Industry-leading technical relationships

We engage with experts from across the food industry to improve the way we work with our supplier and retailer partners. It is important to challenge ourselves to continually improve our performance by engaging with industry leading experts and research companies.

At the forefront of food borne microbiological research

We are committed to understanding emerging risks in our supply chain, which is why we work closely with food safety expert Dr Jeff Banks from Food Safety Assurance. Our work with Dr Banks is primarily centred around the management of food-borne pathogens and viruses within production, freezing and packing facilities.

In collaboration with Dr Banks, we have written guideline documents for our supplier partners on managing listeria risks in the factory environment, and viruses in the fruit supply chain. Based on risk, we undertake assessments at our vegetable, fruit, chips, and potato supplying sites, and provide guidance and support to continually improve their standards.

Continuous analysis and assessment across sites

We regularly visit and assess sites and give recommendations of how improvements can be made, both to the physical site and to working practices. We also highlight any good practices within each site and share these across our supply base to improve standards across entire estate.

Our approach is always collaborative, working with our supplier partners and experts to assess current practices and providing guidance to keep them up to date with current and emerging legislation, and new technology that will help drive standards forward.

Leading the way in agronomy research

We work with our experts across all product types. Anna Walton is Fullers agronomy and agricultural expert and advises the business on how climate and growing conditions is impacting on the crop performance. This enables us to make informed decisions on where and when we should procure the crop from to maximise the quality of the product being packed.

We also work closely with Dr Jeff Banks to review controls with field hygiene, irrigation water, and harvesting controls to ensure high quality agricultural standards are maintained.

Sharing the knowledge with our partners

We don’t keep our research and knowledge to ourselves. When we identify risks or challenges within our supply chain, we share the intelligence across the business, and with our customers and retail partners. We regularly hold forums and conferences with supplier partners and customers enabling collaboration and information sharing.