Providing food safety, quality and technical support to the food industry

CONTACT US

About Us

Our technical team have over 30 years technical experience, and a proven track record in food technical management. We have worked in the confectionery, flavours and seasonings, wild game and meat industries, covering abattoir (including trained Animal Welfare Officer) right through the process to packing and retail.

As we have been technical managers, we know how much time auditing, customer specifications, HACCP, complaint investigation and general technical queries can take out of your day – time when you could be in your factory ensuring the quality and safety of your product.

We have worked in both small, family run companies where technical is a one –person department, and large, multi-site corporate companies where it is a centrally managed department. Both have their challenges, and there is seldom a one size fits all solution – what works for a large multinational could be out of the question for a small business.

This is where we come in! Let us handle the technical side of your business so that you can concentrate on the day to day running of your factory, and the quality of your product. We can be accessible through the internet, email, Skype or phone, and we can visit your factory. We can be consultants for ad-hoc queries, or can be your virtual or on – site technical department, providing comprehensive technical service for your food business.

We can also advise start-up businesses on legislation and standards, or bring your site up to standard for customers or accreditation.

Auditing

We have experience of BRC standards going back to issue 2, and we specialise in getting sites up to BRC standard, with a high A grade success rate. We can take your site from complete beginner / start up through auditing and comprehensive gap analysis, support in implementation, training, support during the audit itself and post-audit implementation of any corrective actions.

If you are already a BRC accredited site, We can support you through changes of standard, and also to improve your grade. We can also fully prepare your site for new customer requirements and standards.

Let us carry out your pre-BRC, ISO or customer audits, to identify any weaknesses in plenty of time for your audit, and to help ensure success.

We can carry out standalone or scheduled monthly audits.

  • Pre-BRC procedural audits to the standard
  • Site audits to BRC/ISO/Customer standards.
  • Hygiene audits
  • Routine GMP/Fabric audits
  • Supplier auditing
  • Laundry auditing
  • Post – audit support – root cause analysis, implementation of corrective actions, training.

 

Specifications

As technical managers, we have spent many hours completing customer specifications, so we know that they can be a huge drain on your time! We can complete them for you. We have wide-ranging experience of customer specifications, including Hamilton Grant and FIND.

  • Specifications written to customer standards
  • Customer-specific specifications completed
  • Hamilton – Grant specifications completed
  • Able to advise on M&S FIND specifications
  • Ingredient validation
  • Maintenance of supplier specification systems
  • Wild game – Animal Welfare standard, ethical shooting, SSSI management.
  • Allergen control

Supplier management

We can help you to build and maintain supplier approval systems. We have experience of working with meat suppliers, ingredient supply and associated testing, and also experience of working with wild game suppliers, gamekeepers and estate managers.

  • Supplier approval by auditing
  • Maintenance of approved supplier lists
  • Writing and sending/maintenance of questionnaires and specifications
  • Ingredient validation
  • Traceability (field to fork)
  • Wild game – Adherence to British Association of Shooting and Conservation guidelines
  • Hygiene standards for dressing wild game
  • Laundry auditing
  • External warehouse/transport approval

HACCP

We have wide experience of building and maintaining HACCP systems in many different industries. We can help you to implement a system from scratch, or work with your product development team to ensure your new products comply with the law. Our consultants can lead your HACCP team, or be co-opted as required.

  • Hazard analysis of processes
  • Writing of process flows, risk analysis, HACCP plans
  • Support in implementing procedures
  • Policy and procedure writing / maintenance of Quality Management System
  • HACCP auditing
  • Routine maintenance of HACCP systems and documentation.
  • Allergen control

Complaint investigation

Complaints happen – it’s how you deal with them that sets you apart.

Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is vital in getting to the root cause of customer complaints. This can prevent future complaints, and therefore help your business and reputation to grow. We can tour your factory to help identify foreign bodies, work with suppliers or investigate traceability and recipes to identify root causes. We can also work with your staff to implement corrective action procedures, and carry out awareness training.

  • “Fresh pair of eyes” factory tour for complaint investigation.
  • Customer / supplier liaison
  • Experienced in dealing with the Food Standards Agency and Trading Standards.
  • Foreign body identification through microscopy
  • Root cause analysis
  • Support in implementation of corrective actions
  • Report/letter writing
  • Experienced in dealing with retailer complaints.

Contact Us

Phone: 07735 529 459
Email: vetechnicalservices@outlook.com
Address: 23 Tranmire Close, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 1BZ