FMF Latest Articles

A recent energy strategy study commissioned by the FDF identified that:

• Refrigeration is a major energy user in many sub-sectors of the food and drink industry
• Around 2,000 sites in food and drink manufacturing use Refrigeration equipment
• Refrigeration is thought to offer significant potential for energy saving

The report (which targeted 3 key sectors) highlighted a number of important issues concerning refrigeration - compared to other big energy users like boilers etc. These were:

1. A lack of in-house and external energy efficiency expertise
2. A lack of metering and energy monitoring
3. Investment tends to be “lowest first cost” with little attention to efficiency (and therefore lifelong-cost)
4. R22 plants need replacing
5. CCA targets getting more stringent

How can your business reduce energy consumption and save money by cost effective monitoring of refrigeration plant and temperature controlled areas?

• You are wasting energy and money by operating at an incorrect temperature
• The equipment is working harder than it needs to.

Temperature logging can provide a total temperature profile for an area.

• The temperature is too low - YOU’RE WASTING ENERGY
• The temperatures are too high - YOU’RE PUTTING PRODUCT QUALITY AT RISK
• (The opposite risks/wastes obviously apply in a cooking environment)
• The defrost cycles are erratic and the equipment is not working properly

• Is the thermostat is set too low?
• Do staff working practices cause large temperature fluctuations?
• Are there mechanical or service problems with machinery?

All of these can and will have an effect on the energy use and operating efficiency and can often be easily corrected. But if you don’t monitor, you can’t fix it!

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got!

With rising fuel costs, isn’t it time that you started to investigate?

Payback on temperature logging systems is often less than 12 months.

We have all seen product recalls in the newspaper and thought “Glad that wasn’t my business”. The cost of associated with these incidents of product recall could cost companies many thousands of pounds and in some instances result in the closure of that business. It is not new for retailers to charge you for the pleasure of recalls or withdrawals from their shelves followed by full technical audits or your business, so what are you doing about it?

Give yourself a quick health check and determine if you are ensuring that you are preventing the problems in the first place and if the exception occurs, you are prepared.

How? Well:

• simply get your systems and controls in place (HACCP)
• verify they are working correctly through audits
• take appropriate action to ensure that you are continually improving
• ensure your staff are involved and carry out a mock product recall exercise that will ensure:
  • that your procedure is working properly
  • that in the unlikely event of a product recall all relevant personnel know what to do
  • the documentation that requires completing
  • who externally to your business needs to be informed
  • what do you do with the product
  • how long does it take?

If you ‘Get it Wrong’ the costs are high either from retailer charges, bad publicity or legal proceedings. Examples of those that have got it wrong are available on the Food Standards Agency Website at www.food.gov.uk/enforcement/alerts/. You can receive regular updates on what recalls are live by accessing this website and inputting your details.

Readers may be interested to know that Harper Adams University College has developed and is recruiting students for three new food industry related courses due to commence in September 2006. The courses are:

• BSc (Hons) Fresh Produce Management,
• BSc (Hons) Food Quality and Business Management, and
• BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies.

The BSc (Hons) Fresh Produce Management course has been developed in recognition of the growing importance of the fresh produce sector of the consumer food marketplace. This sector has shown year-on-year growth for many years and is lucrative for the supermarkets who achieve margins as high 50% on some categories of produce. The consumer demands for, and business incentives associated with fresh produce make it inevitable that this sector of the food supply system will continue to grow. Consequently, it demands specialist graduates who are able to fill positions in the production and post-harvest management of fresh produce, as well as in technical management and category management with multiple food retailers. The BSc (Hons) Fresh Produce Management course will provide such specialists.

Harper Adams's BSc (Hons) Food Quality and Business Management and BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies courses have been developed in direct response to the contact the University College has had with the food industry. For many years the food industry has expressed concern that it cannot recruit enough appropriately qualified graduates to meet its needs. Indeed, many food businesses are now recruiting in Eastern Europe and further afield - if they even remain in the UK.

In an attempt to understand better the problems faced by the food industry, research has been undertaken by Harper Adams which revealed that while food businesses could recruit into sales, marketing, HR and IT positions generally easily, positions in production/operations management, technical management, quality management, product development and food engineering were the hardest to fill. The new food industry courses will educate graduates for all of these positions, except food engineering.

