Services for Food and Drink Businesses

Project HELIX provides funded technical and commercial support to eligible Welsh food and drink companies.

HELIX support is flexible and tailored to the individual needs of your business. Companies are able to access ZERO2FIVE's facilities and the expertise of our technical, academic and business support teams.

Project HELIX is a pan-Wales initiative delivered by Food Innovation Wales. For more information about the project, please visit here.  Also, please see our frequently asked questions about Project HELIX support.

Project HELIX is funded by the Welsh Government.

 Here at ZERO2FIVE we can support food and drink businesses to be more sustainable in a number of key areas:

• Waste mapping – We can help you identify waste control points in your manufacturing processes, from food to packaging and energy. We can help you implement tools to measure and reduce waste as well as support your company to improve its waste culture.
• Process efficiency – We can support you to map and model process efficiencies on your shop floor. These efficiencies can focus on intermediary processes and finished products and we can help you to implement control measures to improve cook / bake losses, cooling losses, freeze losses, yields and deposit weights.
• Sustainable New Product Development (NPD) – We can help you create sustainable new food and drink products, providing you with market insights to help you develop initial product concepts. Our multi-category NPD support follows a best practice stage gate process from concept to launch.
• Sustainable Supply Chains – We can help you adopt robust supplier approval, selection, risk assessment and monitoring processes so your business can source appropriate sustainable raw materials and packaging.
• Technical & Operational Support – We can support you to implement food safety, quality systems and procedures to ensure your business produces legal, authentic and sustainable food, drink and packaging. We can also mentor you to help you comply with third party sustainable food standards such as BRCGS and SALSA.
• BRCGS Ethical Trade & Responsible Sourcing (ETRS) - We can help you adopt a risk assessment-based approach to understand what a commitment to ETRS entails, from labour standards and health and safety to respecting human rights and corporate governance.​
  

We offer a range of start-up support to Welsh food and drink companies. Whatever stage of the journey you’re at, we can help you along the way: 

• ​​Food Business Registration – Support with an initial review of requirements for food business registration and if applicable food business approval for food businesses handling ingredients of animal origin. 
• HACCP – It is a legal requirement in the UK for all food and drink companies to have a food safety plan based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. Your HACCP plan keeps your food safe from biological, chemical and physical food safety hazards. 
• New Product Development – From having an idea through to launching in retailers, we can support you to develop new products. There are lots of things to consider, including whether there is a gap in the market for your product and if it is profitable, recipe development, getting feedback from consumers, and having sufficient shelf life. 
• Regulated Product Approval - Are your sure the ingredients you intend to use in your product are authorised fo​r food use in the UK? If required, we can help you to review the requirements for the ‘Regulated Product Approval’ process with the Food Standards Agency. 
• Labelling and nutritional information – We can help you to ensure that the information you include on your product labels complies with the latest food information regulations. Are the nutrition and health claims you are making accurate and legal? Have you correctly declared ingredients, shelf life, nutritional information and allergens? You also may need to consider cooking instructions too. 
• Scaling up production – Once you have successfully created a product recipe in your home kitchen, there’s a good chance you’ll need to ramp up production to a commercial kitchen or factory. We can help you to think about the processes and equipment which you might need to achieve this. ​

To find out more about how ZERO2FIVE can support start-up companies, please get in touch​.​​

The ZERO2FIVE team provides commercial and marketing support to food and drink companies. Our support focuses on:

1. Market analysis and insights 

Helping companies to make more informed new product development, category and export decisions resulting from an improved understanding of the market or country.

Through Welsh Government we have access to a wide range of trend reports and market data from The Food People, Kantar Worldpanel and Euromonitor. If you are interested in obtaining any of this data from ZERO2FIVE, please complete the enquiry form here.

Each project is different and is likely to include:

• Category performance
• Consumer insights
• Product trends
• Market insights
• Key channels and trade partners
• Key competitors
• Current product ranges
• Gaps and opportunities
• Recommendations

2. New Product Development (NPD)

• Ideation - Trend reports  

• Food safaris – to provide NPD inspiration

• Competitor benchmarking/market analysis

• Packaging design & format testing - using our state-of-the-art Perceptual Experience Lab (PEL)

 3. Sales and marketing affiliates and mentoring

• HELIX Knowledge Transfer Programme – sales and marketing affiliate embedded within an eligible company with full support from the ZERO2FIVE marketing team. The affiliate’s salary is part-funded through Project HELIX. 

• Mentoring marketeers – 1-2-1/group mentoring from brand audit to developing marketing strategy 
  

At ZERO2FIVE, we have one of the largest sensory evaluation suites in the UK and the only facility of its type in Wales. 

How can sensory evaluation help your business?

• Independent product evaluation
• New Product Development / matching / improvement - benchmark your products against the competitors.
• Quality control and maintenance - ensuring product consistency during process change or in product reformulations.
• Cost reduction - ensuring product quality is maintained when sourcing more cost effective raw materials.
• To determine the storage stability of your product - evaluating the product quality over shelf-life.

New Product Development (NPD) and Existing Product Development (EPD) are crucial for any food and drink business. 

With ever increasing demand for innovation to satisfy the latest trends, successful NPD and EPD can ensure that companies maintain market share and remain competitive. 

