Morrisons has signed up Loblaw’s food safety chief Andrew Clappen to the new position of corporate technical services director.

The retailer has also appointed Allison Taylor as loss prevention director to head up a new loss prevention unit. Taylor joins from Dixons.

The moves are part of Morrisons’ efforts to beef up its corporate assurance teams dealing with the many reputational issues affecting retailers.

Clappen was previously senior vice president for food safety, quality assurance and regulatory affairs at the Canadian retailer. He will report to group corporate services director Martyn Jones and be responsible for areas such as food safety, trading standards, and compliance issues. He replaces technical director Liam Pope, who is retiring after more than 25 years at Morrisons.

“These appointments are part of Morrisons ongoing development from a family business to a FTSE-50 company,” said Jones. “They will ensure we have the right people and processes in place to satisfy our external stakeholders.”