Our food hygiene and health and safety company
‘Large enough to cope but small enough to care’ is a statement that best describes our company. We’re passionate about food hygiene and health and safety and motivating your teams to achieve high standards.
Our PURE values
Practical – any solutions we put forward will make yours and your teams lives easier not harder. We achieve this by staying abreast of industry developments and innovations.
Understanding – we make sure we properly understand your operation, the challenges that you face and your priorities. We appreciate just how hard it is to comply with legislation.
Responsive – we aim to get back to our clients with a meaningful answer on the same day or if not, first thing the next morning.
Expert – our fully qualified and highly professional specialists keep abreast of forthcoming legislation and guidance – ensuring that you do not have any unwelcome surprises!
What our clients say about us
We would love to work with you so please do get in touch. In the meantime, you may wish to hear from our clients about their Safer Food Scores experience.
Our Directors
Melissa Thompson Managing Director
Melissa is the Founder of Safer Food Scores and has degrees in both Hospitality and in Environmental Health. She worked in hotel, pub, and restaurant management before qualifying as an EHO. Later she managed a team responsible for enforcing food hygiene and health and safety in the Borough’s 1000+ food businesses. Following 13 years in local government, Melissa moved into the private sector consultancy, before setting up Safer Food Scores Ltd in 2010.
Melissa is a Chartered EHP (Environmental Health Practitioner) and is on the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register. This means that her competence has been assessed by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Health and Safety Executive and that her knowledge is up to date. She is the Chair of the Primary Authority Business User Group which brings together representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry, Chief Executives and Health and Safety Directors to help improve consistency of enforcement throughout the UK.
Melissa is a mother of two and has two golden retrievers. She is currently undecided which are the more troublesome.
Audrey Deane Food Safety Consultant
Audrey has a BSc (Hons) degree in Food Science and nutrition and more than 30 years’ experience in the food industry. Audrey has been a member of the SFS team for 12 years, firstly as an associate and then as part of the head office team.
She previously worked for two major UK retailers and has technical and food safety auditing experience in all sizes of businesses across the globe across many food sectors. Audrey also has experience of working with BRC and SALSA assurance schemes and is an experienced and engaging food safety trainer.
Audrey is a keen cook and author of cookbooks with a best-selling slow cooker cookbook among her successes. She also loves dogs and has in 2021 rescued an English Pointer from Spain. In her spare time Audrey enjoys applying her singing skills with a local band and has recently taken up playing the base guitar.
Lucy Fleming Sales & Operations Director
Lucy is our Sales and Operations Director based in the Berkhamsted office since 2018. Lucy has many years’ experience working in the food industry formally having worked in Retail Operations with M&S for 17 years followed by an operational role within an independent food safety consultancy. Prior to joining SFS she was the Operations Director with a partner company of ours providing an online food safety solution. She brings a wealth of expertise in driving operational efficiencies and leading business growth which, coupled with her passion for client service, is a perfect fit for our business.
Lucy is a mum of 2 boys, both currently at university. Outside of work she loves nothing better than being in the great outdoors, be that maintaining her much-loved garden or walking in the beautiful countryside around.
In the spirit of ”you’re never too old”, she is also planning her third skydive later this year – in San Francisco!
Our Team
Jessica Grey Office Administrator
With her experience managing private day nurseries, Jess joined our team in 2022 to head in a new direction in her professional life. Her experience has shown her just how important food hygiene and health & safety are in protecting everyone in our communities, especially those most vulnerable.
Jess and the other members of our Operations team help keep everything running smoothly. She is on hand to help our clients with anything they might need from invoicing queries to guidance on using SFS Hub.
In her personal life, Jess is a keen horticulturist and enjoys pursuing many different creative passions including linguistics, sewing and painting.
Nicky Slavid Technical Director
Nicky has worked in the Hospitality industry for 30+ years, starting as a waitress, barmaid, chef and finally Kitchen manager where she discovered a love of all things food safety and health and safety.
Following completing her Environment health degree Nicky has worked for a range of businesses, from large International quick-service brands to safety consultancies providing bespoke guidance for weird and wonderful activities. From nitrogen-infused ice cream to risk assessing boxing matches, from swordfish ceviche to fire jugglers, Nicky’s experience means she can offer a pragmatic approach.
Nicky is a Chartered EHP (Environmental Health Practitioner), a member of IOSH, has 2 teenagers and enjoys cooking and eating (mainly eating) in her spare time.
