Karine Lawrence of Sirocco Consulting was the best choice we could have made when preparing for our first GFSI audit at Libre Naturals. Karine’s vast knowledge of food manufacturing best practices and auditing code combined with her calm and patient approach brought much needed structure to what can be a very stressful experience
What I appreciated about the course taught by Karine and Sirocco, was that it was organized and well presented. Each day had hands on situations presented that could be worked out by the teams as well as volumes of information at hand. This allowed good participation and dialogue about situations and these discussions could lead to real time questions that we could ask as well and work through as needed. It was a good few days of intense learning and exchange.
We worked with Sirocco Food & Wine Consulting to get our FSVP. Karine was great to work with. She was very helpful and always got back to us promptly with any questions we had. I would recommend Sirroco to anyone working on getting their FSVP.
I am very happy with the service Sirocco provided us. Karine and Sean are amazing food scientists/experts! They are super knowledgeable and respond in such a timely manner when I need the support urgently with my seafood business. I cannot thank them enough for their help. Highly recommended!
I would like to take this opportunity to express how very satisfied I was to receive and work with the Sirocco SQF bundle. What a time saver! The templates are very easy to use and adjust to make your own. They saved me countless hours of work, guiding me through the necessary steps and gave my program a cohesive professional look. One can become overwhelmed with the volumes of paperwork that is needed for SQF and HACCP. The Sirocco SQF bundle definitely lightened that load and combined with Karine’s expertise, I couldn’t be happier. Highly recommended.
“This is to tell everyone that we have been dealing with Karine Lawrence for 2 years in doing our HACCP Plan & PCP importer plan for our wholesale company and it has been a pleasure dealing with her. She is hardworking, organized, passionate, intelligent and truly knowledgeable and knows how to accommodate our personal needs. Without her knowledge, guidance and expertise, we could not have finished our PCP plan/HACCP plan in time. Because of her, we are now fully compliant and very safe in running our wholesale food business. We are blessed to know Karine and without her, we would not be where we are today in our business.”
I have had the pleasure of working with Karine for over a year now. She helped our company pass our first SQF audit Ed. 8.1 with a score of 94. For our recertification audit, which was on SQF Ed. 9.0, Karine visited our site and performed a gap assessment. She was able to identify a lot of areas for improvement and with her help our company passed the audit and achieved a score of 96. Karine is really knowledgeable on SQF. She is easy to work with and extremely helpful.
We successfully passed our initial HACCP certification audit, without a single finding! While this seemed quite surprising, I then realized that this was due to the thorough gap assessment provided by Sean Xia at Sirocco Consulting, along with additional documentation support.
Sean inspected our facility and dug through all of our systems and records in such detail as to be able to expose all of our issues. We were then provided with our initial HACCP plan and a set of GMP documentation that we were able to edit and integrate with our existing documentation. But these documents were not just provided to us, they were each individually reviewed in a handover that provided further insights. And Sean also made himself available for future questions – such amazing support!
As we proceeded to work through implementation of the new GMP’s and to address all items in the gap assessment, I felt quite confident – albeit a bit trepidatious – about the pending audit. However, on the audit date, things went so much more smoothly than I ever could have imagined.
Thank you, Sirocco!
My company needed to create a more robust Preventative Control Plan than what we had, and I am so thankful to have found Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting. Their templates were just what I needed, and Karine and Sean were readily available to answer my questions and provide guidance when necessary. Karine and her team are highly competent, knowledgeable, friendly, and prompt to respond with help. I can’t recommend them enough!
Karine is such a wonderful teacher. As a student for the PCQI hybrid course I learned a lot from the virtual course but was left with a lot of questions. I was looking forward to the instructor-led course to get some more practice and answers to my questions. Karine was clear and thorough in her explanations. Her consulting business experience gave her a plethora of examples to draw from. I was impressed by her ability to address my questions and give me resources to continue my study. She is very well versed in the regulations required and is up to date on any changes or new publications that may influence your business. She was very accommodating to my needs. I highly recommend taking a class from Karine. She is an expert in her field. I left the class feeling confident in my ability to act as a PCQI and make a positive impact on my company.
