Book on either of the following 2010 Nutrition courses during the World Cup football  to receive a 5% discount. (ends 11th July 2010)

RSPH Certificate in Nutrition & Health
9 - 11 November 2010
£450 + VAT

RSPH Diploma in Nutrition & Health
25 – 29 October 2010
£750 + VAT

Contact Helen Moore on 01756 700802 or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk for further details or to book your place.

Dr Verner Wheelock says keeping fit is just as important as a healthy diet….
“There is a tendency to assume that diet is the key factor responsible for the increase in the numbers of people who are overweight and obese.

By contrast, the role of physical fitness has been largely ignored. The latest evidence demonstrates very clearly that people who are reasonably fit (eg. those who take regular exercise such as walking, dancing or gardening) have much better general health and live longer than the ‘’couch potatoes’’. What is more, fit people who are considered obese have a much higher standard of health than thin people who are unfit.

While there is no doubt that applying Healthy Eating guidelines such as consuming plenty of fruit and vegetables and being careful about fat, sugar and salt does help but  it is absolutely essential to incorporate regular exercise into your life style if you wish to achieve really good health and a long life.”

So when you’re enjoying your World Cup barbecues – make sure you work off the calories with a good game of football!

Click here  for an interactive World Cup Fixture List with results

• The growing demand for savoury flavours
• Rising food prices
• Natural flavourings
• Legislation

Download the full article here.

Our next course on Creating Savoury Flavours will run on 25 – 29th October 2010. 

Contact Helen Moore on 01756 700802 for further information or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk.

VWA started life in Bradford so it was decided to return to Bradford for a lunch at The Aagrah restaurant, where the guests of honour will be the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford, and will also include key note speakers from the food and training industry:

• John Howard, UK marketing director, Danish Agriculture and Food Council (a VWA client)
• Rod Knox, chief executive, Virtual College (VWA’s e-learning partner)

“The Aagrah’s banqueting manager, Iqbal Shah, trained with us to advanced level in HACCP so that he could deliver training to his own staff as well as implementing a HACCP system that is fully approved by Bradford Environmental Health and operated in all the Aagrah restaurants”, said Dr Verner Wheelock, a former head of the Food Policy Research Unit at the University of Bradford, who started and owns the company.

“This is a milestone year for us and we wanted to make sure that it got off to a memorable start. As well as sealing the success of the past 20 years, 2010 is the year in which VWA will progress its ambitious business plans for the future with the launch of its own on-line training courses; the first one being a Level 3 Food Safety course.

“Aimed at anyone responsible for the supervision of food safety in food manufacture or catering, the course offers learners the flexibility of working in their own time and at their own speed as well as affordability”, added Dr Wheelock.

Click here http://www.vwa.co.uk/level3interest.htm to register your interest in the online Level 3 food safety course, or contact Helen Moore on 01756 700802  or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk for further details.

The next courses in Skipton will run on the following dates:

• 12 – 13 July
• 8 – 9 September

If you have 6 or more staff to train it can be more cost effective to book in an in-house course.  The overall cost per person will be reduced and you will save on travel and accommodation by running the course at your own premises.

For those who require just a basic level of HACCP we can also offer a one-day in-house course called HACCP – The Fundamentals.

Contact Helen Moore on 01756 700802 to discuss your requirements, or for a quote.  Email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk

 

There was a twist in the Science curriculum for Year 7 children at Malsis School, Cross Hills, near Skipton, when they ventured into the realms of creating new food flavours.

With the aim of helping to nurture a new generation of food scientists, this ad hoc addition to the school timetable evolved from a course called ‘Creating Savoury Flavours’, which was run by Skipton based Verner Wheelock Associates (VWA), a leading UK provider of food safety, nutrition and speciality courses and held in the school’s laboratory on three separate occasions.

The courses attracted delegates from all over the world and also fired the imagination of the school’s head of science, Richard Skillington.

“We wanted to give the pupils more experience of science outside the curriculum. They learnt about creating aromas and flavours for the food industry and worked in groups to create a winning formula for gravy flavouring. They started with a basic gravy mix and had to make three different flavours by using extra ingredients such as tomato, mushroom, beef and even orange.

“The children enjoyed it immensely especially when it came to tasting their own concoctions  and choosing a favourite to be put forward for judging by the visiting ‘teachers”, said Mr Skillington.

