Oxoid food safety winners announced

Young’s Seafood, Grimsby, has been awarded £1,000 first prize in the 2006/2007 Oxoid Food Safety Team of the Year Awards.

Microbiology firm Oxoid said the seafood supplier’s entry demonstrated laboratory efficiencies that led to labour savings and cost reductions. It also increased environmental awareness and improved hygiene standards in the processing environment.

“We were impressed by the teamwork demonstrated by Young’s Seafood that led to the instigation of its Efficiencies Improvement Programme,” said Cheryl Mooney, applications manager, food and industrial markets at Oxoid and chair of the judging panel.

Mooney praised Young’s Seafood’s “revised, more efficient working practices within the laboratory and the training initiatives devised for factory operatives and QA staff”. She said the work had produced several benefits, including improvements in quality, enhanced morale and better staff retention.

Second prize was awarded to the team at Westbury Dairies, based in Westbury, Wiltshire. The company impressed the judges by becoming the first ISO 22000 accredited dairy in the world. Despite a reduced workforce, improvements in laboratory efficiency were demonstrated by the processor and staff motivation was high, said the judges.

The food safety team at Cadbury Trebor Bassett’s laboratory in Chirk, north Wales, received third prize. The judges congratulated the team for responding positively to well-publicised difficulties within the business. Good teamwork and changes to working practices had resulted in measurable benefits, such as the achievement of a Grade A BRC Accreditation in May 2007, said the panel.

Westward Laboratories in Callington, Cornwall, received a Highly Commended award for excellence in customer service and commitment to continuous improvement.

The winners will receive their awards later in the year at a ceremony to be held in the UK.