QUALITY, SERVICE AND CIVILITY
Quality & food safety
Good meat starts with good farms, but it’s what happens next that keeps it safe. Here’s how we check, test and record everything we do, at our shop and at our cutting plant, so our customers, from families to hospitals, can buy from us with confidence.
Approvals and memberships
Inspected and approved
- FSA-approved cutting plant, UK 4834, with an FSA audit rating of Good
- Food hygiene rating 5 (very good) at our Longridge shop
- SALSA approved: Safe and Local Supplier Approval, independently audited
Members of
- Q Guild of Butchers (our Longridge shop)
- AIMS, the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers
- AHDB levy payers
How we check
Our food safety system is built on HACCP: we identify the risks at every step and control them. On top of our daily checks, we carry out a regular programme of testing, much of it by an independent UKAS-accredited laboratory.
Testing our products
- Microbiological sampling of our meat and products
- Meat content checks, so what’s on the label is in the pack
- DNA species testing, so beef is beef and lamb is lamb
- Shelf-life testing, to set safe use-by dates
Testing our premises
- Environmental swabbing of surfaces and equipment, including for Listeria
- Water sampling from our supply
- Allergen cleaning checks
Every day
- Temperatures checked and recorded, from delivery to dispatch
- Probes and scales calibrated
- Cleaning schedules signed off before production starts
Traceability and suppliers
- Every batch traceable from the farm or supplier to the customer
- Regular traceability and recall exercises
- Approved suppliers only: farm assured, or BRCGS or equivalent
- Professional pest control contract
Our people
- All our staff hold Level 2 training in food safety and in health and safety
- Our senior butchers and supervisors are trained to Level 3 in food safety, HACCP, and health and safety
- Our butchers learn the trade from people who know it: Roger is an Institute of Meat Master Butcher, and Austin is a Graduate Member of the Institute of Meat
- Health and hygiene rules for staff and visitors
Allergens
- All 14 allergens identified and controlled
- Allergen information on every label and on our website
- Specifications, nutrition and allergen information for catering customers on request
Buying for a business?
We can supply our certificates, product specifications, HACCP summary and test results for your due diligence and tenders.
Good to know
Religious slaughter
If you need meat to meet religious requirements, please contact us. Any religiously slaughtered meat we supply comes from approved slaughterhouses and accredited suppliers, in line with UK animal welfare law, the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015, and Food Standards Agency guidance. We hold copies of our suppliers’ current certificates and carry out regular traceability checks.
GM and irradiation
Based on our suppliers’ declarations and specifications, our products contain no genetically modified ingredients and have not been irradiated. If that ever changed, we would tell the customers affected straight away.
Looking after the environment
We deliver in reusable crates, use recyclable food-safe packaging where we can, cut packaging with larger pack sizes for catering, and work to reduce energy and water use across our site.
Ethical trading
We don’t knowingly buy from suppliers involved in exploitation, child labour, forced labour or unsafe working practices. We use the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code as our benchmark, and we check our suppliers meet our standards.