I have been very pleased and satisfied with the SQF Bundle edition 9 developed by Karine Lawrence from Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting.
All procedures (templates) are professionally and beautifully written, saved us a tremendous amount of time, and enabled us to achieve our goal of gaining an excellent score in the audit.
Karine is very knowledgeable, and it has been a pleasure working with her. I highly recommend the SQF Bundle and her consulting services.
“Karine taught the PCQI course clearly, and at a good pace that didn’t feel too fast. She asked insightful questions that sparked discussions and helped broaden the expertise of those involved in the class, I would recommend it to others.”
“Karine and Sean at Sirocco Consulting are extremely knowledgeable about food safety in the US and Canada. We needed a FSVP and PCP for our foreign suppliers and so glad we came across Sirocco. They were professional, communicative, and submitted the completed projects within a short turnaround. Thank you again!”
We have been using the expertise of Karine in the implementation of the SQF program and have always been completely satisfied with her help and guidance. She did an excellent job by directing us to the right resources and to obtain an excellent score in the SQF audit. We have also used the SQF templates available with Sirocco Food Safety Consulting to write our SOPs to comply with the SQF codes. The Spanish templates were very useful in creating SOPs in Spanish to cater most of our employees. I’m happy to recommend the services of Sirocco Food Safety Consulting for your SQF certification needs.
“As a Faculty Instructor in the area of Food Technology, a key course taught in the BCIT programme, is sensory evaluation. Most of it is a hands-on approach with physically applying and calculating the correct statistics associated with the testing. When Karine reached out to me with the opportunity to try out a sensory software programme from Tastelweb©, it enabled the students to look at tests such as QDA and Pivot Profiling Tests in more detail. Its ease of use, ability to conduct on a smartphone and automatic calculation of statistical analysis was a winner with the students! This programme also created very good impactful visuals for easy interpretation even for the non-scientist. Karine was also available to provide backup support for set up and interpretation of the results. This programme provides the flexibility of usage without a contract, especially to a smaller business where cost is a big factor. In addition, exposure to software programmes like Tastelweb© helps build a good portfolio for students graduating in a competitive industry.”
Felicia from Sirocco Consulting is amazing. She is very knowledgeable and is able to teach us in normal terms so we can understand. We actually worked with her last year to prepare for an audit. She made the process much less stressful and we passed with flying colours. We highly recommend her.
Karine is known in the food industry as an expert in Food Safety: conducting food safety related trainings, assisting companies develop and implement their food safety programs, and a wine connoisseur. I had the privilege to attend several of her trainings, which are practical and easy to understand. Our company needed assistance on SQF gap assessment and she provided valuable advice and information for us to ace our SQF Certification. I recommend her to companies which are building their programs and are committed to start right and want to maintain an excellent Food Safety System.
“We contacted Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting” to prepare various evaluation protocols for the sensory profiling of our fair trade cocoa beans and chocolate. Finished products were also assessed using the Tastel web sensory software. Karine developed an aroma wheel for our products which we now use to support Marketing and Sales. Our next step is to train an internal sensory panel so that we are able to track the sensory quality of our cocoa beans and chocolate.”
Karine Lawrence of Sirocco Consulting was the best choice we could have made when preparing for our first GFSI audit at Libre Naturals. Karine’s vast knowledge of food manufacturing best practices and auditing code combined with her calm and patient approach brought much needed structure to what can be a very stressful experience. She gave us step by step plans for getting our facility and paperwork ready and was always ready to provide us with suggestions, links to resources and constructive feedback. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Karine again and would highly recommend her to any food company who requires help with taking their business to the next level.
When we decided to implement the SQF program in our facility we knew we would have to develop a lot of new procedures and forms. We reached out to Karine Lawrence of Sirocco Consulting and with her guidance and templates, we were able to smoothly implement the code. The template package was very complete and easy to follow; each document made reference to the element of the code being covered making it easy to track our progress and if we had any questions Karine was quick to answer and provide examples. We had our desk audit recently and the auditor was happy to see how complete our documentation was, the template package and Karine’s support were key in this accomplishment.
