Technical Excellence
Northern Foods has a well-earned reputation for producing food to the highest quality and technical standards.
We have long been recognised as an industry leader in food safety standards, with our central laboratory services and site technical audit process accredited by the UK Accreditation Service to the highest international standards.
We work only with suppliers who can meet our technical standards. We are committed to animal welfare and have had our Farm Assurance Policy in place continuously since 1999.
What does the technical team do?
Our highly qualified technical team sets the standard for our food by ensuring our rigorous standards are maintained through all stages of the supply chain, from the raw materials to the finished products. If a problem is identified it can be dealt with quickly, as demonstrated when we identified aflatoxin in flour or lectin in kidney beans.
We maintain these standards by ensuring our raw materials conform to our detailed technical specifications, spot testing ingredients, checking foods on the production line and during transportation to our customers' sites and by, 'organoleptic evaluation' (in other words eating our foods).
Our central technical services function sets the company's policies in food safety and testing, ensuring compliance with these policies. Each site has their own dedicated technical team putting the policies into practice.
Our central microbiology team assures the absolute safety of all raw materials and finished products for consumption, by ensuring the absence of pathogens such as salmonella and listeria.
Our chemistry testing partners measure the nutritional quality of our foods such as levels of fat, salt and sugar.
We have an expert in food law to ensure our observance of the law is absolute. We also have an expert in environmental science to ensure our environmental stewardship is in line with best practice.
