Technical excellence

Northern Foods has a well-earned reputation for producing food to the highest quality and to the highest technical standards.

We have long been recognised as an industry leader in food safety standards with our central laboratory services and site technical audit processes accredited by the UK Accreditation Service to the highest international standards.

We work only with suppliers who can meet our long established respected technical standards. We are committed to animal welfare and have had our Farm Assurance Policy in place continuously since 1999.

What does Technical Services do?

Our highly qualified technical services team assures the quality and the safety of the food we produce. This is done by ensuring our rigorous standards are maintained through all stages of the supply chain from the raw materials we buy through to the finished products which leave our sites. If a problem is identified it can be dealt with fast, as demonstrated when we identified aflatoxin in flour. 

We maintain these standards by making sure the products we buy from our suppliers conform to our detailed technical specifications, by spot testing ingredients, by checking products on the production lines and during transportation to our customers’ sites and depots 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 and ensures compliance with these policies. Each site has their own dedicated technical team which put 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 to ensure they meet with product specifications.

We have an expert in food law to ensure our observance of food law is absolute and our standards are in line with best practice.

Our in-house environment expert, who has recently been appointed to chair a DEFRA Champions Group to address the government Food Industry Sustainability Strategy, sets the policy for the company on our impact on the environment. His role covers areas such as energy consumption and minimising waste.