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Quality Statements
Consistently First in Customer Satisfaction
Creating value for our customers and shareholders requires understanding customer needs and expectations. That is why we are committed to providing consistent quality products and services, as we believe:
- Quality creates value for our customers and shareholders.
- Quality is a key part of every job and business process at Tate & Lyle.
- Quality is key to customer preference.
- Quality is key to competitiveness.
Teamwork and clear focus coupled with measurement of results provides a culture for continuous improvement at Tate & Lyle. It is our mission to be:
'Consistently First in Customer Satisfaction'
Customer Feedback
We follow up customer satisfaction both by measuring our performance against key indicators (KPIs) and evaluating customer feedback. Recognizing the importance of consistently good service, we have implemented a standardized way to represent this performance data. This will not only enable us to gauge our performance comparatively but also by consolidating Group wide data, we will be able to tell our customers how we are performing for them across the globe.
We measure four key metrics; on time, in full, number of invoice errors and finally complaints relating to quality and service. These measures allow us to identify and target areas requiring improvement, rectify them and build more robust processes.
Food Safety Standards
We have defined Required Standards for 'Food Safety', they comprise:
- GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices)
- Handling, Storage And Delivery Of Raw Materials And Finished Goods
- HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)
- Calibration & Testing
- Security
- Traceability & Crisis Management
- Every Tate & Lyle location, must conform to these standards at all times
- To confirm all locations produce safe products, every location must be audited annually by a third-party auditing company
- These audits must be based upon the ISO9001:2000, BRC or NFPA-SAFE programmes and cover quality systems, GMP and HACCP programmes
Examples of Certified Food Safety Management Systems
NFPA -SAFE
The NFPA-SAFE (Supplier Audits for Food Excellence) programme, developed by the US National Food Processors Association, provides a comprehensive assessment of a company's entire food quality and safety system. The audits cover a supplier's practices in the areas of quality-related management responsibility, HACCP based food safety systems, production controls, quality management and regulatory systems. The NFPA-SAFE programme is mainly requested in the USA market.
BRC
The British Retail Consortium Global Standard for Food was developed in the UK to assist retailers in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the customer. It provides a common basis for the audit of companies supplying retail branded food products. The standard requires the implementation of HACCP, a documented and effective quality management system, control of factory environment standards, product, process and personnel. The GFSI recognizes equivalency between HACCP certification, BRC, EFSIS (European Food Safety Inspection Service) and IFS (International Food Standard). Some of our production units have obtained BRC certification upon specific request of key customers and retailers.
UFAS
The Universal Feed Assurance Scheme is a group of quality standards owned by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC). The purpose of the UFAS standards is to provide a set of principles to ensure the sourcing, production and supply of safe animal feeds to both farms and compounders. They form an important part of the quality-assured feed supply chain in view of its connection with the human food industry. UFAS auditors are accredited under the European standard, EN45011.
Tate & Lyle's five molasses terminals have been accredited to the UFAS – Compound Feeds standard since 1999. Tate & Lyle was the first molasses supplier to gain UFAS approval in the UK. The Feed Materials Assurance Scheme (FEMAS) covering production sites is another member of the UFAS 'family', which has been involved in a harmonization programme with similar standards from Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. Tate & Lyle's molasses trading and shipping department manages the global supply of molasses and has for many years been accredited to the Dutch 'GMP 13' standard. This ensures that all links in the supply chain hold the appropriate approval.
In a recent Press Release the AIC announced that in conjunction with other similar bodies in the European Feed Industry, the harmonization programme will culminate in a single 'International Feed Ingredient Standard' or 'IFIS'.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
Tate & Lyle's HACCP plan conforms to the guidelines published in Codex Alimentarius Food Hygiene Basic Texts. A trained HACCP team is in place and is responsible for developing, maintaining and modifying the HACCP plan and implementing and maintaining the HACCP system. The HACCP plan addresses the potential for hazards that are:
- Microbial
- Chemical
- Physical
The plan follows the seven principles of HACCP:
- Identify potential hazards and measures for their control
- Determine critical control points (CCP's)
- Establish limits which must be met to ensure each CCP is under control
- Establish a monitoring system
- Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a CCP is not under control
- Establish verification procedures to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively
- Establish documentation for procedures and records.
The HACCP plans are audited yearly to ensure they reflect current practices, are effective, implemented properly and documented correctly.HACCP is used to evaluate new products and processes for their impact on food safety.
Traceability and Incident Management
Documented traceability systems are in place. This includes mock recalls and operates on the one up, one down principle. Mock recalls, lot code forward and lot code backward, are conducted yearly. Traceability extends to:
- Raw Materials – are traceable into finished product.
- Packaging Materials – are traceable to the finished product.
- Finished Goods – are traceable through distribution to all customers.
All ingredients used by our Molasses business are of known origin, with cane molasses now covered by our unique Traceability Assured Purchasing Policy (TAPP). TAPP was developed and launched by Tate & Lyle Molasses (formerly known as United Molasses) in January 2000. TAPP provides our customers, with an auditable line of traceability through a TAPP passport certifying that rigorous quality controls have been implemented and recorded from the source of production to point of delivery to the customer. It goes beyond existing statutory or regulatory feed obligations by providing additional security through comprehensive procedures, guidelines and training for all links in the supply chain.
Incident Management
The T&L operating units apply a common response system for incident management. Each operating unit has trained teams, standard procedures and a 24/7 duty system in place. Customers have access to an emergency number to call on 24/7 assistance from our teams in case of incidents.
For further details on our quality systems, please contact your local customer service department, click here for link to Contact Us.