on  Wednesday 27 March from 10.30am – 11.15am at the Future Food Stage at IFE – International Food & Drink Event 2024.

You can register for free for both the fair and the panel here.

About IFE – International Food & Drink Event 2024 – IFE is part of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week

Food, Drink & Hospitality Week unites IFE Manufacturing, IFE, The Pub Show, HRC and International Salon Culinaire as the UK’s biggest celebration of industry innovation.

Your pass to IFE on 25-27 March gives you access to all events taking place as part of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week and brings together 27,000 industry leaders to network, learn from inspiring innovators and source quality products from over 1,500 suppliers.