Reaseheath Food Centre have now launched their exciting new ‘Driver Training Course’
Drivers of food related ingredients should be aware of the roles and responsibilities within the food safety of their load. These courses contribute to the statutory DCPC training and are held here at the college in Nantwich, Cheshire.
We are a fully accredited centre for The Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training “JAUPT”.
As always the delegate feedback from this weeks ‘Dairy Science Course’ was first class.
One of the delegates, Robert Dring of Tetra Pak Sweden, said;
“This has by far been the best training course I have been on during my 14 years as a field engineer. Thank you.”
All six delegates passed their assessments with flying colours and received their certificates.
Contact us now to book yours!
Reaseheath College’s Food Centre in Cheshire has gained a globally recognised Grade A certification for food safety from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) for the third successive year. The college remains the first and only educational institution in Britain to achieve the accreditation for BRC issue 7, the latest benchmark for best practice in food manufacture.
The quality mark was approved after an exacting repeat audit showed that Reaseheath’s food manufacturing systems continue to operate under highly controlled conditions and to the highest industry standards. Areas inspected included food safety procedures, cleanliness of the facility, knowledge of staff and students and the traceability of food ingredients.
The successful bid was led by Reaseheath’s newly appointed Quality Assurance Manager Shaun Whitlock, who said: “Any changes to the BRC standards are a difficult time for industry, however the college has taken this head on and achieved the results we wanted. Changes to the standard include stricter supplier management, labelling control and prevention of food fraud.
“The team has worked extremely hard to ensure we can deliver the best possible service to our students and local businesses and should be congratulated on their success. Thanks to their hard work, we can ensure the ever changing standards followed within industry are replicated in a controlled learning environment.”
As well as Shaun’s appointment, the Food Centre’s team has been reinvigorated with the promotion of Nick Blakemore to Food Centre Manager from Curriculum Manager, and the recruitment of Emily Fisher as the new Commercial Development Manager. Emily, who has previously been employed by several blue chip companies, is working closely with national and international businesses on food trials and training. Julie Bent has been promoted to Commercial Development Co-Ordinator.
There have also been some major renovations to the bakery to allow the introduction of a Bakery and Patisserie foundation degree.
Reaseheath’s £7 million Food Centre was opened in 2011 and remains one of the best equipped food processing teaching and practical facilities in Europe.
Built to exacting standards and staffed by a team of specialist food technologists recruited directly from the food industry, the centre has dairy processing halls and production areas for bakery, cake design and confectionery. Many local, national and international food and drink manufacturers use the facilities for new product development, technical advice or staff training. These partnerships lead to work experience and job opportunities for the college’s food technology students. The college also offers training sessions to members of the public which include cake decoration, HACCP and food safety.
NEW FOR 2016!
Call Emily Fisher – Commercial Development Manager to discuss – 07772 732416
Reaseheath College’s Food Centre has gained an internationally recognised Grade A certification from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) for the second year running.
The Nantwich College’s remains the first and only educational institution in Britain to achieve Grade A at BRC6, the highest possible standard for food safety.
The quality mark was approved after a repeat audit showed that Reaseheath’s food manufacturing systems continue to operate under highly controlled conditions and to the highest industry standards. Areas inspected included hygiene procedures, cleanliness of the facility and the traceability of food ingredients.
The accolade is particularly prestigious as many good businesses strive, but never achieve, this ultimate standard. The successful bid was led by Reaseheath’s Technical Manager Katharina Vogt.
Food Centre Head Toni-Anne Harrison said: “This has been a second tremendous achievement and we are all very proud. Although we gained BRC6 at Grade A last year, it does not guarantee a repeat result. This achievement was due to the continuing hard work and dedication put in by the food team and illustrates how an understanding of industry procedures and practices underpin everything that we do in the Food Centre. It can only increase our credence and standing within the food industry and to increased exposure to blue chip companies”.
Reaseheath’s £7 million Food Centre was opened in 2011 and is one of the best equipped food processing teaching and practical facilities in Europe.
Built to exacting standards and staffed by a team of specialist food technologists, the Centre has dairy processing halls and production for butchery, bakery and confectionery. Many local, national and international food and drink manufacturers use our facilities for new product development or staff training. These partnerships lead to work experience and job opportunities for the College’s food technology students.
What a fantastic end to 2014 and already its looking to be a successful start to 2015!
In December Reaseheath Food Centre opened its doors to a selection of food manufacturers and producers. The event was designed to educate and showcase what fantastic facitilites and services we provide. However, instead of blowing our own trumpet, we had guest speakers to do that for us.
Tetra-Pak wowed all with their equipment demonstration of making processed cheese which tasted delicious. Chris Edwards, Senior HR Consultant, from Arla told our guests about funding and the service Reaseheath have provided for the global dairy processors over the past few years. The afternoon was nicely round off with a talk from Bill Jermey from FDQ and our fantastic EDEN students talking about the EDEN programme.
