Cheese Grader

CHEESE GRADER, NANTWICH, SALARY Dependant On Experience

Hidden away in the heart of the Cheshire countryside, lies the Joseph Heler dairy on Laurels Farm. It is here that our team of expert cheese makers produce classic British regional cheese to time-honoured recipes. We remain an independent family business and still produce all our of our cheese using only the finest local milk, sourced from specially selected dairy farms.

Growing over the years from our roots as a small farmhouse dairy into an award winning, ever evolving, reputable business, we are proud to say we still hold and protect the same values, traditions and cheese making principles that have served us so well through the decades.

We have established strong relationships with many of the UK’s leading retailers supplying them with great tasting cheese and we are proud to say that we also supply and export to over 60 countries worldwide.

Therefore, the role of Cheese Grader is one of the most imperative roles to our business ensuring our customers receive the highest of standards of cheese quality and taste.

Responsibilities will include:

- Complete process and allocation grading of all cheese products according to established quality standards. Seeking the optimum use with both our customers and internal use.
- Evaluate the body, texture, flavour and colour of cheese by examining cheese to determine firmness and texture, smelling and tasting the cheese for odour, acidity and flavour.
- Develop strong understanding of our internal requirements to maximise operational efficiency with cheese selection
- Ensure compliance with food safety regulations and guidelines.
- Through our ERP system, accurately score with both calculated results and comments for allocation selection.
- Monitor and adjust grading processes to maintain efficiency and accuracy.
- Determine optimum grading timelines to ensure grading is completed in time for allocation
- Liaise with various departments and stakeholders to ensure smooth flow of cheese production.
- Customer facing presentations on cheese grading, cheese selection, new product development.
- Support the planning team with stock availability to meet customer needs/sales forecasts.
- Monthly benchmarking and provide clear feedback of results showing site compliance to site standard and site standard vs competitors. Provide key updates at monthly team meetings.
- Establish and maintain clear communication mechanisms within the quality team
- Formalisation of communication methods within the business
- Be an integral and administrative member of the HACCP team
- Devise and implement methods of maintaining control of ON HOLD stock by combining information from NCR database with grading reports seen by planning.
- Devise spreadsheets to highlight the best starter to use by variety. This enables cheese quality group to make informed decisions and feed back to Gemini potential improvements.
- Continued collaboration with customers and their graders to maintain or improve relationships.
- Refined the benchmark methodology so as to make it easier to enumerate results.
- Ongoing Introduction “What Good & Bad” cheese looks like to the shop floor staff to educate them he differences in cheese quality and what the causes are likely to be.

**Requirements**:

- Previous knowledge within the Dairy industry
- Knowledge of food safety practices and procedures
- Computer skills Excel, Word
- HACCP
- Good knowledge of GMP
- QMS knowledge
- RCA
- Risk Assessment knowledge
- Allergen awareness

In return, we will provide stable employment with one of the most recognised brands in the Dairy industry along with a competitive salary and benefits.

**Job Types**: Full-time, Permanent

**Benefits**:

- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee discount
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Referral programme

Schedule:

- Day shift
- Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person