RSS News feed. http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/ 2012-05-20T05:40:53+00:00 text/html 2012-05-17T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ LP http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/santia-says-keep-your-machine-clean/ Since the introduction of the Sixth Edition of the British Retail Consortium’s Global Standard for food safety, there has been a much greater emphasis placed on the importance of keeping food factories and equipment clean. This can be easier said than done, because equipment involved in large scale food manufacture can often be large and complex. This can make it extremely difficult (not to say dangerous), to get into all the nooks and crannies and thoroughly clean every piece of kit. Don Meredith, Technical Director at Santia Consulting’s Food Safety Division, has recently discussed this problem, saying: “You look at a piece of kit and try to establish where the main problems are from a cleaning point of view and how easy it is to get into that machine and clean it properly. “One of the problems is that in many food factories, the equipment isn’t brand new. Quite a lot of equipment is ‘well established’ – it’s old. And many cleaning issues are inherited from the equipment that was bought in the past. “I’d like to hope that in five years time, I can walk up to a piece of equipment and have it stripped down within five minutes, rather than having to get engineers in to strip it down. It’s all about better design.” The solution to this problem is to get better training. This can help businesses recognise key inspection points, and to ensure that ongoing monitoring of cleaning takes place and make sure that the hygiene regime remains effective. Santia Food Safety Services delivers a range of its own tailor made consultative training courses that meet your specific priorities and business needs. Our experience shows that generic courses fail to identify and address the fundamental issues on food manufacturing sites and we believe that it is essential to understand and apply real world solutions to individual site requirements. Santia Food Safety Services courses are tailored to your specific needs by ensuring our training staff are fully briefed in advance and have gathered real world examples from your factory to illustrate and support the training material. The following 1 Day on-site training courses are offered based on this principle: Metal Detection Control and Verification of Packaging, Labeling and Coding Allergen Segregation and Practical Factory Management Management of Water Quality and Safety Internal Auditing Pest Prevention Foreign Body Prevention, Control and Detection Cleaning Standards With erisk, Santia’s online health and safety management system, the full range of disciplines relating to health and safety, including fire safety through to the management of asbestos, environmental control and occupational health are clearly presented on one screen. Further details can be found here. text/html 2012-05-17T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ MY http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/santia-launches-new-suite-of-food-safety-services/ A new suite of specialist food safety services - including a three tiered food accreditation audit scheme, food safety consultancy and training courses has been launched by one of the UK’s leading risk management consultancies. Santia, which specialises in accreditation, consulting, training and auditing across a range of key industry sectors, has restructured the food safety arm of its business to launch Santia Food Safety Services, a new range of services to help remove the burden of food safety management for its clients. Recognising that its customers all have different food safety management needs, Santia’s new food accreditation service will be available in three levels ranging from the Foundation Service, a basic core module which will ensure customers meet the local regulatory standards and provide a basic due diligence defence, through to the Advanced Service, which will allow customers to build their own compliance scheme using Santia’s enhanced erisk Management system and consultancy expertise. This new range of services will allow the company to centralise its extensive food safety expertise into one single team. Boasting a combined knowledge and experience of over 500 years, Santia will work across all key areas of the food supply chain – raw materials; production; packaging; storage and distribution; sales and consumption and disposal. As part of the new suite of food safety services, Santia has launched a new set of RSPH Accredited Food Safety Training Courses. Already the leading provider of NEBOSH and specialist health and safety training in the UK both direct and online, this move will see Santia extend its training capability into retail and catering for the first time and deliver a wide range of quality courses through its expert food safety trainers. Commenting on the launch of Santia Food Safety Services, Jane Hext, Chief Executive Officer of Santia Consulting Ltd, said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of this new suite of services and are confident that they will offer a range of benefits to both suppliers and consumers. “Food safety management is an important element of our consultancy offering here at Santia and since the new management team took over the business earlier this year, we have been carrying out a thorough review of the food safety market to ensure the services we were offering matched our customers’ needs. It is