Julie North

Julie is director of Foodcom, a specialist food and health communications consultancy, in Nelson and has been a member of Food Writers NZ for many years. A registered nutritionist, Julie trained as a dietitian and began her career as a new graduate in food industry at Fonterra, forming a real love for understanding both food production, and consumer behaviour.

After a wonderful couple of years OE, eating delights from Vietnam, through India, Turkey and many places around Europe, Julie returned to the capital for a role with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). While food regulations may lack a little sex appeal, understanding our regulatory environment, government processes and the power of lobbying is hugely valuable when working in the area of food and health.

Then it was on to the city of sails for the role of nutrition manager with Heinz Wattie’s. 13 years of fabulous fun with wonderful colleagues and never a dull moment between infant formula, baby purées, salt in soup (less of it of course), Food in a Minute, and the benefits of glorious frozen vege.

During this time Julie joined the inaugural editorial advisory board of the Healthy Food Guide magazine. In 2022 Julie joined the board of the Food & Grocery Council and chairs the two regulatory committees: Food & Health and ‘Non-Food’ (think sunscreen and baby wipes).

After a year leading the food group at Network Communication, Julie moved back to her southern roots and established Foodcom. With a small team they feel privileged to work with some of New Zealand’s finest food producers. Foodcom now runs vegetables.co.nz , supports NZ Hops, Deer Industry NZ, NZ Pork, and many FMCG companies from large to small start ups. They also recently completed the 2022 survey of nutrition and health claims in market for MPI.

Julie is mum to two fast growing sport mad boys so spends a lot of time being taxi driver, cheer leader and canteen manager!