Quality and Food Safety

Quality and Food Safety

In the past year, we have integrated our Tredegar site within the scope of our ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification. Previously, the site had achieved British Retail Consortium – Global Food Standard certification and the necessary additional controls were implemented across the site to achieve ISO 9001. The standard was achieved in May 2010.

A.G. BARR maintained the Grade A status against the British Retail Consortium’s Global Food Standard across its manufacturing sites during 2010/11. This demonstrates our continuing commitment to food safety.

The ISO 9001 Quality Management System continues to provide a solid foundation on which to base our process control measures. Part of the investment at our Cumbernauld factory during 2010/11 has been in higher speed production capabilities, together with a new team of Quality Assurance Officers to monitor performance closely. This ensures that products are maintained within specification and helps minimise wastage.

Procurement

Ensuring continuity of supply of all essential materials to our factories is a key element in our business continuity planning. We have worked with our suppliers to enhance their resilience, for example, by testing and approving supplies from alternative sites. This option is not always available to us and alternative sources need to be sought and approved.

In 2010, A.G BARR achieved the prestigious Investors in People Bronze recognition.

This work has led to increased focus on our supplier audit programme. The introduction of new suppliers and new materials involves a comprehensive approval process. For new raw materials, we carry out laboratory comparison testing and, occasionally, consumer testing. For packaging materials, we carry out compatibility trials on our production lines and transit trials to ensure that the packaging performs throughout our supply chain.

We continue to require our suppliers to maintain the GM-free status of all our raw materials.