I would like to thank both of you for organizing & presenting this informative valuable training for Food Industry Professionals within the QA Sector. With the SFCR enactment recently, I have gained valuable insight on the expectations of CFIA along with the opportunities & grants that are available from the “Post – Farm Food Safety Program through your presentation.
Also, Ketki’s presentation on compliance with the FSMA-“Foreign Supplier Verification” gave me valuable information on the expectations of the “Importer” from the “supplier” with regards to pertinent documents associated to food products being exported to the US.
Thanks once again for all you support.
As a worldwide importer, in-house re-packager, and direct supplier of over 200 diverse food and dietary supplement ingredients, we faced significant compliance challenges surrounding FSMA, FSVP, and dietary supplement GMP, on top of customer requirements for GFSI compliance. We interviewed multiple food safety consultants prior to choosing Karine Lawrence at Sirocco, and we couldn’t be happier with our choice— Karine’s FSPCA PCQI Lead Instructor, certified SQF trainer/consultant, auditing and R&D background among other experience was the perfect match for our needs. She took a practical, entity-based approach in helping us design and implement a comprehensive SQF Edition 8 QMS tailored to effectively and efficiently manage our risks and compliance requirements, while keeping the customer service and operational aspects of our business a priority. We were impressed with both the form and function of her modern SOP and document sets, as well as all the detail HACCP, risk assessment and other diligence she performed, including working within our cloud-based document management/FSVP software system. Now we’re receiving “Excellent” audit scores and are delivering better value to our customers than ever. Sirocco was a great choice!
The team at Little Creek Dressing had the pleasure of working with Karine Lawrence of Sirocco Consulting for 16 months. She guided us through the complete process of our HACCP food safety plan, from creation and implementation to audit verification. With a supportive and friendly attitude Karine provided extensive knowledge and information particular to our business and facility. She was instrumental in preparing our facility and team to be audit ready. Not only were we able to successfully complete our audit, most importantly we understand all of the in-depth information within our HACCP plan. Karine made a very important part of our business easy to handle and we couldn’t have completed the audit successfully without her guidance in preparation. I would highly recommend Karine and Sirocco Consulting, we look forward to working with her again.
Karine was integral to taking our company, Okanagan Rawsome, to the next level of food safety with her extensive knowledge of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). She guided us through a 9 month Food Safety Management Program and adapted the program to our specific needs. With our Food Safety Management Program now in place, we can grow our company with confidence knowing the quality of our Crisps will not be compromised! Thank you Karine for your superb mentorship!
When we found out that formal sensory analysis using a trained wine panel was available in the Okanagan, we immediately thought it would be a good idea to run some samples treated with our very distinctive finishing tannins. Once we agreed on job and timing, it went extremely smoothly. The samples were prepared, blind-coded and given to Karine for analysis. The analysis was performed totally blind and the replicates showed good calibration. A few days later, we received a detailed report which was professional and precise. We will use Sirocco’s services again, for sure!
As part of her Master’s practicum project, Karine introduced our winery to sensory science. We used descriptive analysis to gain insight on the impact of barrel aging on the aroma and flavour of our blends. The sensory profiles will provide direction for future winemaking decisions.
Karine Lawrence has an amazing command of her field and the practical experience to back it up. She quickly understands the problem and gets to the solution – fast!
I recently attended the training session for PCQI (Preventive Controls Qualified Individual) required by the FDA for food exporters and U.S. food processing facilities. Karine Lawrence presented a clear view of the requirements and provided good practical example on how to implement them. She worked her way though the extensive manual in a knowledgeable, effective, clear and timely manner while allowing for participation and discussion of the people attending the course. She followed up and researched questions that she did not have immediate answers to and provided valuable information based on her experience in the area of food safety.
I attended the FSPCA Preventive Controls (Human Food)/PCQI course offered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Course materials were good, the mentoring approach was good, and working with other people in group setting made the course content much clearer. Karine Lawrence, the PCQI instructor did a good job of communicating and making it a more intimate arrangement. She provided good references along with the course material. Overall, I really enjoyed the course and learned a lot.
I got a better understanding of the Food Safety Plan required for FSMA from this [FDA’s Preventive Controls Human Food] training. Karine has skillfully conducted the training as she provided fact-based examples and links to additional resources to help first-timers build an FSP. Karine was a wonderful trainer with her knowledge of the subject matter and extensive experience in food safety.
