STAFF TRAINING:

The CSR Department is responsible for all aspects of ethical trade at Lovering Foods. As such, they maintain relationships with external organisations and attend relevant workshops and conferences, such as Stronger Together’s ‘Tackling Modern Slavery in Global Supply Chains’ (London, August 2015; Boston [UK], October 2016) and the SEDEX conference ‘Simplifying Supply Chain Sustainability’ (London, March 2016). We believe that everyone in our company has a part to play in ensuring the amelioration of social conditions within our supply chains. Thus, information received from workshops, important news regarding ethics and sustainability, and updates on the progress Lovering Foods has made is shared with all relevant employees through biannual internal newsletters and with customers through regular meetings. As part of the induction process, new staff members participate in our Seafood Sustainability Workshop as well as our Modern Slavery Awareness Training. As the Modern Slavery Awareness Training has just recently been implemented, all relevant staff members were required to undergo training in March 2017.

ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Lovering Foods is a SEDEX member and uses the SEDEX Advance platform to gain visibility of working conditions at processing sites. Currently, more than 75% of our suppliers are registered. Upon registration, a desktop audit called a ‘Self - Assessment Questionnaire’ (SAQ) is completed by the supplier. We then use customer specifications and risk assessment procedures to determine whether an on-site ethical audit is required. Sites identified as medium or high risk are required to conduct a SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) from a certified auditing body at a frequency determined by our customers, and, if necessary, will be given corrective measures to apply within a set timeframe. Our dedicated Technical team ensures all products undergo a rigorous approval procedure before reaching our customers. This includes a variety of quality, food safety, and traceability verifications.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

Our collaboration extends further through participation in conversations organised by groups such as the ISSF and SSC on the development and application of external risk assessment tools, such as the Seafish Risk Assessment for Sourcing Seafood (RASS) tool, and the inclusion of social criteria into the SSC’s Code of Conduct.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS FOR RISK ASSESSMENT:

Formalise and strengthen Loverings' private label risk assessment procedure and ethical sourcing policy;

Ensure that all suppliers are SEDEX members, have a completed SAQ, and have conducted ethical audits as necessary according to their risk assessment outcome;

Conduct ethical risk assessments on all Kingfisher and Royal Line supply chains, and own-label supply chains where a retailers own policy is not available;