clear that the market has changed considerably in recent years and that a change of direction is needed. Many retailers have moved away from the industry standard accreditation services and have developed their own more arduous and relevant schemes that provide a real safety guarantee for their products. “The new products will allow us to combine our vast experience, not only in food accreditation but also in training and risk management, to provide a suite of specialist services designed very much with the customer in mind. The three tier approach to the Santia Food Safety Services will provide the necessary flexibility for our customers to match our services to their individual needs. “We feel certain that these new services will help the entire supply chain to increase sales, build consumer confidence and deliver brand protection to the food industry.” Don Meredith, Technical Director for Santia Food Safety Services, also commented: Santia Food Safety Services has the ability to apply its business expertise across a wide range of market sectors and can provide bespoke solutions to individual customer issues. Santia don’t just provide “off the shelf” courses, but are specialists in troubleshooting and bespoke solution providers, thus adding real value for our clients. Call Liz Meyrick-Brown at Santia today on 029 2026 6755. text/html 2012-05-15T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ MY http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/call-for-feedback-from-small-businesses-in-food-manufacturing/ The Government’s Focus on Enforcement campaign is now up and running, and until 5th June 2012 the campaign will be looking at enforcement that affects small businesses in food manufacturing. They are seeking views from those who work in the sector in order to improve the way regulators work with businesses. They are particularly interested to hear opinions on whether these enforcement activities might be better delivered by others, such as trade associations or other businesses; or whether there is scope for better coordination between regulators who currently enforce the law. The website for the scheme can be found here. Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said: “Focus on Enforcement gives small businesses in food manufacturing the chance to make a real difference to the way regulators visit, inspect and advise and enforce the law. “I want all small businesses involved in food manufacture, and those that advise and assist them, to visit the site and tell us their views.” They are also welcoming suggestions from businesses in other sectors on how enforcement could be improved. According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the best suggestions will guide Ministers in prioritising a series of reviews to identify the source of the problem and propose action. Melanie Leech, Director General of the Food and Drink Federation said: “I welcome this review. Effective regulation is vital for consumers to have confidence in our food and drink. But our smaller members consistently tell us that Government action to reduce the burden of regulation not only by making necessary regulation smarter but through a better enforcement and inspection regime could make a real difference to their ability to compete." Santia Food Safety Services delivers a range of its own tailor made consultative training courses that meet your specific priorities and business needs. Our experience shows that generic courses fail to identify and address the fundamental issues on food manufacturing sites and we believe that it is essential to understand and apply real world solutions to individual site requirements. Santia Food Safety Services courses are tailored to your specific needs by ensuring our training staff are fully briefed in advance and have gathered real world examples from your factory to illustrate and support the training material. The following 1 Day on-site training courses are offered based on this principle: Metal Detection Control and Verification of Packaging, Labeling and Coding Allergen Segregation and Practical Factory Management Management of Water Quality and Safety Internal Auditing Pest Prevention Foreign Body Prevention, Control and Detection Cleaning Standards With erisk, Santia’s online health and safety management system, the full range of disciplines relating to health and safety, including fire safety through to the management of asbestos, environmental control and occupational health are clearly presented on one screen. text/html 2012-05-10T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ MY http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/the-queens-diamond-jubilee-how-has-the-workplace-changed-in-60-years/ Just as today’s workplace is undergoing a revolution, great changes were taking place in the post-war austerity Britain of 60 years ago. At the start of the Queen’s reign, only 1 in 5 households had a washing machine, 1 in 10 a telephone, 1 in 20 a fridge. Almost nobody had central heating. Fewer than half of all households had a television with many people crowding around a shared set to watch the coronation. In the 1950’s there were 6 million fewer people in employment than there are today, and the number of women at work was 20% less. Although Great Britain has a tradition of health and safety regulation going back over 150 years (HM Factory Inspectorate was formed in 1833), as far as health and safety is concerned, the landmark event of the last 60 years is surely the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Even so, when Elizabeth II became