Quality Policy

   1.    It is the policy of Central Foods Ltd to provide its customers and the final consumer with food products of the appropriate quality which conform fully to all relevant UK and EU legislation and meet any special requirements and specifications the company may lay down.

  2.   The company has considered the wide-ranging implications of the Food Safety Act 1990 and acknowledges the continuing need to give food safety and food integrity the highest priority. In achieving this, the Company further recognises the need to continue its commitment by:

a.    Establishing and maintaining a quality system that meets the requirements of the BRC Global Standard for Agents & Brokers. This shall be completed within the annual audit timescale.

b.    Monitoring, identifying and implementing changes brought about through technical and legal developments.

c.    Appreciating further the expectations of the customer with a view to improving product development and food safety in general.

d.    By developing food defence procedures to include fraud, substitution, adulteration and malicious contamination.

e.    Increasing the level of safety awareness of its suppliers through information and dissemination of knowledge.

f.     Minimising risks in respect of defective products in general circulation through the operation of crisis management plans.

g.    Evaluating the quality of food prior to sale, through testing, quality assurance controls and record keeping.

h.    Encouraging existing and new suppliers to review and improve standards.

i.      The Company will implement, maintain and review systems necessary for controlling the Safety of Food Products sourced by them.

j.      All exclusive lines and own brand products marketed by the Company will be sourced, specified, managed and marketed in such a manner to ensure they meet all legal, regulatory and safety requirements.

k.    The necessary quality and provenance standards of a product will be maintained always through validation of its supplier’s quality and sourcing control systems

  3.     The Company undertakes its responsibilities to its employees by providing the required training to undertake duties as required by the company.

Environmental Policy

Central Foods Ltd is committed to practical measures to ensure the environmental responsibilities of the Company are discharged.

The Company accepts its obligations, both legal and social, to employees and to other persons who may be affected by our activities.

This environmental policy embraces:

• A Health and Safety Policy for office staff and visitors
• Compliance with Packaging Waste Regulations 1997
• Audit of the Good Manufacturing Practices of our Suppliers to ensure they have adequate environmental control in their operations.

The Company will ensure all packaging of its own label products is the minimum necessary for physical protection, safety and delivery of its products to the point of use.

It should be noted that plastic is an excellent packaging solution for food products because:

-     It protects them from damage whilst in transit, contamination or damage by moisture, humidity, gases, microorganisms, insects and light.

-     It preserves products for longer, avoiding wastage.

-     It prevents spillages and keeps products together (reducing more waste).

-     It allows transportation over long distances (which encourages trade).

-     It saves space by allowing products to be stacked, also making transportation more efficient.

-     It displays important product information, such as nutritional content or allergen advice.

Frozen food has the added complication of moisture in the form of ice as a component part; this makes packaging in anything other than plastic more challenging.

Where feasible, recycled board/paper and environmentally friendly printing inks will be used for stationery and marketing materials.

In addition, we will demonstrate respect for our neighbours' environment in avoidance of undue noise, minimal commercial traffic entering the site, and the safe and prompt disposal of all waste materials.

Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

We are committed to corporate social responsibility, with a range of initiatives in place to ensure that our strategy delivers on all issues.

Product sourcing and supply

Central Foods sources and supplies products only from clients and suppliers who conform to our rigorous technical standards, including having a full HACCP due diligence system, a major QA body (such as BRC or EFSIS) recognition and a strict Anti-Slavery policy in place.

We are members of Sedex, the global membership organisation dedicated to empowering responsible supply chains and driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices.

As a company, we have achieved BRC Standard for Agents and Brokers – a global standard that reflects best practice on product safety, quality and operations. We also have Red Tractor accreditation for both our KaterKing Prime Pork Meatballs and KaterKing Cumberland-Style Ring Sausages, which provides added assurance that the food originates from a trustworthy and traceable source – signalling high standards of welfare, food safety and hygiene.

We have a dedicated technical team of four who continuously work to ensure all product information is up-to-date and fulfils current legislative requirements.

All product information, including nutritional data, is available online to registered members, and our technical team is also available to help with any additional queries that our customers may have.

We have been working with Coeliac UK since 2009 as part of our commitment to sourcing and supplying free-from foods and have held a CUK Caterer Training Workshop at our office to help improve awareness, understanding and catering for those with coeliac disease and those who require a gluten-free diet.

In line with EU legislation, in December 2014 we updated all of our product labels to meet the requirements of the Food Information for Consumers Regulations ruling.

We work closely with schools and universities to provide food products that are healthy and nutritious.

Palm Oil

Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the fruit of oil palm trees and used globally in a variety of different food products, as well as cosmetics, cleaning materials, animal feed and biofuel in many parts of the world (not the UK).

