Provision of Quality, Food Safety & Continuous Improvement training and consultancy to the food industry

Providing effective leadership to assure the on-going production of high quality and safe food products that comply with product design and meet customer and consumer expectations. Playing a leadership role in the site’s strategy delivery, through deployment of key projects with focus on Quality and Food Safety and drives Quality mindset and behaviours deployment within the site. Leading and implementing the operational management of Quality Systems, Incidents, Change Management and Continuous Improvement.

Delivery of global Quality agenda specifically in the areas of specification management, traceability, cross border sourcing and customer quality. Ensuring consumer needs and expectations are linked in to Unilever objectives and that a balanced approach between satisfying customer needs and expectations and internal interests is in place. Development of Quality Standards and verification processes. Provision of expertise, leadership and support in Quality management and deep expertise areas for implementation of Quality standards, resolution of Quality issues across end-to-end Supply Chain

Provision of Hygiene and Hygienic Design support to the European cross category business (Foods plus Home and Personal Care). The main responsibilities of the role includeded: defining and implementing Regional Strategy for Manufacturing Hygiene in line with relevant Global strategies; operational day to day microbiological & hygienic design expertise; development of effective Regional Hygiene Networks, ensuring engagement of key stakeholders across the business; management of Unilever Europe Hygiene team; coordination and regional roll out and deployment of Global Microbiology and Manufacturing Hygiene requirements at sites; interpretation of Global requirements to provide a coordinated approach for Europe; development and roll out Regional Hygiene procedures for manufacturing sites; implementation of site sampling plans for raw materials, finished products, escalation procedures; cleaning and disinfection validation and verification; provision of expert advice on HACCP for manufacturing sites; co-ordination of proactive Hygienic Design assessments & resulting improvement plans.

Provision of Quality and Technical Support for Innovation projects that were implemented/launched in the UK. The main responsibilities for the role included: innovation Technical Project Leader; link between R&D and marketing / Marketing Sales Organisation community; acting as ‘consultant’ for wide range of quality and consumer safety issues in respect to product innovation; provision of link into other expert resources within quality community (internal/external); provisional suitability/capability assessment of manufacturing sites; member of design HACCP Teams; ensure compliance with Unilever directives and relevant legislation; ensuring compliance of pack / artwork / marketing material text with labelling guideliunes and legislation

Provision of Quality Support to UK Marketing Sales Organisation (MSO) and interface between MSO, Sourcing Units and Consumer Care Line for product quality matters. Main responsibilities for the role include: interface between MSO, SU and Co-packer QA teams; acting as ‘consultant’ for wide range of quality and consumer safety issues; innovation project support; provision of link into other expert resources within QSHE community (internal/external); ensuring compliance with Unilever directives and relevant legislation.

Provision of microbiological service to Unilever UK Sourcing Units, Innovation Centres and Head Office functions. Responsibilities included design and execution of microbiological projects; microbiological trouble shooting; provision of microbiological advice to business; deputy ISO17025 UKAS Quality Manager; hyginene audits of Sourcing Units; link to external microbiology community; implementation of training plans for laboratory team.

Development, organisation and delivery of a portfolio of 40 Quality and Food Safety related training courses offered by Leatherhead Food RA, plus provision of tailored training for clients as required.

Day to day running of laboratory and supervision of junior staff. Consultation work for clients including development and delivery of confidential research projects. Role also included factory trouble shooting, HACCP. GMP and hygiene audits of manufacturing units and investigation of microbiological problems.PublicationsCurtis, L.M., Patrick, M. and Blackburn, C de W. (1995) Survival of Campylobacter jejuni in foods and comparison with a predictive model. Letters in Applied Microbiology 21, 194-197.