Glossary

HACCP

A food business is required by law to implement a site specific Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point or food safety management system. HACCP identifies food hazards and ensures appropriate control processes are in place.

Consultancy

Ashby Food Safety Ltd are happy to provide a quality consultancy service to your company on a range of issues such as cost effectiveness, customer services, hygiene and catering standards and health & safety.

Reviewing standards within your company, benchmarked against best practice & legislation, helps identify where good practices are in place. Identifying where non-conformances arise can allow you to address poor practices and develop and implement change.

Audit

An audit is a ‘snap shot’ of your premises on any given day and gives an overview of your operational practices and procedures, documentation, structure, equipment and premises. Ashby Food Safety Ltd benchmark against accepted guidelines, legislation and best practice and grade your premises accordingly. We also provide training in the form of an Internal Audit course which ensures your managers/staff have the skills and capacity to carry out internal audits.

Cook-chill

Food is prepared and cooked in the normal way and then packed into containers and cooled by blast chilling to 3°C in 90 minutes. Food is stored chilled <3°C for up to an additional four days. It is reheated immediately prior to service. It is essential that temperature of food is controlled effectively at all times. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) www.fsai.ie has published two Guidance Notes (No 15 & No 20) on cook chill

Quality

Ashby Food Safety Ltd is a quality assured company to ISO 9001:2000 standards. We can assist your company develop and reach those standards and also assist to achieving IS0 22000 for food safety management systems.

Nutritional

Our well being is based on how we eat and our nutritional intake during the day. The food pyramid indicates we should eat 5 portions of fruit & vegetables daily and keep fats and sugars to a minimum. We provide a training programme to raise awareness of the catering team to nutrition and reviewing menus is part of this course.

Training

Ashby Food Safety provide a range of courses ensuring staff development and meeting legislative/mandatory requirements remain to the forefront of your business.

Control Records & Documentation

Retaining paperwork on site can be difficult and takes time to manage however legislation dictates that records must be maintained to ensure traceability and show an effective management system is in place and key processes are monitored. Ashby Food Safety Ltd can show you how to establish an effective filing system and manage your documentation.

Accreditation

Contact Ashby Food Safety to assist you in reaching accreditation for your company eg food safety management systems ISO 22000, and

Quality standards ISO 9001:2000

Tender documentation

Contracting out of services has become increasing popular as businesses seek new ways of reducing operating costs. If you are considering contracting your catering and or support services to external contractors it is vital to ensure you plan in advance and provide site specific documentation for tendering purposes. Tender documentation ensures continuity in information from the supplier and makes it easier to determine the best price/cost effective contract and best service delivery. It is of course strongly recommended that legal advice be procured to ensure that any agreement concluded is tailored to the particular needs and requirements of the company. Ashby Food Safety Ltd is experienced in drawing up tendering documentation and providing consultancy in this regard. Please contact us for further information.

Implementation plan

Ashby Food Safety Ltd provides a service of reviewing your operation and delivering recommendations and targets to ensure departments reach their full potential in service delivery. We also assist in providing a support mechanism of direct input to aid the manager implement the action plan which arises from the review.

Project manager

Ashby Food Safety Ltd have expertise in project managing change within a department, working with key personnel on site, ensuring systems and procedures are developed and implemented. Please contact Lorraine to discuss any queries you may have.

Staff development

Investing in your staff pays dividends as statistics show that staff development ensures a happier, safer work force where crisis and accidents are reduced. Staff remain longer in your organisation and customer service is focussed.

Cost

It is important companies keep an eye to costs and ensuring your budget is realistic is important. Budgets give a business direction and this flows from specific objectives are set which give management and staff something tangible to aim for. A budget encourages cost awareness. Budgets are a concern for all staff. Everything done within the department has a cost factor and all staff can have a negative or positive effect on the financial performance.

Support Services

Ashby Food Safety Ltd can provide consultancy and operational mechanisms to companies for support services eg cleaning, hygiene, microbiological testing and analysis etc.

Job descriptions, roles and responsibilities

Job descriptions outline reporting lines within an organisation and detailed tasks and duties identified for that post. For staff to be effective in work their roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined from the start of employment and they must have an understanding of what is required of them. These responsibilities can also be linked into staff appraisals and KPI’s.