It was one of those heat wave mornings when even the thought of a warm coffee felt like too much. So, with a cold drink in hand and the sun already streaming through the window, I caught up with Ruth Bell, founder and owner of AF Associates and its sister company, Yore Learning. We talked about how the business began, the challenges facing today’s food industry and why successful food safety and HACCP training should lead to more than a certificate.
Let’s start with introductions. Who are AF Associates and Yore Learning?
AF Associates provides specialist consultancy and training to food businesses, with the tagline “Training Tailored to Meet Your Needs”.
Its sister company, Yore Learning, whose tagline is “Your Bridge to Success”, provides flexible online learning created specifically for people working across the food industry.
The organisations are based in North Yorkshire, although their e-learning courses are delivered to learners throughout the UK and internationally.
How did it all begin?
AF Associates was founded in 1997 following Ruth’s career in technical and quality management within the food industry.
Ruth explained that “during that time, we recognised a real need for practical technical consultancy and training. However, it soon became clear that releasing employees to attend classroom-based courses could be difficult for food businesses”.
“Production schedules don’t stop simply because someone needs training, so we developed Yore Learning to provide a more flexible online alternative, built around the same values and principles.”
What problems are you helping food businesses solve?
Food businesses face an increasingly complex mix of legislation, recognised industry standards, customer requirements and commercial pressures. Keeping everything on track while managing everyday operations can be challenging, especially when time, resources or specialist expertise are limited.
“We help bridge the gap between knowing what food safety and compliance standards require and successfully putting those requirements into practice”, said Ruth.
She went on to say, “Our aim is to make food safety, quality and compliance simpler, stronger and more manageable. It isn’t just about telling businesses what a standard says; it’s about helping their people understand what it means in their workplace.”
If you had only 30 seconds to introduce the business, what would you say?
“At AF Associates and Yore Learning, we take the stress out of food safety and compliance”.
“We help food businesses achieve and maintain certification, strengthen their HACCP and quality systems, and introduce practical solutions that work in the real world”.
“Our e-learning courses provide immediate access to the knowledge and skills learners need. There’s no advance booking, and learners can work through bite-sized modules at their own pace, fitting their training around the working day.”
What is at the heart of the organisation?
The mission of AF Associates and Yore Learning is to help food businesses achieve excellence through practical expertise, trusted guidance and solutions that lead to lasting improvement.
It came over strongly that Ruth and her team are passionate about the relationships they build with their clients. “We work in partnership with our clients to understand their needs, strengthen their systems and develop their people. We want to help businesses turn compliance into meaningful improvement”.
“Great consultancy and training shouldn’t simply be about meeting a requirement. It should provide practical expertise that makes a genuine difference”.
Ruth explained that their approach is supported by six core values:
Integrity
Practical excellence
Continuous improvement
Accountability
Partnership
Simplicity
What training and support do you offer?
AF Associates and Yore Learning work with businesses throughout food manufacturing, storage, distribution, supply chains, retail and catering.
Their services are designed to help organisations achieve and maintain certification, meet legal and customer requirements, strengthen food safety systems and build the knowledge and confidence of their teams.
Training is available through bespoke classroom-based programmes and flexible online courses covering subjects such as:
Food Safety
HACCP
TACCP
VACCP
Root Cause Analysis
Internal Auditing
The courses are available at different levels and are written to satisfy relevant national occupational standards.
How do you make sure your courses remain current and credible?
Ruth definitely places a strong emphasis on ensuring their courses offer quality, up-to-date content: “Our courses are written by professional trainers and food industry specialists who continue to work within the sector. That’s important because it means the content reflects the issues businesses are dealing with now, not just textbook theory”.
She went on to say that “we’re also proud to offer online courses awarded by OCN. These are nationally recognised, credit-based bespoke qualifications that have been quality-assured for both their content and assessment.”
This combination of current industry knowledge and robust assessment helps ensure that AF Associates and Yore Learning’s courses are relevant, credible and practically useful.
What do learners say about the training?
Feedback is actively encouraged and used to support the continual improvement of the learning provision. As part of the OCN quality process, procedures are also in place to address any concerns in a structured and timely way.
One learner who completed the Level 4 HACCP and Food Safety online courses said:
“The courses were well structured, informative and easy to follow, with clear and practical guidance on HACCP principles and food safety.
“It was a valuable learning experience that strengthened my knowledge and confidence in maintaining high food safety standards. The support received throughout the courses, and being able to complete them within my own time-frame, were invaluable.”
Can you share an example of your training making a difference?
One story that really demonstrates the organisation’s practical approach involved a food business experiencing repeated non-conformities within its food safety management system.
Ruth explained that “the team was committed and experienced, but whenever something went wrong, the usual response was to correct the immediate issue, retrain the employee involved and move on. The problem was that the same issues kept coming back.”
She went on to say that “we delivered practical Root Cause Analysis and corrective action training using examples taken from situations the team regularly encountered. Instead of focusing heavily on theory, we showed the employees how to look beyond the immediate problem, ask the right questions and identify weaknesses in the underlying system”.
“There was a real lightbulb moment when the team recognised that retraining an employee wasn’t always the answer, because a lack of training wasn’t necessarily the root cause.”
“Following the training, the business began handling non-conformities differently. Investigations became more structured, corrective actions became more meaningful and employees felt more confident when completing the close-out process. Most importantly, the same issues stopped recurring”.
“That’s what we want our training to achieve: giving people practical skills they can use immediately in the workplace”.
Ruth stressed that successful training isn’t measured only by someone gaining a certificate. It’s measured by their competence and how they use their knowledge to benefit the business over time.
What’s next for AF Associates and Yore Learning?
The plan is simple: to continue developing engaging, relevant training solutions that reflect the changing needs of food businesses and their employees.
“We want to keep listening to our learners and developing courses that are current, accessible and genuinely useful in the workplace,” said Ruth.
A valued partnership with eLearning Marketplace
AF Associates and Yore Learning have worked with eLearning Marketplace for many years, using the platform to showcase their specialist food industry courses and reach more learners.
Ruth said she is proud of their partnership with eLearning Marketplace. “It has given us a platform to share our learning provision and extend our reach.”
It was great to hear how a business established almost three decades ago continues to respond to the changing needs of the food industry. What stood out most from our conversation was the belief that training should be practical, relevant and capable of producing visible improvements at work.
AF Associates and Yore Learning don’t see a certificate as the end of the learning journey. For them, the real measure of success is whether learners complete their training with the confidence and competence to put their knowledge into practice, and whether that knowledge helps their business become safer, stronger and more successful.
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