The BSc (Hons) Food Quality and Business Management course has been designed to enable graduates to target positions mainly in food processing and manufacturing. Thus, the focus of the course is on food production, food quality and the management of food businesses. The BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies course has an orientation towards the consumer end of the food marketplace and should allow graduates to target positions in food manufacturing or retailing. Both courses will provide graduates who are multiskilled, with knowledge and abilities relevant to the technical and commercial realms of food businesses. They are also vocationally orientated and will provide graduates with hands-on abilities, who are able to apply themselves immediately at the point of employment. All three courses are four year sandwich degree courses with the placement year taken in year three, from summer to summer.

It is hoped that food businesses will recognise the commitment that Harper Adams is making with the development of these courses and the support the institution is working to provide to the food industry; so that in turn, increasing numbers of food businesses will reciprocate by, for example, providing:

• industrial placement opportunities for students,
• allowing visits to factories and fielding speakers.
• Scholarships would also be welcome.

Essentially, the food industry has a graduate recruitment problem.

Harper Adams is trying to help the food industry to resolve the problem…..

and the University College hopes to work more closely with food businesses in helping to meet its graduate needs, for mutual benefit.

If you require information about the new food courses and/or feel your company would be prepared to provide support for the courses and Harper Adams in its endeavours to support the food industry, please contact:

As part of the continuing commitment by Harper Adams University College to support the development of food manufacturing learning and knowledge transfer the College has announced the development of a new Food Studies Centre within the main College complex at Edgmond near Newport Shropshire.

The three stage development commenced in December 2005 and the first stage (funded by the University itself) will be completed in early May 2006.

• A food processing facility - essentially a product development kitchen - to be used in the education/training of students in the principles and practices of food product development and food preservation
• A large dry store for the storage of small scale food processing equipment
• A walk-in refrigerator
• Student changing room
• Office facilities for the academics supporting the Food Studies Centre

Stage 2 - dependent upon the availability of external funding will add a sensory evaluation and texture analysis laboratory to the Centre

Stage 3 - also subject to funding applications, will add a "product development scale" food processing and preservation hall.

The project is being managed by Ralph Early with the support of colleagues: Dr Annette Creedon, Dr Jim Monaghan, Sue Taylor and Lorna White; all of whom will be key academic users of the facility in achieving the educational and regional business support objectives associated with the centre.

Whilst funding is being sought from both academic sources and regional development resources (via AWM), Ralph is keen to discuss any options for partnership and cooperation with locally based food manufacturing and processing businesses.

To give readers an idea of the sorts of practical work that students and trainees can work on within this new facility, Ralph and his colleagues have compiled the following list (perhaps we should look forward to sampling the output at FMF meetings later this year!):

• Alcohol fermentation as a means of food preservation.
• Chemical preservation of foods.
• Evaporation of liquid foods.
• Examination of the influence of water activity on food spoilage. In-container sterilisation preservation of foods.
• Low temperature control as a means of food preservation.
• Modified atmosphere packing of salads.
• Organic acid fermentation as a means of food preservation.
• Preparation of pectin-acid gels for the manufacture of fruit preserves.
• Shelf-life assessment of commodity and formulated foods and salad products.

• Beer/lager production.
• Bread-making.
• Burger production.
• Cheese-making.
• Dairy dessert production.
• Principles of cheese-making.
• Salad processing.
• Sausage-making.
• Wine fermentation.
• Yogurt production.

• Beef burger/sausage formulation and production.
• Calcium reduction of skimmed milk.
• Cereal bar formulation and production.
• Dairy dessert design and production.
• Evaluation of starches and hydrocolloids.
• Food package design and innovation.
• Novel beverage formulation and production.
• Ready meal formulation and production.
• Rennet and acid casein production.

A food business, like any other business, must work effectively to provide the goods and services (the products) required by its customers if it is to survive. The principal point of agreement about what it is that the customers of food businesses want is the product specification. All food businesses must aim at fulfilling the requirements of specifications.

The role of the specification and its importance is of course reflected in numerous definitions of quality. For example, Philip B. Crosby stated that “Quality is conformance to requirements, not goodness”. By this he meant that quality is achieved when products meet customer requirements and that to ensure requirements are met a business must understand quality in objective terms.

The consumers of food products invariably assess them in subjective terms. That was a good pint! What a great meal! Tasty stuff, eh? In contrast, food businesses must be objective about their businesses and the provision of products, for objectivity is the only path to follow when it comes to being able to meet customer requirements. Specifications and contracts demand objectivity and for this reason they are written in precise terms. They are written in terms that define measurements about products. Remember, if quality cannot be measured it cannot be controlled. Objectivity demands measurement, and measurement allows control.

