Ann Westby, who has died suddenly aged 55, was chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland since last October. She was seen as a valuable asset to the authority and was intent on directing a strong pro-consumer policy. A believer in consensus management, she was already well liked at the State's food authority.
After 30 years experience with Nestlé Ireland, Westby was well known in the food industry. She had been technical and corporate affairs manager with the multinational company.
She intended to ensure best practice in a growing industry which has been the subject of complex regulation in recent years.
She also hoped to bring food safety to the top of the agenda with Government, industry and consumers. She said recently that she would have much preferred to see food regulations "written in plain English".
"They are unduly complicated, I fully accept that - but they are nonetheless very necessary," she said. She had promised "no compromise" in protecting the consumer. Those providers failing to comply with minimum standards could expect to be prosecuted, she warned.
She succeeded Dr Patrick Wall, a vet and GP who helped shape the authority, which was set up in 1998 following the BSE crisis. Ann Westby saw her role as seeing that food hygiene remained in the public eye, especially since nearly 50 per cent of consumers still have concerns about safety, in spite of sharply improved standards.
She grew up in Terenure, Dublin, and attended Our Lady's School there. Her parents were Jimmy and Angela Magahran.
After marrying Alan Westby in 1971 they lived in Fortfield Avenue until three years ago, when they "decentralised" to Clane, Co Kildare.
Her training was in microbiology, which she studied at night at Kevin Street college while working with the former Williams and Wood food company.
Her career began with a holiday job at the company, which was later taken over by Nestlé.
She wanted consumers to speak up when they believed there was something wrong with the food they had been served or bought. "Just don't accept bad practice," she said. Interactive workshops planned for 2004 by the authority would aim to get across basic food hygiene, especially to non-nationals with poor English.
She was proud of the authority's work. It was the first such agency established by government in the EU and is regarded as a model, she said. In an initiative last month she told its first international laboratory conference held in Ireland that she intended to ensure uniform quality standards in all laboratories by 2005.
A member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology UK, Ann Westby had been president and fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of Ireland and chair of the Irish Society of Food Hygiene Technology. She also chaired an IBEC regulatory group and belonged to a Teagasc group on training. She was a member of a working group with the Department of Agriculture and Food dealing with the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM), which provides a framework for research in generic technologies.
A charming, dynamic and effervescent woman, she was known as "a rock of common sense" and a breath of fresh air at the authority. She was a keen golfer in Clane. Holidays with her husband were invariably spent in Nerja, Spain. She died after a heart operation and short illness.
She is survived by her husband Alan.
Ann Westby: born March 23rd, 1948; died December 20th, 2003