ZERO2FIVE can help with all aspects of your NPD and EPD:

• Market analysis and trend research 
• Innovation days/safaris 
• Recipe development
• Diversification and valorisation of by-products
• Process validation/trial support 
• Competitor benchmarking review
• Independent sensory analysis and select panels
• Product testing – pH, water activity and texture analysis
• Shelf-life (organoleptic) assessment support
• Theoretical nutrition
• Thermal validation
• Cooking/reheat validation
• Specification and QAS generation support 
• Labelling compliance
• Packaging design and format testing - using our state-of-the-art Perceptual Experience Lab (PEL)

Whether you’re an established business or a start-up company, ZERO2FIVE’s bakery and confectionary experts can offer a range of specialist support:

• New Product Development (NPD) and Existing Product Development (EPD), including bread, cakes, patisserie, morning goods, biscuits, pizza and sweet confectionary
• Recipe development and reformulation
• Hands-on support in our state-of-the-art bakery and confectionary facilities
• Ingredient technology – functional ingredients, sugar substitutes, and vegan alternatives 
• Equipment upscaling
• Process efficiencies 
• Free-from product development and allergen support
• Bakery layout and design
• Staff training
• Shelf-life extension
• Student placements
• UK baking industry contacts for further help and support

Thermal process validation is essential in the temperature monitoring of many food products.

Validation of the cooking process is critical to ensure the safety of the product over the intended shelf life and helps to control the quality of the product.

ZERO2FIVE can offer the following thermal process validation services:

• Cooking validation
• Chilling validation
• Freezing validation
• Temperature profiling during product development trials
• Thermal process troubleshooting
• Temperature profiling during transportation
• Process audits
• Validation of consumer cooking instructions
• Process efficiency

ZERO2FIVE has experts with experience in all food processing areas, including commercially sterile foods, soups and sauces, baked products, and ready meals.

​ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre is able to support all aspects of gaining BRCGS certification.

What is BRCGS?
BRCGS is a Food Safety Management System set up by the major retailers. Originating around 1998 to enable suppliers to be audited against a single standard, it has since become global and is used by over 14000 companies in 90 countries and standards cover food packaging and distribution as well as food manufacturing. BRCGS is a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked standard.

BRCGS Technical Support

ZERO2FIVE is experienced in the development and implementation of quality management systems which meet the demands of the BRCGS technical standards, including;

• Food (including BRCGS Global Markets Programme)

• Storage and Distribution

• Packaging and Packaging Materials

• Agents and Brokers

Members of our technical team have considerable food industry experience, creating and validating safety systems, undertaking system audits, ensuring legal compliance and full system compliance. We have a fully qualified audit team.

ZERO2FIVE has experience in supporting businesses aspiring to reach BRCGS certification, and sites that are already certified to the standard.

BRCGS Pre-audits and Gap Analysis

ZERO2FIVE can support businesses by undertaking a detailed pre-audit or gap analysis against the BRCGS technical standard of their choice. The visit will assess current status, and provide guidance in areas that need to be improved. Sites will be provided with a detailed action plan following the visit which will help sites focus their efforts to fulfil the requirements.

BRCGS Approved Training

ZERO2FIVE host the following BRCGS approved training course:

• ​BRCGS Internal Auditor (suitable for all standards)

Bespoke Training

ZERO2FIVE can develop and deliver on site training courses to meet the technical demands of retailers and the manufacturing sector.

Please contact us for course dates or for a quotation for a bespoke course.

Benefits of BRCGS Standard

• Opens the door to many large retailers and food service providers who require BRCGS as a pre-requisite to supply
• It is a food safety system which helps you to achieve many of your legal requirements
• It helps in the manufacture of a consistently safe product
• It allows you to have clear systems laid out so that all staff understand what is required and how to achieve it
• It should lead to a reduction in customer audits
• Inspires confidence in existing and potential new customers, enabling the growth of your business

For further information on the BRCGS Standard, please visit the BRCGS Global Standards website:         

https://www.brcgs.com/

SALSA is one of the most widely recognised food safety certification schemes in the UK with over 2000 members.  

Designed for smaller food producers and suppliers, SALSA approved businesses must demonstrate to an auditor that they are able to produce and supply safe and legal food and are committed to meeting the requirements of the SALSA standard on an ongoing basis.

ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre can support all aspects of gaining and maintaining SALSA certification. This can include mentoring, helping you to review and design your quality management systems in line with the requirements of SALSA, and internal audits.

For further information on the SALSA Standard, please visit the SALSA website. 

For examples of the SALSA support we can offer, see our Burts the Bakers case study and our Trealy Farm Charcuterie case study.

ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre provide a comprehensive range of technical packaging support that includes:

• Packaging design - structural packaging solutions, technical operational solutions

• New Product Development - including sensory analysis, focus groups, benchmarking, primary market research, shelf life analysis, legal labelling, costings, cooking instruction validation and life cycle analysis
• Process development
• Food law
• HACCP
• Technical auditing
• Quality systems and development - including BRCGS, SALSA, ISO9001, BRC/IOP, SQF
• Troubleshooting - all aspects of processing and packaging e.g. legal labelling
• Material sourcing - including primary packaging, MAP, sustainable packaging, retail ready packaging, time temperature indicators, radio-frequency identification
• Market transition management - technical support for entry of products into new markets i.e. from local farmers' markets into the national retail sector
• Market research - our Perceptual Experience Lab (PEL) can be used to test packaging designs in a simulated retail environment and we can also organise consumer focus groups
• Training - operational activities, legal requirements, auditing, BRCGS, packaging technology

We can also offer a range of technical support in the following areas. Please get in touch to discuss how we can help your company:   

• Factory design

• Waste reduction / review

• Process improvements

• Food safety culture

• Crisis management – product recall

• HACCP review

• HACCP validation

• Nutritional calculation

• Quality management system review

• Food legislation interpretation

• Allergen management

• Product reformulation/ re-engineering

• Microbiological product safety: support with shelf-life determination and interpretation of laboratory results

• Listeria management

• Access to facilities and equipment