About

Food Safety Assist began in 2000, started by Brian Humphreys. Our office is located in Hexham, Northumberland but we work with food related businesses across most of the UK through our network of associate Consultants.

We are passionate about food and its safety from growing it to it’s storage and distribution. We believe food businesses can really benefit in so many ways from having a safety compliance standard.

Our flexible approach means it is possible to offer guidance on-site and/or from our office, assisting from the factory floor through to the mentoring of directors.

Contracts are based on the needs of each client from pay-as-you-go to project-bases-packages.

Our aim is to make Safety Compliance tailored to each food business we work with

Support, guidance and mentoring in Safety Compliance, we believe, is a partnership between us and our clients. Compliance takes commitment from everyone involved in the process and it is on-going.

As a partnership, compliance to a Safety standard can help a food business grow by attracting new customers because you can prove to the marketplace you follow the highest safety standards and secondly, Compliance, can protect a business from costly mistakes, such as, product recalls and fines.

” Comply, Grow and Protect through Safety Compliance “

Our team

Brian Humphreys

Food Safety Consultant & Director

Brian has 20 years experience as a food safety consultant within the food industry. Previously having worked for retailer Sainsbury’s as a food technologist. Since setting up Food Safety Assist, he has managed/delivered projects in a wide range of sectors from meat, dairy, organics, fresh produce, bakery, warehousing and transport at SALSA and BRC level. With an excellent knowledge of all the various food safety standards Brian is:

  • BRCGS Mentor
  • SALSA Mentor and Auditor
  • IFST approved mentor and auditor
  • Written SALSA Food standards 
  • Member of Working Group for SALSA in Scotland

To discuss your requirements with Brian Humphreys – contact us

Lynn has a background in management and information technology. She is responsible for the running of the company, ensuring that decisions are made and the business keeps on track.

Lynn Brown​

Managing Director

Hannah joined us in 2018 bringing with her a strong technical background spread across varies fields from dairy to sushi, fresh produce and many more. She is experienced in auditing across a wide range of sectors within food manufacturing to SALSA, BRC and Retailer Standards. Hannah assists us with Interim Technical Management, Food Safety Training and assists with SALSA and other Food Safety Accreditations.

Hannah Jackson

Associate Consultant

Lynn has a background in management and information technology. She is responsible for the running of the company, ensuring that decisions are made and the business keeps on track.

Lynn Brown​

Managing Director

Amanda has a strong background in food safety auditing against various audit schemes and customer standards. Her qualifications include a BSc degree in Food Science (Reading University) and Lead Auditor trained. Prior to auditing she worked in product development and technical for a large frozen food manufacturer. From that she moved into Environmental Health for a few years, before taking up an auditing role with one of the major cert bodies, and has now been auditing for the past 25 years. Currently as well as auditing, Amanda is involved in helping companies prepare for BRCGS audits against Food; Storage & Distribution; Packaging and Agent & Brokers standards, as well as providing continued support in the form of internal audits and ad-hoc projects. When not working, Amanda plays hockey and tennis for local clubs, which keeps her busy (and active) throughout the year.

Amanda Watson

Associate Consultant

Anne is a food nutrition and labelling expert with a BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences degree and over 20 years food industry experience gained in a variety of roles across the manufacturing and retailing sectors. She is a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition and also Secretary for the IFST Food Science & Nutrition Special Interest Group.

Formerly the Nutritionist for the Co-op, Anne now works freelance specialising in calculating the nutrient composition of products and recipes for the purposes of mandatory nutrition labelling, whilst also providing impartial advice on food labelling, applying nutrition & health claims and using her practical, evidence based approach to develop nutrition policy. She is able to work with food businesses at all stages of maturity from start-ups to established retailers.

Anne Betty

Associate Consultant (Labelling)

Kim started her formal food safety compliance life by working in our office, dealing with clients and other consultants, amongst other tasks. Kim completed all relevant training courses to advance her skills and make progress within the team, as well as, being mentored by Brian Humphreys. Before long, Kim was out and about visiting clients, taking on relevant work and projects. It became clear to us that Kim’s strength lay in her people skills, mentoring business owners to prepare and pass safety standards. This has since been validated several times from feedback we get from our clients regarding working with Kim. Kim knows how important business leadership is in food safety and how to get the best from the process for that business owner. As an Associate Consultant, Kim specialises in SALSA accreditation and some aspects of BRCGS, training, and leadership mentoring. She has a focus on working with Northern-based clients on-site.

Kim Liversedge

Associate Consultant

Qualified as a Food Technologist with over 25 years’ technical experience in both wholesale and retail food sectors. Primary areas of expertise include supporting business in the supply chain to meet the standard for BRCGS, SALSA and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as well as local authorities.

Fidelma is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), as well as Secretary of the IFST special interest group in food safety. As a SALSA auditor and mentor, she has gained a sound breadth and depth of product knowledge.


She is trained in level 4 HACCP and a certificated lead auditor with experience in developing HACCP systems, quality systems, training sessions, auditing programmes, troubleshooting and pioneering culture change.

Fidelma Pogorelow

Associate Consultant

After 28 years working in the Food Industry in various sectors, Gill retrained in 2020 to become a BRCGS Lead Auditor and now carry out BRCGS Food Safety and Storage and Distribution audits all over the UK. She is qualified to HACCP Level 4, passed an Advanced Food Safety qualification and ISOH trained.

I obtained a BSC (Hons) in Food Marketing Sciences from Sheffield City Polytechnic.

When working as an employed Technical Manager, Gill dealt with BRC audit preparation, HACCP, Product Development amongst other things.

Outside of work, I enjoy playing netball, running, cycling and gardening.

Gill Seddon

Associate Consultant