Marketplace
'Building Trust with Our Colleagues, Customers & Consumers'
Food Safety, Food First
The Greencore Way is to be uncompromising in the standards of food safety that our manufacturing sites employ.
In addition to central resources, Greencore has a team of dedicated technical experts at all of its facilities in the UK and the US to ensure food safety and regulatory compliance.
Greencore spends a huge amount of time auditing its facilities for both internal and external purposes. In FY12 the following number of internal and external audits took place at Greencore’s facilities:
Internal Audits 11,428
External Audits 155
Customer Taste Panels 1,502
Internal Taste Panels 68,057
Supplier Approvals 1,051
Greencore is working towards full Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) status across all of its facilities largely through adopting British Retail Consortium (BRC) or Safe Quality Foods (SQF) standards.
All of our facilities in the UK and our Newburyport facility in the US have achieved and retained their BRC Grade ‘A’ accreditation. Our recently acquired facilities in Jacksonville, Salt Lake City and Chicago in the US are all SQF accredited. We are also working towards SQF accreditation at our remaining facilities in the US, in Fredericksburg and Brockton, over the coming months.
A critical element of the Group’s Food First programme is around food safety and its objective to give Greencore a competitive advantage in this area amongst its peers and for it to become the supplier of choice amongst our customers.
Health & Nutrition
The Greencore Way is to use our knowledge and expertise to offer healthy alternatives in each of the categories in which we operate. We aim to support, work towards and, where possible, beat government targets for health and nutrition. We also aim to be transparent in how we report these targets.
Greencore plays a leading and responsible role in supporting the health and well-being of the end consumer and our product development teams work closely with our customers to ensure that appropriate health and nutritional targets and objectives are set.
Greencore has a dedicated company nutritionist who, in addition to working with our product development teams, works in conjunction with relevant government and industry bodies, such as the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Department of Health, the Chilled Foods Association and the IGD (Institute for Grocers & Distributors) in the UK.
Earlier in 2012, Greencore signed up to the UK’s Responsibility Deal on Public Health, committing to the following pledges:
- Salt Reduction – 84% of Greencore’s products in the UK meet the FSA’s 2012 salt reduction target
- Artificial Trans Fat Removal – No hydrogenated vegetable oils, industrially added trans fats or genetically modified organisms are used in Greencore’s UK retail products.
Greencore’s Food First program also has a ‘health’ pillar, which supports and drives the role of healthy food. This is becoming increasingly important in both the US and the UK.
Ethical Supply Chain
The Greencore Way is to operate to recognised ethical standards throughout our business and to extend to ensure compliance in the supply chain.
Greencore is a long standing member of SEDEX in the UK, an organisation which monitors the ethical performance of Greencore and its suppliers.
Greencore also conducts its own ethical self audit across its sites, as well as being subject to its customer’s ethical audits. In addition this year, we have extended our assessments of ethical practices by rolling out SMETA (SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audits) across our business.
We also work with our customers to meet the highest standards of animal welfare, for example all of the eggs at Greencore’s facilities in the UK meet the EU Egg Regulations that were introduced in January 2012.
Supporting the Broader Industry
We also work with our customers to meet the highest standards of animal welfare, for example all of the eggs at Greencore’s facilities in the UK meet the EU Egg Regulations that were introduced in January 2012.
Supporting the Broader Industry
The Greencore Way is to use our skills, knowledge and expertise to support the advancement of the food manufacturing industry.
As a leading food manufacturer Greencore plays a fully active role in participating in industry working groups and committees, with the aim of supporting the development of the industry.
Greencore works closely with the IGD in the UK on a number of committees, including the Policies Initiative Council, the Industry Sustainability Group, the Industry Nutritional Strategy Group, Technical Leadership Forum and the Communities Working Group.
Greencore also works with the Chilled Foods Association in the UK on its main Board and holds the vice chair role. Our Group Environment Manager also sits on its Technical Committee and Sustainable Development Working Group.
Furthermore Greencore is a member of the East Midlands Platform on Food, Physical Activity & Health in the UK.
We also support the Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network in the UK aimed at developing links between academia and industry.
We also support the Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network in the UK aimed at developing links between academia and industry.
