Certification in the Food Industry: Pilgrim's Pride Ltd

Finding a Solution with Bureau Veritas

Pilgrim’s UK is one of the country’s biggest food and farming businesses. The business employs more than 5,500 people across its 15 sites and is the country’s number one producer of higher welfare pigs and produces the highest quality sustainable products at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities located across the country.

Recognising the importance of certification to drive and demonstrate standards throughout the food value chain, Pilgrim’s UK went to tender to support the business in achieving certification to ISO14001: 2015 (Environmental Management) and ISO45001: 2018 (Occupational Health and Safety).

Pilgrim’s UK wanted an audit team that would challenge the organisation and help them to improve. It turned to Bureau Veritas, experts in certification for the food industry.

Project at a Glance

Client: Pilgrim’s Pride Ltd

Location: Multiple locations in the UK

Project duration: Ongoing

Service provided: Certification

Relevant industries: Food & drink

Project brief

Bureau Veritas developed an audit plan that was put in place in 2020 to commence in 2021, starting with an initial audit and followed by the main audits at all operational sites throughout the year.

The challenges of COVID-19 did hamper progress but it was agreed that audits would be undertaken on site to add value, with the exception of the head office audit that was conducted remotely. All of the on-site audits were conducted in a COVID-safe manner.

Ian

Bartlett

Lead Auditor

Bureau Veritas

Pilgrim’s UK have a set of core values and it was very evident during the audit process that these core values actually meant something. The audits were challenging and for many this was the first time that they had been part of such a process but it was great to see sites wanting to be involved and wanting to improve.

Certification management system, Career, People, Business

Rachel Baldwin, Vice President, Human Resources, at Pilgrim’s UK, said:

“We’re committed to ensuring we hold our operations to the highest standards, from a people, safety and environmental perspective.

“Operating as efficiently as possible is not only in the best interests of our colleagues but also mitigates our impact on the environment. Sustainability is at the heart of our business and will continue to be for years to come.”

Achievement

Some gaps were highlighted during the audits, but the team at Pilgrim’s UK took these as areas for improvement and valued the output. As a result of this process, the business achieved certification to ISO14001:2015 and ISO45001:2018 in January 2022.

Audits for 2022 have now been planned and Pilgrim’s UK will be adding its agriculture business unit to the scope of the certification.

Find out more about our Certification Services here