Salsa Article North West Food

SALSA – A New Standard for Small and Medium Size Food Manufacturers and Producers – Could this scheme help your business and open up new markets? 

With growing concern about the impact on the environment from transporting foodstuffs around the world pressure is being placed on major buyers and retailers to source their products nearer to their outlets.  

With this in mind SALSA – Safe and Local Supplier Approval was launched by the following partnership:

• The British Retail Consortium (BRC)
• The National Farmers Union (NFU) 
• The British Hospitality Association (BHA)
• The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) 

Supporters include the Food Standards Agency, DEFRA, and major buyers:

Asda, Sainsbury’s, the Compass Group, Waitrose and the Co-Op among others. 

SALSA is a not –for- profit approval scheme for local food and drink manufacturers supplying products aimed at meeting the standards expected by national suppliers. 

In many instances smaller suppliers find that industry acceptable quality assurance standards to be over expensive or have disproportionate requirements.

SALSA does not compromise on Food Safety standards. It is not a watering down of standards but is designed to be user friendly. 

SALSA is operated by the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) on behalf of the joint venture. All auditors and mentors registered for the scheme are carefully selected by the IFST to ensure that have the necessary technical knowledge and experience.  

If you would like to learn more please take a look at the SALSA web site www.salsa.co.uk   or you can contact Richard Bradford-Knox a SALSA Mentor based in the North West at richard@rbkconsultants.co.uk