A great afternoon was had by all and the feedback has been fantastic. Another successful day at Reaseheath Food Centre.
Last month James Blakemore and myself (Martin Anderson) attended the International Food Tec India trade show in Mumbai, India, as part of a UK Trade and Investment delegation, organised by Hull and Humberside Chamber of Commerce.
The purpose of our visit was to explore the potential for collaboration with one of the world’s biggest dairy sectors. As it emerges as an economic superpower, India still finds itself with a very localised dairy market with 85% ‘free milk’ carried in open vessels to be used immediately or boiled at home rather than travelling through a vertically integrated supply chain to a retailer as we might see in the UK.
The exhibition had international pavilions from China, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea, The Netherlands, Turkey and the UK. A total of 466 exhibitors from over 30 countries presented their products and technologies with 12,007 visitors attending the show over the three days.
The Reaseheath stand received a lot of interest from food and drink businesses from across the Indian sub-continent. There was particular interest in the new Dairy Industry Skills course (DISC) and the EDEN Foundation degree in Dairy Technology with over 30 new international contacts made, including new and existing dairy businesses, potential students and academic partnerships with Indian educational institutions.
We were made to feel incredibly welcome by all of the people we interacted with and it is apparent that the opportunities for sharing knowledge, developing and delivering consultancy, training and education in both India and the UK is immense.
The trade show seminars were also a great source for knowledge sharing. ‘Future of Milk Based Nutraceuticals’, organised by Indian Dairy Association (West Zone), welcomed as its Guests of Honour Prof. Dr. G. D. Yadav, Vice Chancellor and Dr. Mrs. Smita Lele, AG Registrar, ICT (Institute of Chemical Technology) and Mr. M. D. Deore, Director – Toxicology, Johnson & Johnson. Eminent speakers included Mr. A. K. Bayati, GCMMF and Mr. Allan Brunn, Alfa Laval.
‘Packaging Innovations in Pharmaceutical industry’ organised by India Pharma Machinery Manufacturers Association (IPMMA) witnessed delegates like Ms. Neelam Lalwani, General Manager – Packaging, Sun Pharma Industries Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Sanjeev Khandelwal, Director Renewable Packaging, Stora Enso India and Mr. Chander Mohan Negi, Asst. General Manager, Akumentis Healthcare Ltd., among others.
We attended a business meeting the day after the trade show with a company that is setting up a
brand new dairy in the Mumbai region. They were really interested in looking at how they might involve training and education for India’s dairy technologists within their new build project and how we might work in partnership to grow programmes like EDEN and DISC to meet the needs of the changing Indian dairy market.
We had an amazing time in one of the world’s busiest cities (21 million people!), sampled some amazing cuisine and travelled in
some of the scariest traffic known to man. I somehow managed to contract Dengue fever and Salmonella at the end of the trip, but it didn’t detract from the success of this international trade mission and now I’m feeling better I’m happy to be a walking case study for my own food safety lectures!
We hope to return soon and to accept visitors from India to Reaseheath in the near future.
Martin Anderson
Lecturer in Food Science
5 Universities from across the country arrived for the food centre’s first ever University Open Day. The afternoon started with a welcome from Head of Department, Toni-Anne Harrison and this was seamlessly followed with a presentation from Lecturer, Martin Anderson. Martin showcased what Reaseheath College can offer other educational providers from the team of industry experts to state of the art facilities and assistance in research projects. The visitors received a personalised tour of the processing halls to show them the range of equipment and potential use for their students.
All Universities were positive and engaged throughout the event. Lillie Pragnell, Business Co-ordinator for the Food Centre said ‘the afternoon ran smoothly and the feedback received was fantastic. I hope the event has been worthwhile and would like to see potential growth in this direction moving forward’.
Ten entries from a total of 120 made it through to the final of Reaseheath’s Year 9 Schools Bake Off Competition. Held in our specialist Food Centre, contestants had to bake a cake or pastry with a royal theme.
The judging panel, made up of professional chef Brian Mellor, Cheshire WI judge Mary Hignett and Peter Wright, Chairman of sponsors the Wrights Pies Food Group, were looking for originality, presentation and taste.
Overall winner was Charlotte Parton, 13, from the Grove School, Market Drayton, who won a £100 cash prize plus two iPads for her school. Charlotte, a keen home baker, said: “The competition was brilliant fun and I got great feedback from the judges. It’s made me even keener to look at food science as a career.”
By Nicholas Robinson, taken from FoodManufacture.co.uk
A critical skills shortage in the UK dairy industry is starting to be countered by dairy companies working together towards a common cause, according to senior HR consultant at Arla Foods Chris Edwards.
Project Eden initially involved 6 major dairy companies in the UK (Arla Foods, Dairy Crest, First Milk, Milk Link, Müller, Robert Wiseman Dairies) working together to develop a bespoke Foundation Degree in Dairy Technology that could be delivered in the brand new training facility.
Listen to this podcast to learn more about the training Project Eden delivers.