Central Foods is currently a Supply Chain Associate Member of the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) organisation, membership number 9-2941-19-000-00.  RSPO certified palm oil protects the environment and local communities who depend on farming palm oil for their livelihoods.

Because of the potential unregulated production of palm oil and the issues regarding the supply and demand of palm oil, we have procedures in place that ensure all our current palm oil-containing listed products, contain palm oil from RSPO certified sustainable sources only.

When developing new products, wherever possible we will attempt to replace or remove palm oil from the recipe.

Environment

As a responsible business, we try to mitigate our environmental impact wherever and whenever possible.

We have joined forces with a like-minded storage and distribution partner who operates the ‘greenest’ Euro 6 vehicles, uses rainwater in their refrigeration processes and has planted over 4,000 trees on their site. Working within the requirements of ISO 14001, they exceed all UK and international environmental legislation.

Health and Wellbeing

In a bid to help the environment and promote a healthy lifestyle, we actively encourage, where possible, our staff to cycle to work and/or to use vehicles with alternative fuel sources.

We have full car battery charging points available at our offices in Northampton.

We are proud to pay our staff – including external contracted staff – the ‘real’ living wage, recognising people should earn enough to live on, not just enough to ‘get by’, and became a Living Wage accredited employer in 2018.

Community

Central Foods is committed to being a responsible member of its local community.

We regularly support community events such as fêtes, fun days and activities for the elderly, and sponsor the monthly village newsletter near our office, as well as other community initiatives.

We regularly sponsor different charity organisations and are currently supporting the Bone Cancer Stamp Appeal.

Some 80% of our workforce live locally. The remainder comprise our sales team who are based throughout the UK and manage customers within their own geographical area to help minimise their mileage in the course of their work.

We also offer apprenticeships where we can and have already employed one on a full-time basis following completion of their training.

We are proud to be a family business and in 2017 Central Foods was named a Midlands finalist in the Family Business Awards run by Family Business United.

Anti-Slavery Policy

Central Foods Ltd is fully committed to ethical working practices, and regards inhumane conditions such as slavery, worker exploitation and human trafficking as totally unacceptable within the business or through the supply chain.

Central Foods, as a company, understands its responsibilities and has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery. We recognise that modern slavery, which can take many forms, is a crime, and we strive to act ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships, and to implement and enforce effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or within our supply chains.

Central Foods has, for a number of years, had in place ethical trading standards to which each of our suppliers is required to adhere. Our commitment to anti-slavery and human trafficking is incorporated within our Ethical Trading Policy and further strengthened with the introduction of our Modern Slavery Policy which applies to all employees, contractors and suppliers.

We are committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 (1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Further details of our Anti-Slavery policy are available upon request.

Ethical Trading Policy

Details of our Ethical Trading policy are available upon request.

Animal Welfare Policy

     1.  It is the Company’s policy to ensure, as much as is feasibly possible, all its suppliers and sub-suppliers of products of animal origin are reared, transported, stored/housed and slaughtered in accordance with all UK, EU and international laws and regulations with regard to animal welfare.

    2.  As a minimum requirement, the Company requires that all suppliers and sub-suppliers of products of animal origin adhere to all UK, EU and international laws and regulations with regard to animal welfare.

     3.  It is the Company’s policy that animal welfare standards, including the ‘5 Freedoms’, shall be supported at all times:

·    FREEDOM from hunger and thirst: by ready access to fresh water and diet to maintain health and vigour.

·    FREEDOM from discomfort: by providing an appropriate environment, including shelter, and a comfortable resting area.

·    FREEDOM from pain, injury or disease.

·    FREEDOM to express normal behaviour.

·    FREEDOM from fear and distress.

    4.  By purchasing meat through GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) approved supply schemes, we are confident, through their compliance with the GFSI scheme, that our suppliers manage the ‘5 Freedoms’ to acceptable levels.

Vegan Products Integrity Policy

Due to the possible adventitious presence of animal origin ingredients as a result of cross-contamination, despite all reasonable and practical systems having been put into place to eliminate this, we may have to include a ‘May contain’ advisory statement on our vegan products (eg. produced in a factory, which also handles milk).  These statements, only used when products are produced under such conditions, are in line with The Vegan Society’s standards, which can be viewed here.

Please note that Central Foods cannot and shall not be liable for any cross contamination issues that may occur during food preparation at a caterer’s site or once it has otherwise been delivered by Central Foods. 