We contacted Sirocco Consulting after scoring lower than desired on a SQF 8.0 audit. Karine visited our plant and did a gap assessment. We found her efficient and helpful and used her guidance to get our CARs addressed.
Subsequently, we hired Karine to return and train our key personnel on the FSPCA course. Again, we appreciate her knowledge and ability to teach in efficiently. I would recommend Sirocco to anyone needing help building their food safety program.
“I am writing this testimonial to express my gratitude to Karine Lawrence from Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting. We started our SQF implementation using the Sirocco SQF templates last August (2019) and just passed SQF 8.1 stage 1 and 2 audits on October and December. The templates are professionally written and the implementation was very easy. I highly recommend the Sirocco Consulting Templates. Thank you very much Karine.”
“I would like to express my gratitude to my instructor Karine Lawrence, for dedicating her valuable time and energy into the FSPCA (Preventive Controls for Human Food) workshop which I attended in Toronto. The workshop was extremely informative. The teaching method, contents, and the combination of presentations and assignments were in a perfect accordance with the objectives of the workshop, as it addressed all my questions and the ambiguities that I had in my mind before the meeting. I believe that the enthusiasm and positive responses of all participants to the workshop were a reflection of usefulness and credibility of Karine’s performance during the event as well as the importance of the presented topics throughout the workshop.”
“Thank you” very much for being with us for conducting the “Basic Sensory Science” Training here at Silver Spring Foods on the 27th September 2019.
It was a great pleasure meeting with you and working with you during the course of the workshop and It was indeed a great training session. […]It was great that our teams had the opportunity to screen the basic characteristic of the food products and along with our own range of product samples. We were very delighted the way that you presented the training and conducted the sample screenings during the session. Once again Thanking You for the job well done and for providing Certificates of Accomplishments to our Teams!
We were in a situation that required that we get an SQF Certification in a very short period of time. Sirocco Consulting provided us with the templates we needed and talked us through the process. No doubt without them we could not have achieved receiving our certification in the allotted time. Karine was our consultant and she made the process understandable and much less daunting then it would have been otherwise. I highly recommend Sirocco Consulting to any company that needs a third-party audit. It was one of the best investments we made in our trek to become third-party certified. We are counting on significant return on investment having achieved this milestone in our growth. Thanks Sirocco!
Karine, […] I just wanted to thank you for the work you did on our PCP [plan]. We were audited by CFIA in November and did very well.”
“Karine was a wonderful instructor. She was thorough and ensured we understood content before moving on rather than trying to rush through things to follow the course schedule. She was engaging and asked a lot of questions, appreciating all of our different backgrounds and ideas.”
“ The instructor (Karine Lawrence) was extremely knowledgeable and the class was enjoyable”
“This course (SQF 9 System Implementation taught by Karine Lawrence) definitely increased my knowledge and understanding of SQF.”
“We have been working with Karine Lawrence for about 8 months as we work to achieve our HACCP certification. She has been such a great support for us; providing training for our HACCP team and being present to answer our questions. She has so much knowledge on food safety requirements and has been able to provide us with resources to ensure that we have strong programs in place. Early in the process she conducted a gap assessment of our programs and the facility, which helped us identify the areas that we had to improve on. We feel confident that we will successfully reach our food safety goals. Thank you for all your guidance throughout this process.”
We just had a gap assessment conducted in preparation for our SQF audit. We developed our written program with the help of Sirocco Food and Wine Consulting. These templates are terrific and easy to implement. The SQF consultant who performed the document review was very impressed with the quality of the procedures and record templates. Knowing that our written documents meet the standard, we feel that we are in a good position to pass our SQF audit and obtain our certification.
“I had the pleasure of being in the class with eight other students for the Food Beverage Manitoba HACCP course.
Karine was the uttermost engaging on all subjects; all questions were answered and explained.
I liked that instead of just reading through the course, Karine highlighted and offered guidance to better understand HACCP.
Karine also pays close attention to each student’s learning capability and engages the class with insight and experience.
Thank you for a job well done.”
