Rebecca Kaya is no stranger to taking new directions in life. She worked as an animal photographer and then zookeeper for over seven years, before swapping giraffes, rhinos, and penguins for import-export law and border control food checks as a Trading Standards officer. She completed the relevant qualifications in food and feed standards, legal systems, civil law, and more while holding down a full-time job and caring for her family.
Her current role as regulatory specialist at UK legal consultancy Ashbury is as interesting as it is varied, she says. One day she is assessing a company’s compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation; the next, she is evaluating the artwork on a petfood brand’s packaging.
“It’s been a long and winding road, but every step was part of the journey and entirely worthwhile,” she says.
We caught up with her to find out more.
“Honestly, although my career is quite varied, I never thought when I first studied photography, I would ever end up doing the job that I do now. I went from taking photographs of animals, to looking after them for seven years as a zookeeper at Woburn Safari Park with giraffes, white rhinos and penguins and later, at The Zoological Society of London at Whipsnade with sealions and seals. Whilst at Whipsnade, I first became interested in the feeds and supplements we gave the animals in our care. […] An odd start I know!
“I wanted to be an RSPCA [Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] officer and although that did not happen, I applied and got a job as an animal health inspector at Buckinghamshire Trading Standards. I have to confess, even when starting out, I had no real idea what the job of a trading standards officer involved. It was within this role that I was given all the training and support I needed, for which I remain eternally grateful to my early employers, Buckinghamshire and Surrey County Council. This spanned across compliance matters for food, goods, feed and general consumer rights and business obligations. I found the written law, the legal system and investigation and court procedures such as evidence gathering, retention and disclosure both fascinating and fundamental.”
“Yes, it was! Within my trading standards career, I first worked as an officer enforcing non-food goods controls looking for unsafe goods and those where there was an attempt to circumvent customs controls and duties at the UK border. […] It was not until I was at Southampton City Council that I truly appreciated the complexity and vastness of maritime trade in food and feed through the border control post and of goods both compliant, non-compliant and sometimes plain illegal!
“At Southampton, it was incredible to see the distances that foods travel to get to our tables in the UK. An awful lot of chicken from Thailand and fish of all kinds from the East Pacific came in, as well as a good deal of pet foods. A lot of work went into ensuring and checking compliance long before the consignments got to the port through monitoring and checking the documentation submitted […] but the official veterinarians and port health officers would carry out physical checks on consignments which could turn up some interesting things.
“[…] I will never forget the time when the trading standards staff and I were at the facility for the non-food imports which was shared with Border Force. On this occasion, we were removed in haste from the shed as they had detected weapons in a consignment!”
“[…] I do get a lot of post Brexit regulatory queries concerning food moving across borders and I do a lot of work engaging with new clients and finding out what it is they really want to know.
“My role is really varied. One minute I can be asked to assess the compliance of an artwork for a pet food and the next, I can be asked to produce training for clients on food labelling or the European Union Deforestation Regulations! I am also privileged to be able to deliver training to staff internally to ensure our staff are as upskilled as can be in this ever-changing landscape of compliance. The food sector has so many aspects to it in terms of how regulations affect its working; packaging and waste, food contact materials, consumer rights, pricing, raw material contamination, labelling, descriptions and claims and sustainability, to name but a few!
“No. It's not typical but I think that gives me a broader perspective and realistic outlook on the world and regulatory compliance issues. A convoluted career path is something I think that all young people today will understand more. It is not a problem to do a 360-degree turn from the subjects you might have been studying in college or university to finding a career in the food sector. The skills needed in the food regulatory sector today are those that are far more of the transferable kind, such as problem solving, collaborative working and innovative thinking.”
“Yes, that’s true. When I started as a Trading Standards officer, I was an animal health Inspector. In doing this for many years, I started to understand that from primary production level through to the disposal of waste food and packaging, just how many occupations it takes to get from the start of the chain to the end. Agronomy, engineering, marketing, wholesaling, vets, chemists, nutritionists, project management and the financial, logistics, customs, environmental and legal sector professions to name but a few!
“I think the backstory to our food is not seen enough. We see most of our food as prepacked, consumer-ready stuff we just buy. I feel we should do more to teach our society about the whole food chain – teach them to enquire and investigate the questions: ‘Where did this food come from?’, ‘What is in it and how did it get to me in this attractive packaging?’, ‘What happens to the resulting waste?’ and ‘What is the true cost and value of food and food production?’”
“Yes, don't we all. If you live long enough, you're going to regret something! I do regret not having the confidence I have now much earlier on in my life. I certainly wish, as I tell my children often, that I had done the relevant qualifications I have now whilst I could study full-time instead of doing them whilst working and having a family. This is a big ask however and no woman or young man should feel too concerned they are perhaps not doing or studying something that they're going to use in their career or that they've taken the wrong turn professionally. If you can use your education and training to demonstrate the core skills I talked about above, then any career in the food industry could be open for you. It’s rewarding, varied and fast paced – what’s not to like?!
“I did once think I might enjoy standing as an MP [member of Parliament], but I think perhaps I am happy here.”
This interview has been edited for length.
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Women in Food
