FDBusiness.com

There were double celebrations for Verner Wheelock at this year’s prestigious Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) AGM in London recently. The top prizes for the Level 4 Award in Food Safety for Manufacturing and Level 4 Award in HACCP both went to Verner Wheelock delegates.

Yanis Skerstins (pictured above right), a Global A&A auditor at pladis Global’s Midlands Distribution Centre in Ashby-de-la-Zouch was the joint recipient of the RSPH HACCP prize. Another Verner Wheelock delegate, Justyna Pupiec-Adamowicz, a Hygiene Manager at Nestle UK in Carlisle, won the prize for Food Safety in Manufacturing.

Yanis was thrilled to receive his RSPH prize, saying: “I am incredibly pleased to be receiving an RSPH prize for my result in Level 4 Award in HACCP. I thoroughly enjoyed studying with Verner Wheelock. The combination of friendly staff, engaging tutors and beautiful countryside surroundings creates the perfect learning environment. The tutor used his own industry knowledge and encouraged the room to share their experiences to ensure everyone understood both the theoretical and practical applications of HACCP.

Since the course I assumed a lead role within the pladis Wigston HACCP team and have recently started working within the global audit and assessment function for pladis (formerly United Biscuits). The skills learnt from the HACCP course ,as well as the level 4 food safety course, have enabled me to effectively review supplier HACCP plans and evaluate their effectiveness.”

Justyna Pupiec-Adamowicz (on right).

Justyna said: “My working day is focused around GMP including hygiene, pest management and food safety, so it was great to get the RSPH prize for Level 4 Food Safety.  I really enjoyed my training with Verner Wheelock. I felt that the course materials, examples and level of detail provided was perfect for me. All the tutors were very experienced both practically and theoretically and the training took place in a nice, diverse and relaxing atmosphere.  It really boosted my confidence.”

Verner Wheelock MD, Alison Wheelock, commented: “We’re so pleased that Yanis and Justyna won the prizes. The Level 4 examinations are pretty tough and to have achieved the highest marks this year means that they both understood the subjects fully and worked really hard.”

Verner Wheelock delegates have scooped the annual RSPH prizes for Level 4 Food Safety and Level 4 HACCP on numerous occasions prizes at The RSPH Awards at several previous awards ceremonies. Last year’s Level 4 Food Safety in manufacturing prize went to Sarah Jolly-Hart, who was based at Symington’s. Sarah’s former colleague Lianne Davis shared the award in 2014 with another Verner Wheelock delegate, Peter Smith. Helen Kearney of Nature’s Best took the Level 4 HACCP prize that year.

Founded in 1990 and based on the Broughton Hall Estate in Skipton, North Yorkshire, Verner Wheelock delivers a wide range of courses to the food industry. Training is offered from basic to advanced levels in HACCP, Food Safety and Auditing as well as a number of specialist courses such as Root Cause Analysis, Managing Food Allergens and VACCP and TACCP.