Expertise in Food Safety, Health & Safety and Infectious Diseases

We love our clients’ enthusiasm for their businesses. We have seen our small scale artisans expand from market stallholders to multi-million pound operations and are proud still to be overseeing their food safety systems.

However, sometimes that ‘early days enthusiasm’ can detract attention from compliance. We have often been brought into a thriving business that has failed to prioritise food safety. Then, when a potential customer requires detailed information about their systems, the client realises that compromises in food safety may risk damaging everything they have worked for. Our team puts in systems that look after both food safety and workplace safety.

We have often seen systems break down if a healthy attitude to safety in management does not filter through to all departments. By building a relationship with your workforce, we encourage the food safety culture at the core of your management to run throughout your organisation.

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan is a vital part of your food safety management system. We have helped clients’ HACCP teams to write hundreds of plans in sectors as diverse as meat, fish, vegan chocolate and bakery industries. We ensure that HACCP plans are technically correct and designed to meet the standard your organisation has chosen. Our cheerful, experienced team helps you to feel confident and comfortable in this technically demanding field.

The need for vigilance in food safety has never been greater. Major fraud in the food distribution chain, as well as vulnerability to attacks within and from outside the business, mean new types of assessments are now helpful in protecting product, brand and reputation. We can help you with Threat Analysis Critical Control Points (TACCP) and Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Points (VACCP).

We at Moonlight Environmental are constantly horizon-scanning for dangers and we incorporate this knowledge into our strategic advice to businesses.

In order to fulfil your business’s potential to grow, you will need a proven standard of food safety and workplace safety. Whether you’re just finding your feet, or your business is on the threshold of supplying to larger operators, the experienced team at Moonlight Environmental will assist with certification. We explore the best certification options for you and your customers in order to comply with the law and beyond. We then help you to maintain that level.

Our particular expertise is in looking after food factories that produce product of animal origin. Moonlight Environmental is unrivalled in having both a dedicated international BRC auditor – Maria, our vet – and a SALSA auditor and mentor – Belinda. We are better able to put in compliant systems because we audit throughout the industry, so know systems inside out.

Thanks to our expert witness work, we are on the cutting edge of Court interpretations and rulings on compliance. We are therefore better able than most to inform our clients and implement correct policies and procedures.

Both Maria and Belinda have extensive national and international experience in enabling abattoirs, meat cutting and meat processing plants (producing minced meat, meat preparations and meat products) to achieve approval under EC853 2004. Your business is in safe hands.

We don’t just work with large businesses. We can lead a start-up business to blossom from producing food on a cottage scale to supplying as a household name through SALSA certification. We will assess how near you are to complying with the SALSA standard, then work with you until you are ready for an audit.

Our regular contact with you during the process of putting systems in place ensures your business keeps in line with the standard required. More than that, it means we develop lasting relationships. Most of our clients have been using our services for 5 to 10 years.

After an initial hand-holding phase, our role often goes on to provide more strategic support as businesses grow and employ individuals and then teams for quality management. We are constantly horizon-scanning on your behalf for legislative changes and potential threats to help you continue to trade legally and successfully.

Putting in place and maintaining robust health and safety is a legal requirement, as well as a moral imperative, for all businesses. It makes a more efficient workplace and protects you from damaging criminal and civil claims. We can help you devise a framework and culture that values compliance through policies, practice and training.

We offer both accredited and bespoke training and, thanks to our industry-wide expertise and motivational trainers, our results are second to none.

Moonlight Environmental is a registered training centre with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, offering CIEH certified courses in food safety and workplace safety from Introductory, through Foundation to Intermediate. These are often incorporated into our consultancy packages in support of our compliance and certification.

From hand wash training right up to board level strategy briefings, our sessions are finely tuned to be absorbing, motivational and fun. David Newsum is internationally recognised for the quality of training he delivers, particularly in the fields of food and workplace safety. We can swiftly put together tailored courses to meet your exact needs. We specialise in providing training at clients’ premises where we integrate theory with actual practice. The result – our training has a lasting impact for your employees and on your business.

Allergen control has come into very sharp focus over the last few years. A rise in the number of people with allergy, combined with new Food Information to Consumers Regulations, means food manufacturers are having to up their game.

At the same time, due to allergen issues, the incorrect labelling of pre-packed foods is the biggest cause of costly national and international recalls.

Allergen control within food factories is therefore something that needs time and attention to evaluate. We at Moonlight Environmental have the up-to-the-minute expertise to help businesses put in place all the necessary systems for control, and systems for verification to prove that those controls are effective. We also train staff in the systems implemented. Our expertise in this field was recently commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, when David and Belinda delivered allergen enforcement training to EHOs and TSOs countrywide.

Please see our Expert Witness page.

Imagine the perfect arena in which to produce your food. One where safety, efficiency and workflow are optimised and space is used to greatest effect.

At Moonlight Environmental we are uniquely placed with our construction partners to design optimum food factories. We provide the whole service from concept to delivery of the finished factory, including necessary certification such as approval under EC853 (FSA / EHO requirements), BRC, SALSA etc.

Our food factory design services are unique because of the expertise of our consultants. Maria, our in-house vet, is a BRC auditor and former FSA Official Veterinary Officer. Belinda is an expert witness and SALSA auditor and mentor, with many years’ experience as an EHO. Between them they have inspected hundreds of food factories throughout the world and can bring the best design ideas, as well as knowledge of what to avoid, to a construction or refurbishment project.

Belinda says ‘One thing businesses get wrong is not investing enough in the planning phase of a project. Compliance and sustainability need to be thought through in detail. Without them, factories often pay a heavy price in terms of subsequent add-ons and difficulties achieving certification first time.’ Such wisdom means that your business has the room to expand. Your ideas and our future-proofing are a winning combination.