Queen 60 years ago, it would be a further 22 years before the Act came into force. According to HSE statistics, fatal injuries to employees have fallen by 82% since 1974 with reported non-fatal injuries dropping by 76%. These figures are balanced with the fact that deaths from asbestos-related diseases continue to increase to this day, with today’s cases arising mainly from exposure to asbestos 30-40 years ago. Today, rapid technological advances have increased the scope to do more work from home, but this has had the effect of blurring the boundaries between work and non-work, and enabled more sophisticated monitoring and surveillance of employees. Although working conditions have generally improved in 60 years, the rates of work-related stress (and stress awareness) have increased in the latter decades of the Queen’s reign. This has led Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), to comment: “Whatever the future of work, the lesson of the past six decades is that increased productivity and prosperity isn’t enough to enhance the common good in the workplace or society in general. “With the threat of unemployment an underlying concern even during good times, people do not seem much happier about their working lives and many exhibit the symptoms of work-related stress.” Although general working conditions may have improved, do changes to personal and employer expectations (and an altered workload) mean that we are any better off overall? Let us know your thoughts. Santia Consulting Limited aims to be your partner of choice for health, safety & environmental risk management consultancy. We believe that our business is built on developing and maintaining valued relationships with you, our customers. We do this based on the belief that we deliver best in class solutions for all your risk management needs. text/html 2012-04-18T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ MY http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/santia-food-safety-services-training-courses/ Global Standard for Food Safety (Issue 6) – Third Party Auditor Provider: Santia (BRC Approved) Duration: 4 Days Cardiff Jun 18th – 21st RSPH Level 4 Award in HACCP Management for Food Manufacturing Provider: RSPH Duration: 5 Days Cardiff Oct 8th - 12th     text/html 2011-10-02T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ JS http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/best-before-dates-set-to-expire/ Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is expected to announce the change next month, which is also expected see the removal of "sell by" and "display until" labels and won’t involve any new legislation. She said recently: “I am dismayed so much food goes to waste. If the date labels are part of the problem, it’s one thing we should be able to improve.” The proposed changes aim to put more focus on "use by" dates in an attempt to reduce the 5.3 million tonnes of edible food and drink which is thrown away every year. Research by the supermarket chain Morrisons found that 55 per cent of people will throw away food if is past its best-before date, even though it is still safe to eat. According to waste-reduction organisation Wrap, 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots are discarded every day, as well as 440,000 ready meals, 5,500 whole chickens, 4.4 million apples, 5.1 million potatoes and 1.6 million bananas. They also say that a single household will throw away 8.3 million tons of food and drink in a year, and Wrap estimates that more than five million tons of this is still edible. The forthcoming guidance may see the introduction of new labels highlighting the health risks of leaving food on the shelf or in the fridge for long periods, with special warnings for products such as fish, prawns and eggs. It is envisaged that other foods such as bread and some vegetables, would carry much simpler labels. Further information is not yet available, but we will provide you with full details as soon as they become known. Meanwhile, high-tech solutions to the problem of identifying when food is going bad are currently being developed by scientists at Strathclyde University. Their ‘intelligent’ food wrapping which changes colour when the contents are going bad, could be on the shelves within two years. NB Certification provides organisations with an independent means of demonstrating to their customers and the public that their business activities comply with industry recognised standards. NB Certification is a UKAS accredited certification body that is accredited to EN45011, offering certification globally to suppliers in the retail sector. text/html 2011-10-02T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ JS http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/revised-global-standard-for-food-safety-to-be-published-by-brc/ Audits against Issue 6 will begin in January 2012 Internationally recognised as the market leaders, the BRC’s Global Standards set the benchmark for good manufacturing practices in food, packaging, consumer products and storage and distribution. Adhering to the Standards allows suppliers to show they are maintaining high standards of safety, quality and legal compliance - and gives customer confidence in their suppliers. Key features of the new Standard include: Increased emphasis on good manufacturing practices more detailed prescriptive requirements around key issues to improve consistency Increased emphasis on good manufacturing practices Outcome based statements of intent Enhanced unannounced audit scheme - making this more accessible New auditor training