The Secret Behind Midlands’ Impeccable Honey Compliance
11 September 2024
We know that nothing happens by accident - especially when you’re winning global awards for your retail-ready brands. At Midlands we put the work in, every day, to ensure our honey products that end up on the store shelf aren’t just great-tasting, but highly compliant in every sense of the word.
The secret lies within our quality assurance, the systematic process of checking that every brand meets the highest honey compliance standards.
In fact, we’re so serious about quality assurance that many years ago, we built an in-house team of quality experts who oversee the honey compliance of every product leaving our factories.
It’s not done for nothing - we achieve remarkable results each year because we care so deeply about one truth: when you’re purchasing Midlands, you’re purchasing genuine quality.
Our Honey Compliance Sits At 99%
Casting an eye over every step in production - from initial harvesting to the final packing stages - is a rigorous process. Our honey compliance team works hard, but it’s for good reason.
Midlands achieves some of the highest compliance rates in our industry. In fact, our most recent SQF audit which measures food safety and quality management was awarded 99% honey compliance.
SQF is an internationally recognised standard of food quality that confirms:
- Fundamental food safety controls are in place
- The risk assessment and implementation of hazard analysis and critical control points
- That corrective action is taken which prevents poor quality or contamination
Midlands is SQF Level 3 certified, which means it’s within the top percentile of food safety compliance. We’ve been awarded at least 98% compliance since 2021.
But our certifications don’t just stop there.
The honey compliance team has laboured away to ensure Midlands products can boast a range of certifications, including a GMP certification - which means our manufacturing processes have been independently verified - and an RMP registration, which means we have risk management programmes that manage hazards and other risk factors.
Midlands also uses HACCP - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point - a global system that’s used to both identify and manage significant food safety hazards. This means our products remain completely safe.
Finally, Midlands also offers UMF™ certified Mānuka honey, a quality standard of honey that is required to comply with a list of highly rigid demands. UMF™ is widely regarded as the “gold standard” of Mānuka honey, it’s a quality and rating system that independently tests every component that makes up the Mānuka product.
The four key markers that determine the UMF™ grade - Leptosperin, Methylglyoxal (MGO), Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) - are all tested and collectively determine a grade number ranging from UMF™5+ to as high as 32+.
Many customers are happy to settle for lower-end grades of UMF™ 5+ to UMF™ 10+, given they still provide a unique experience. But those looking for a raw treat instead of artificial sugar, would much prefer the higher potency levels of Mānuka product, which Midlands can produce.
You can learn more about the different UMF™ grades here.
Our honey compliance team carries out extensive, regular audits every year to ensure Midlands meets all of these certifications and delivers the highest quality products. This is critical, because when every batch of honey meets such exceptional standards, it legitimises the Midlands brand and sets us apart from the rest.
So Why Does This Matter?
Because when you’re looking to partner with Midlands, or purchase our products, you’ll receive a safe and reliable product that can pass all the stringent requirements seen in varying markets across the globe.
Our manufacturing processes are independently verified, giving you confidence you can rely on a consistent supply of high quality honey that hits, and surpasses, all standards. We’re committed to maintaining the highest level of product quality - which means by partnering with Midlands, you’re shelving a product that protects your business’ reputation, and possibly even enhances it.
At the end of the day, our results speak for themselves. But they’re only a reflection of the exceptional work that’s carried out behind the scenes.
Exceptional Honey From Our Quality Assurance Experts
Ridiculously high honey compliance and a vast complement of certifications hasn’t come by coincidence. It’s the result of hard work from our honey compliance team, overseen by Technical Manager Beth Mitchell.
Beth started with Midlands in 2021, she runs our in-house quality assurance team of five people who test, measure and inspect every stage of Midlands product operations. From internal audits to quality management systems, our honey compliance experts are the key ingredient to such high compliance success.
“It’s very thorough, there’s a lot of detail you work through,” says Beth.
“You’ll often get these massive 250-page documents with hundreds of requirements. We’ll normally go through them one by one, do a GAP analysis, see where we’ve got to make changes to meet a new standard, then we’ll talk with the team and see what can be done.”
The day-to-day quality checks of Midlands products is carried out by a Quality Assurance Officer, who canvasses the plant once a day to make sure that every aspect of production is complying with all standards. Internal auditing is also carried out, where Beth’s compliance team will use an audit schedule to assess all RMPs and packaging processes.
As Beth explains, “all the hourly and daily checks we do, they’re all in place to mitigate a risk or make sure anything that could go wrong is captured, rather than it just fly by unseen.”
Behind all the auditing, Beth and her honey compliance experts also carry out a strict quality management system. Due to some external audits having such strict requirements that need to be followed, it’s critical the compliance team checks and assesses everything correctly.
To make sure of this, Midlands honey compliance team will hold themselves accountable with regular training sessions, often at numerous times during the year. This is an opportunity for them to review previous mistakes and make sure the team is up-to-date with the latest certification and honey compliance requirements.
“The training is our way of making sure the team doesn’t just know the rules, but they understand why they’re being asked to do all the sophisticated things we ask of them,” says Beth.
“If something goes wrong, we’ll do a non-performance report and we’ll have a meeting to do some kind of root-cause investigation. This is to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes more than once.”
The meetings are run by Beth, they’re done in an effort to continuously improve the honey compliance standards at Midlands. And Beth isn’t alone, every member of the Midlands crew - from the beekeepers who carefully manage hive health to the production packing workers - is equally determined to maintain such strong results.
It means there’s synergy across every department. Each team member knows the compliance standards that need to be met and it results in a relentless pursuit for a product that everyone can be proud of.
“I think we just care,” Beth says.
“We want to make sure the product going out the door is something we’d recommend to our families and friends. We all care about getting as good of a result as possible, about doing it right.”
This attitude is reflected in the products that you purchase. By holding our products to the same high standards we would for our loved ones, we guarantee our customers receive nothing but the best.
This level of care and dedication means our customers trust that every item we produce is crafted with precision, integrity and personal touch. This is because Midlands is committed to providing peace of mind that what we deliver is not only reliable, but also something we’d proudly stand behind in any circumstance.
Choosing Midlands Means Choosing Highly-Compliant Honey
A pass is not good enough, Midlands doesn’t settle for average.
Quality comes when the standards are raised - and at Midlands it starts from the top down. From the very top right through to the workers on the production floor, we’re dedicated to providing a honey product that sets the benchmark within the honey industry, and our quality control reflects this commitment.
We’ve built a specialised quality assurance team that assesses every step of our honey-making process, because we care so deeply about every brand reflecting the highest honey compliance standards. We weren’t required to do this, but we’ve gone out of our way to leave nothing to chance.
So when you’re purchasing one of our world-leading honey products, you’re not just receiving a product that tastes great and looks the part. It’s a product that’s been tested, evaluated and inspected from start to finish.
If you’re keen to learn more about our quality processes, or you’d like further information about the high standards of our honey products, you can get in touch with us here.