Food Safety Consulting     

Nicola Brook can add considerable value to your company as a part time consultant. The year 2016 marks her 30 years of experience in the South African food industry. With a corporate background and latterly involvement in smaller businesses, she can apply her knowledge to your specific needs.

Basic Hygiene requirements

Food Safety can be daunting for some companies who are pushed in this direction by their customers or the retailers and sometimes people do not know where to start. Nicola will guide you through the local regulations on hygiene for the food sector (R962) or the South African National Standard (SANS) 10049 detailing prerequisite programmes. This can take the form of mentoring someone within your company so an individual also benefits and becomes empowered to run the food safety system.

Hazard Analysis & Risk Matrix

A HACCP system depends on good hazard analysis. This can be difficult if an organisation lacks technical skills internally. With a background in Microbiology and years of experience, Nicola can add insight to the hazard analysis and work with your multi-disciplinary team to complete this vital step in the 12 stages of HACCP. This is a key component of SANS 10330 – the requirements for a HACCP system. Thereafter ongoing advice on implementation can be beneficial to meet timelines prior to certification.

Internal Auditing and Audit readiness

Nicola is a qualified Food Safety Management Systems Lead Auditor. As an independent consultant she is well placed to conduct internal audits as required by food safety management systems such as ISO 22000. This standard emphasises the need for internal auditors to be impartial and objective. She can also advise companies where gaps exist in their systems prior to undertaking annual retail or supplier audits.

Supplier Quality Assurance

With FSSC 22000 and other schemes that are part of the Global Food Safety Initiative, there is a greater emphasis on supplier quality assurance. This often requires audits of various suppliers. However not all companies have sufficient resources to conduct these audits or even consolidate all the documentation required from all the suppliers. Nicola has successfully consulted in this area and can conduct the audits on your behalf which also keeps them impartial from the procurement process.