Our in-house auditing team consists of our Head of Food Safety and Compliance Rob Henry FIFST ACIEH, and James Procter, Supply Chain Auditor and Technical Support. The team are essential to EF-group as they are responsible for auditing our suppliers, and ensuring they have the correct accreditations, so we can be certain we are supplying safe, legal, and authentic products to our clients.
Meet Rob
Our Head of Food Safety and Compliance Rob Henry FIFST ACIEH, manages the team and has worked at EF-group for nine years. Before this, Rob worked in the food industry for over 30 years, as a chef both in and out of the army. Rob then moved on to work as a supplier of fresh produce and prepared fruit and vegetables for 20 years on Manchester wholesale market, before coming to EF-group initially as a category manager for fresh produce.
After noticing an opportunity to boost our profile amongst competitors, Rob took responsibility for gaining BRCGS Agents and Brokers certification, which we have now held for four years, currently holding the highest achievable grade for this certification. Rob’s role now as Head of Food Safety and Compliance, is to maintain this certification, along with the Red Tractor license, and our IS0’s 14001and 27001, so auditing of systems plays a large part in his day-to-day role.
Rob has also had a huge role to play in the development of our CaterCloud menu management platform, especially with nutritional support, making sure the platform exceeds the levels to meet all legislative requirements, and the needs of our clients in terms of support for costing and menu development.
Rob commented: “I really enjoy my role here at EF-group as it combines my passion for food, food safety and nutrition so every day is a school day, where I am able to learn something new from either our clients or our supply chain members.”
Rob currently holds a Level 4 certification in HACCP for Management (Codex Principles) and Food Safety Management for Manufacturing along with Level 3 certification in Auditing and Inspection and Allergens and he is also BRC Food Lead Auditor Trained.
Meet James
James Procter has recently joined EF-group and he provides support to Rob, as our Supply Chain Auditor and Technical Support. James’s background is primarily in food and hospitality with a business administration degree attained during this time. He has worked within kitchens and with food for around 12 years in a management position from the youthful age of twenty-two.
James uses his knowledge and experience to assist the EF supply chain with audit visits in relation to food safety, and the use of our next generation allergen, nutrition, menu planning and costing system, CaterCloud.
James said: “EF-group has provided me with confidence through personal management and providing the required training to not only improve my personal development, but also my knowledge to help with visits to suppliers of food and non-food.
The company offers so much opportunity to grow as an individual and opens different avenues to explore, which keeps the role exciting. In the short period of time, I have been with the business, I have visited a variety of suppliers with different product ranges and working environments. This has helped aid in my personal development and maintains EF-group’s continued compliance to the BRC Agents & Brokers Standard.”
James currently holds Level 3 certification in Food Safety Manufacturing, Auditing and Inspection skills and Allergens and he also holds a HACCP Level 2 in Food Safety.
Rob and James ensure the safety of our supply chain for our clients which enables us to continually win new business. With EF-group it is not just about getting the best price, it is also about the added value we provide on top of our industry-leading solutions, and this could be anything from our fantastic customer support teams, our BI reporting tools, and taking on the administrative burden for clients.
Most importantly, we supply quality goods to our clients from our network of accredited suppliers thanks to our in-house auditing team.
To find out more about our industry-leading solutions please contact our Sales Director, Steve Walker: stevewalker@ef-group.co.uk / 07837 212719.