to ensure consistent BRC audit approach New enrolment process - providing a framework for food safety improvement NB Certification is a BRC recognised certification body and is an Approved Training Centre. We will shortly be announcing dates and venues for training courses on Issue 6 of the Global Standard for Food Safety.For further details and to be notified when courses become available, please contact us here. text/html 2011-10-02T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ JS http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/illegal-faults-on-fleet-vehicles-risk-corporate-manslaughter-charges/ Aside from breaking the law regarding vehicle roadworthiness, negligence about faults increases the risk of companies facing Corporate Manslaughter charges if the faults are a factor in a fatal accident. Based on RAC’s Duty of Care Inspection checks of fleet vehicles in Q1 2011, 36% failed for tyre maintenance and 20% for faulty lights – a more than two-fold and four-fold increase on respective failure rates in 2010. Ron Richards, senior partnership manager at RAC, says: “It always amazes me that of the thousands of fleet vehicles out on the road daily under the responsibility of particular individuals, those people are not checking their own vehicle on a regular basis and are rendering them illegal on the road. It could also be said that there’s a lack of communication in companies between managers responsible for fleet vehicles and their drivers, so the internal checks and balances are insufficient. “The current economic climate may mean that companies are reluctant to pay for their vehicles to be checked professionally and regularly, but this leaves them exposed to potential Corporate Manslaughter charges if the lack of maintenance on a car or van leads to a death on the road.” Key Actions All fleet operators should ensure that they have adequate maintenance arrangements to ensure that vehicles are safe and fit for use. A system of planned, preventative maintenance in accordance with manufacturers’ guidance should be in place. It should be noted that MOTs only check for basic defects, and should not be seen as guarantees of safety. Drivers should be made aware of how to carry out basic safety checks, and know how to ensure that vehicles do not exceed maximum load weights. Windscreen wipers need to be inspected regularly and replaced as necessary. All goods and equipment which are to be carried in a vehicle should be properly secured. text/html 2011-10-02T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/ JS http://www.santia-foodsafety.co.uk/what-we-do/news/cause-of-german-e-coli-outbreak-identified/ Over 2,000 people have been infected by enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) bacteria, many of whom have gone on to develop the potentially fatal haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the E. coli bacterium responsible for the outbreak is a new strain that has never been seen before. Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the WHO said that "this is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before" adding that the new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing". The agriculture minister for Lower Saxony, Gert Lindemann said: "Further evidence has emerged which points to a plant nursery in Uelzen as the source of the EHEC cases, or at least one of the sources. The nursery grows a wide variety of beansprouts from seeds imported from different countries." The “beansprouts” in question include adzuki, alfalfa, broccoli, peas, lentils and mung beans, all of which are grown in the nursery to be used in salads. The nursery is now closed, although officials say that it is not conclusively confirmed as the source of the outbreak. The confirmation of a German source of the outbreak would be potentially embarrassing for the country, as officials had previously suggested that Spanish cucumbers were responsible. The Spanish Prime Minister is now seeking compensation to cover economic losses. Last week saw Russia banning vegetable imports from the whole of the EU. Another source of confusion is around why women are disproportionately affected by this outbreak, as around three quarters of those infected are female. Bob Adak, head of the UK Health Protection Agency's food section, said: “We can't say with complete certainty why women have been disproportionately affected, but in previous outbreaks around the world associated with salad vegetables we have seen women and adults more severely affected than men and children, so it's possible that this could be an indicator of food preference.” On Saturday, German officials said there were signs that the outbreak may be slowing. The Food Standards Agency are issuing reminders of the importance of basic food hygiene practices when preparing food, and that fruits and vegetables should be washed. Peeling or cooking fruit and vegetables can also help to remove germs. Travellers to Germany should avoid eating certain raw salad products, especially in the north of the country, until further notice. In addition anyone returning from Germany with illness including bloody diarrhoea should seek urgent medical attention and make sure they mention their recent travel history. NB Certification provides organisations with an independent means of demonstrating to their customers and the public that their business activities comply with industry recognised standards. NB Certification is a UKAS accredited certification body that is accredited to EN45011, offering certification globally to suppliers in the retail sector.