WELCOME TO

1

Supporting Londons Food Sector Douglas
Brown Technical Adviser to The Food
Club www.thefoodclub.org.uk
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Introduction

• What we are and what we do
• Why the club was formed
• Our activities and where we operate
• Our membership
• Our ethnic diversity
• Our technical resources
• Our help line, guidance notes and web site
• Buffet and Networking

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What is The Food Club?

• The Food Club is an independent, self funded,
• support networking club for those who work in,
  or supply, Londons food sector.
• We are a self-help initiative and our aim is to
  encourage free trade between ourselves and others
  to enable all of us to successfully expand our
  businesses.

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Where do we operate?

• We are pan-London/Home Counties
• in our activities.
• Our membership comes from 32 different
• areas of London and 10 areas
• in the Home Counties

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What do we do?

• We meet in Wembley, on the first Thursday in
  every month from September to June.
• Guest speakers talk about subjects as diverse as
  Food Hygiene, HACCP, ISO 9001, the Packaging
  Waste Directive, the British Retail Consortium
  (BRC) standard etc.
• This is followed by a networking meal.

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Why we started the club

• In the early 1990s the food sector was
  experiencing difficult trading conditions.
• The small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
  were particularly badly hit.
• The club was set up on a self help basis in
  1996 and last year members transacted in excess
  of 500,000 between each other.

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Our Membership

• Food Manufacturers 42
• Food Importers 11
• Food Exporters 2
• Food Wholesalers/Distributors 7
• Caterers 5
• Suppliers to the food sector 33

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Ethnic Diversity

• About 40 of our membership are-
• African
• Afro-Caribbean
• Asian
• European, outside the EU

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Some of our Food Manufacturers

• Bacon and ham products
• Chilled ethnic ready meals
• Exotic tropical soft drinks
• Ice-creams, sorbets patisseries
• Organic bread cakes
• Samosas spring rolls
• Indian snacks and savouries

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Some of our Food Importers

• Belgium chocolates
• Dehydrated meat, poultry, egg vegetables
• Fresh and frozen seafood
• Herbs, pulses spices
• Indian sweets savouries
• Pasta and olive oil
• Truffles sun dried tomatoes

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Some of our Food Sector Suppliers

• Accountancy software
• Bar coding machinery
• Cleaning supplies
• Cold Stores/Refrigeration
• Energy saving advice
• Lubricants
• Packaging materials

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Who we work with

• Business Link
• Environmental Health Officers
• IFT IFST
• Park Royal Partnership
• The Food Trade Press
• The Forum of Private Business
• Trading Standards
• Universities Colleges with Food Technology

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Technical Support (1)

• (Provided by Eclipse Scientific Group)
• Advice on product labelling
• Chemical analysis
• Microbiological analysis
• Nutritional advice
• Shelf life testing

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Technical Support (2)

• (Provided by our Technical Consultants)
• British Retail Consortium (BRC)
• Factory design
• Food hygiene training
• HACCP and ISO 9000
• New product development
• Process design

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Technical Support (3)

• (Provided by our Technical Consultants)
• Bar coding advice
• Environmental issues
• IT and web site advice
• Marketing and market research
• Packaging concepts
• Packaging design

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Legal Support

• Reading University Food Law section
• Schoosmiths - The Food Law Unit

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Help Line(Examples of recent enquiries)

• Availability of cold stores in W London
• Fax Preference Service (FPS) information
• Licenses for mobile catering
• Names of insurance brokers
• Names of sign writers
• Patent advice

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Some of our Guidance Notes

• Countering the Threat of Bio-terrorism
• Crisis Management/Disaster Planning
• Food Sensitivity and Allergies
• Leasehold Business Premises
• Notes for Start Up Food Companies
• Pricing a New Food Product

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Some of our Recent Seminars

• Applying HACCP to a Food Process
• A Study of Food Sector Web Sites
• Problems with Building Insurance
• The Practical Application of ISO 9000

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Some of our Recent Talks

• An Insider View of the Food Standards Agency
• Closing the Gap on Food, Energy and Waste
• Quality and Profitability
• The Power of Branding
• The History of Food Adulteration
• What Pubs need from Food Suppliers

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Our Web Site

• www.thefoodclub.org.uk
• Classified advertisements
• Focusing on Food (short articles)
• Guidance Notes
• Live food sector news feed
• Meetings information
• Membership directory
• Over 100 food sector links

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Benefits of Membership

• Assistance from the Technical Team
• Free Help Line
• Guidance Notes
• Increased business through networking
• Keeping abreast of the regulations
• Listing on The Food Club web site
• Membership of The Gourmet Club

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Thank you for inviting me and I hope that
you found the talk informative.Our web site
www.thefoodclub.org.ukif you would like to visit
it.If you would like to contact us our Help
Line number is 020 8868 0113.Doug Brown,
Technical Adviser