The teachers, the same tutors who lead the VWA training, were two experts in their field, a food technologist, Richard Seal, who specialises in snack flavours and a flavour chemistry expert, Dr David Baines, who is the current president of the British Society of Flavourists.

“There is a shortage of food technology graduates coming into the food industry and we hope that we have inspired one or two of these youngsters to see that studying science – especially chemistry – can lead to an exciting career with food”, said Dr Baines.

The next ‘Creating Savoury Flavours’ course will take place on 12 – 16 April 2010. Contact Helen Moore on 01756 700802 for further details or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk.

Watch this space for a series of events we are planning throughout the year to mark this special  occasion.  We hope that clients old and new will help us celebrate our 20th birthday in in style in 2010!

Verner Wheelock Associates has partnered with First Aid Academy which is a leading provider of high quality, first aid training.

First Aid Academy can provide advice and training on all levels of first aid as well as specialist courses, and have provided us with information on the new qualifications introduced following a revision in First Aid legislation which came into force on 1st October 2009.

Today, workplaces generally are low risk and have immediate access to the emergency services via mobile phones. Under the new revision the traditional 4-day First Aid at Work course is no longer seen as appropriate for all employers.

Click here for further details of the new qualifications

Dr Verner Wheelock has lanched a new blog where he comments on food industry news and reports.

Here are extracts from a couple of his latest blog entries:

Let the Children Eat Cake…

Eating a slice of cake to celebrate a birthday has been banned because it conflicts with the Healthy Eating policy in a Rotherham school (The Yorkshire Post 17 October 2009). The mother of one of the pupils sent a cake to the school so that her daughter could share it with her friends. This incident illustrates the absurdity of the government approach to Healthy Eating in schools.

Read Verner Wheelock’s full commentary on this subject: http://vernerwheelock.com/?p=51

Obesity in Children

According to a statement just released by the Department of Health, the rapid rise in child obesity may be levelling off (see http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_107835)

In fact, there never has been a ‘’rapid rise’’ in child obesity.

Read Verner Wheelock’s full commentary on this subject: http://vernerwheelock.com/?p=62

More news and views on Healthy Eating in Schools at http://www.healthyeatinginschools.co.uk/

Over the last few months our delegates have been achieving excellent results in accredited examinations, particularly in the RSPH Level 3 Award in HACCP for Food Manufacturing.

Of 85 delegates who have taken this new RSPH qualification with VWA since February 2009, the following exam pass rates have been achieved:

• Distinction – 73%;
• Pass – 25%;
• Fail – 2%.

This means that the current pass rate for Level 3 HACCP at VWA is an impressive 98%.

These figures relate to delegates who attended open courses in Skipton, as well as in-house courses at McVities and the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders.  Many thanks to our course tutors, Peter Clarke, Ruth Bell and Paul Bache, and well done to all the delegates!

Andrea Wheatley of Shepcote Distributors achieved a Distinction

The next Level 3 HACCP courses will run on 1-2 December 2009 and 20 – 21 January 2010.  These courses have been fully subscribed in recent months so book early to avoid disappointment.

Contact Helen Moore for further details on 01756 700802 or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk.

The VWA Training the Trainer course leads to the CIEH Professional Trainers Certificate, which enables delegates to acquire the skills to become successful trainers in their own right.

The recent course on 5 – 7 October accommodated six delegates from around Yorkshire, all of whom benefitted from 60% funding from The Enhancement Fund which is a programme part funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund as is co-financed by the Learning and Skills Council and Yorkshire Forward.

Tutor Peter Bruty (left) with the successful delegates

All passed with flying colours and presented some very informative training sessions on which they were assessed by course tutors Jan Wheelock and Peter Bruty. Well done to Antony Keyworth (Benson Park Ltd), Phillipa Moore (Rakusen’s Ltd,) Chris Nelson (CN Solutions), David Radley (McVities), Andrea Wheatley (Shepcote Distributors Ltd) and Clair Whitham (Britannia Food Ingredients).

The next course will run on 25 – 27 January 2010.  Bookings taken by 31^st December 2009 will be charged at 2009 rates.

Contact Helen Moore for further details on 01756 700802 or email helen.moore@vwa.co.uk.