The actions that food businesses take in making and providing products affect the quality of the products. Many actions are taken to ensure that products meet customer requirements and they carry a cost burden. The actions taken to ensure that products conform to customer requirements generate costs that can be classified as the ‘Costs of Conformance’. These are the necessary costs of quality. At times, however, failures occur and products do not conform to specifications. The costs associated with the failure to make products to specification are the ‘Costs of Non-conformance’. These are the avoidable, or unnecessary costs of quality. The sum of the costs of conformance and the costs of non-conformance give the total cost of quality within a business, i.e., the Cost of Quality for a business. So,

I said earlier that to survive a business must fulfil its customers’ requirements, which means, for the most part, continuously providing products that meet specifications. A business may, however, always meet is customers’ requirements yet still lose out to competitors and even go out of business. Such circumstances can occur when the costs entailed in meeting requirements exceed those incurred by competitors who are also meeting the same requirements. When working to provide products to customers a food business must aim at eliminating the costs of non-conformance and reducing as far as possible the costs of conformance. Essentially, a food business must implement continual quality improvement processes that address quality cost issues.

In future articles I shall consider the three key categories of quality cost: failure costs, appraisal costs and prevention costs. I shall also reflect on what quality improvement actually means for food businesses and the importance of management in the survival and success of businesses. Indeed, I shall explore the concept that ‘there is no such thing as bad workers, only bad managers’ and shall relate this to ideas in quality cost management and quality improvement.

A number of new laws will come into effect in 2006. Here is a summary of the key changes due for 2006:

Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2005 comes into force 1 February 2006
This Order increases the limits applying to amounts awarded by employment tribunals and other amounts payable under employment legislation. The limit on the amount of the compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases by £1600 from £56,800 to £58,400.

The maximum amount of 'a week's pay' which is used when calculating termination payments increases by £10 per week from £280 to £290.

Standard rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay will increase from 2nd April 2006
The standard rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay will increase by £2.95 from £106.00 to £108.95 per week.

Rate of statutory sick pay will increase on 6 April 2006
The standard rate of statutory sick pay will be increased by £1.85 from £68.20 to £70.05 per week.

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2005 will come into force on 6 April 2006 (delayed from April 2005)
The updated TUPE regulations will provide more comprehensive coverage for transfers of service contracting operations such as cleaning, catering, security work and refuse collection; place a requirement on the transferor to notify the transferee of the employment liabilities that will be transferring; give more flexibility in the application of the Regulations in relation to the transfer of an insolvent business; and clarify the circumstances in which employers can make lawful transfer-related dismissals and negotiate transfer-related changes for 'economic, technical or organisational reasons'.

Commission for Racial Equality's revised Code of Practice comes into force on 6 April 2006
The Code outlines employers' legal obligations under the Race Relations Act 1976, and contains general advice on developing policies (call us - we can help) to safeguard against discrimination and harassment.

Regulations requiring employee consultation on changes to Occupational Pension Schemes comes into force on April 6th 2006
These ensure that employers of more than 150 employees will not be able to make major changes to their pension scheme without first consulting the scheme's members at least 60 days before the changes can be introduced. The regulations will apply to smaller employers in April 2007 (employers with more than 100 employees) and April 6, 2008 (employers with more than 50 employees)...

Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 come into force on 1st October 2006
The Regulations set a default retirement age of 65, but employers will be under a duty to consider requests to work beyond this age. Employers will only be able to set a retirement age below 65 if it can be shown to be appropriate and necessary (which in most cases will be highly unlikely!).

National minimum wage will increase on 1st October 2006
The main rate is set to rise from £5.05 to £5.35 per hour and the development rate from £4.25 to £4.45 per hour. These rates may change following advice from the Low Pay Commission in February 2006. See our newsletter nearer the time for confirmed rates.

Major Fire Reform Regulations
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order was due to come into effect from April. However, as the guidance documents supporting the Regulations have yet to be completed implementation will be delayed until probably October. In brief the reform will place a greater emphasis on fire prevention in non-domestic premises and will lead to the abolition of fire certificates, moving instead to a more "risk-based approach" to fire safety.

Corporate Manslaughter Law
New laws on corporate manslaughter will be introduced. They will create a new offence of corporate manslaughter, which would allow organisations to be prosecuted for management failures that lead to the deaths of employees and others. The new offence would apply when an individual has been killed because the senior management of an organisation has grossly failed to take reasonable care for the safety of employees or others. Uncapped fines could seriously damage the financial security of your business, not to mention its reputation.

There is of course much more than this happening in 2006 - but this is a summary of the key areas affecting most businesses.