Provision of Product Information/Images on this Website

Central Foods is able to provide you with product information (ingredients, allergen information and images) for use by you in your business. Such information is provided on the following basis:

1. As any product information and images provided to you by Central Foods will have been received by us from the manufacturer/supplier of the product, Central Foods is not able to (and does not) give any warranty as to product information received from product manufacturers or suppliers. Central Foods itself will always accurately transmit such information as it is received.
2. As the manufacturer/supplier could change the product ingredients/allergens at any time, Central Foods recommends you regularly check with us for up-to-date product information. You should refer to the packaging at all times.
3. You should not alter the product information in any way. However, should you choose to do so, Central Foods accepts no responsibility for any such alteration and you will undertake the warranty and risk associated with such action.
4. You agree to use the product information and images only for the purposes of your business.
5. Unless Central Foods agrees otherwise in writing you may not transfer, post or transmit any of the information received to anyone else (other than where you might be required to do so by law, including to final consumers of the products).
6. Should you employ a third party contractor, such as a Nutritionist, they must be aware of these terms.
7. Where you access and/or download product information from this website, you must comply (in addition) with any applicable website terms and conditions.
8. Please be aware there may be a gap/time lapse when product information is not available to Central Foods.

Online Correspondence (email/form mail)

The information contained within any email is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended for the addressee only. If you have received an email in error, please inform the sender and delete the email immediately. The contents of an email must not be disclosed or copied without the sender's consent.

The statements and opinions expressed in a message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the author's employer (the Company). The Company does not take any responsibility for the views of the author.

Although all incoming and outgoing messages are scanned for viruses, the Company will not be held responsible for any damage caused either directly or indirectly from an email or any attachments.

Privacy Policy

Details of our Privacy Policy are available upon request.

DISCLAIMER (or "Legal Notice"): Central Foods Ltd maintains this website (hereafter referred to as the "Site") for your information, education, and communication. Please feel free to browse the site. You may download material displayed on the site for non-commercial, personal use only, provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the materials. You may not, however, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, report, or use the contents of the site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio, and video without the written permission of Central Foods Ltd. Your access and use of the site is also subject to the following terms and conditions ("Terms and Conditions" – see below) and all applicable laws. By accessing and browsing the site, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the Terms and Conditions as they relate to your visit to the site.

Website Terms and Conditions

You should assume that everything you see or read on the site is copyrighted, unless otherwise noted, and may not be used except as provided in these Terms and Conditions or in the text on the site without the written permission of Central Foods Ltd. Central Foods Ltd neither warrants nor represents that your use of materials displayed on the site will not infringe rights of third parties not owned by or affiliated with Central Foods Ltd.

Whilst Central Foods Ltd uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information on the site, Central Foods Ltd makes no warranties or representations as to its accuracy. Central Foods Ltd assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content on the site and Central Foods Ltd shall have no liability for any information, instructions or responses given by it or its representatives.

Your use and browsing of the site is at your risk. Neither Central Foods Ltd nor any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering the site is liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages arising out of your access to, or use of, the site. Without limiting the foregoing, everything on the site is provided to you "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Please note that some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you. Check your local laws for any restrictions or limitations regarding the exclusion of implied warranties. Central Foods Ltd also assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable for any damages to, or viruses that may infect, your computer equipment or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing in the site or your downloading of any materials, data, text, images, video, or audio from the site.

Any communication or material you transmit to the site by electronic mail or otherwise, including any data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like, is, and will be treated as, non-confidential and non-proprietary. Anything you transmit or post may be used by Central Foods Ltd or its affiliates for any purpose, including but not limited to reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting. Furthermore, Central Foods Ltd is free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any communication you send to the site for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to developing, manufacturing and marketing products using such information.

Images of people or places displayed on the site are either the property of, or used with permission by, Central Foods Ltd. The use of these images by you, or anyone else authorised by you, is prohibited unless specifically permitted by these Terms and Conditions or specific permission provided elsewhere on the site. Any unauthorised use of the images may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes.

Central Foods Ltd has not reviewed all of the sites linked to the site and is not responsible for the contents of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to the site. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites is at your own risk.

Although Central Foods Ltd may from time to time monitor or review discussions, chats, postings, transmissions, bulletin boards, and the like on the site, Central Foods Ltd is under no obligation to do so and assumes no responsibility or liability arising from the content of any such locations nor for any error, defamation, libel, slander, omission, falsehood, obscenity, pornography, profanity, danger, or inaccuracy contained in any information contained within such locations on the site. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting any unlawful, threatening, libellous, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane materials or any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law. Central Foods Ltd will fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing Central Foods Ltd to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials.

Central Foods Ltd may, at any time, revise these terms and conditions by updating this posting. You are bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this page to review the current Terms and Conditions to which you are bound.

Website Cookies Policy

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data, normally stored in text files, that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Cookies are widely used to measure how you use the website, to enable websites to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies.

Persistent cookie: A persistent cookie does not expire at the end of the user session / visit. If the cookie remains, data can be sent back to the server every time a visitor visits the site. Persistent cookies allow for vital pieces of information, such as how the visitor first came to the website, to be recorded. Persistent cookies are also known as tracking cookies.

Session cookie: A session cookie / non-persistent cookie only lasts for the duration of the user session / visit. The cookie is deleted at the end of the session by the browser.

How are cookies used on our website?

We use cookies for several different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalised experience for both visitors and registered website users. Cookies enable certain functions of our website, provide analytics, store your preferences and enable advertisements delivery.

We use both session and persistent cookies on our website, along with different types of cookies to run our site. We may use essential cookies to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts.

Essential cookies for website functioning:

Cookie Name	Purpose	Scope and Expiry
.ASPXANONYMOUS	Configures anonymous identification for application authorisation. This is required to identify entities that are not authenticated when authorisation is required.	Persistent Varies
ASP.NET_SessionId	Identifies the user’s session on the server. This cookie expires on your device when you log out.	Session Varies
Language	Stores current language used on the site.	N/A
Softscriptcookie	Controls the ‘cookie settings’ plug-in that displays on the homepage allowing users to consent to the use of cookies.	Persistent 1 year

Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics software (Universal Analytics) to collect information about how you use centralfoods.co.uk. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.

Google Analytics stores information about:

• the pages you visit on centralfoods.co.uk
• how long you spend on each centralfoods.co.uk page
• how you got to the site
• what you click on whilst you’re visiting the site

We do not collect or store your personal information (for example your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

Google Analytics cookies:

Cookie Name	Purpose	Scope and Expiry
__utma	Tracks visitors. Collects data such as number of times a visitor has visited the site and when their first and last visits occurred.	Persistent 2 years
__utmb	Calculates visit length. Stores a time stamp of the exact moment a visitor enters our website. Used to calculate how long a website visit takes.	Persistent 30 minutes
__utmc	Works in tandem with cookie __utmb to calculate visit length. Stores a time stamp of the exact moment a visitor leaves our website.	Session
__utmt	Indicates the type of action, clicks, searches or custom variable on our website.	Persistent 10 minutes
__utmz	Helps track where visitors come from. Monitors the HTTP Referrer and notes where a visitor arrived from, with the referrer siloed into type (search engine (organic or cpc), direct, social and unaccounted). Also registers which keyword generated the visit plus geo-location data.	Persistent 6 months
_ga	Helps count how many people visit centralfoods.co.uk by tracking if you’ve visited before.	Persistent 2 years
1P_JAR CONSENT	Sets a unique ID to remember your preferences and other information such as website statistics and track conversion rates.	Persistent Varies

Google’s policies can be viewed at https://policies.google.com/technologies/types

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies here.

Videos on our homepage (YouTube)

We use YouTube to provide videos on the homepage of our site. YouTube sets cookies when you visit one of these pages.

YouTube cookies:

Cookie Name	Purpose	Scope and Expiry
YSC	Contains a unique identifier given to the site visitor when viewing a video. Allows tracking of visitor usage of YouTube videos across different websites.	Session
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	Counts the views of embedded YouTube videos.	Persistent 9 months
CONSENT	Used to host video content and track performance/reports. N/A GPS registers a unique ID on mobile devices to enable tracking based on geographical GPS location.	Session 1 day
PREF	Registers a unique ID to keep statistics of how the visitor uses YouTube videos across different websites.	Persistent  9 months

If you’d like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser.

Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all the features that we offer on our site, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display entirely.

How do I manage my cookie settings?

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings.

To find out more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, and how to manage and delete them, please visit: www.aboutcookies.org, www.allaboutcookies.org or https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/online/cookies/

Legal Information

Whilst every care is taken to ensure that the information on the Central Foods Ltd website is correct and up-to-date, Central Foods Ltd does not guarantee that the information on this website is accurate. It should be noted that information may, at times, be out of date. Central Foods Ltd excludes any liability, including that for negligence, for the content of this website or any downloads from it.

Central Foods Ltd will not be held responsible for any problems that arise from the use of this site and its links or from downloaded information that is available. Use of this site is at your own risk. Central Foods Ltd accepts no responsibility for the content and accuracy of the sites it links to, nor does it accept any liability in connection with any such sites or links.

Central Foods Ltd cannot ensure the exclusion of viruses from the website and no liability is accepted for viruses. You are, therefore, recommended to take all appropriate safeguards before downloading information from this site.

Any ideas or comments sent to Central Foods Ltd via the website shall become the property of Central Foods Ltd and, as such, can be used in any future developments. Central Foods Ltd holds the copyright over the entire content and links of this site.

If you are entering any personal information you are advised to refer to the Central Foods Ltd privacy policy.

Your use of this website and downloads from it, and the operation of these terms and conditions shall be governed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of your use of this website.

Once your details have been submitted it is assumed you agree with the terms of this statement.