Food Development Officer

Are you passionate about food innovation, quality, and delivering exceptional service? Vertas is looking for a dedicated Food Development Officer to join our Catering team.

Who are Vertas?
Vertas delivers trusted, integrated facilities management solutions across Great Britain. Our team of 5,000 colleagues provides a comprehensive range of facilities services, including cleaning, catering, property design, recruitment, transport, and environmental management. You'll find us putting the customer at the heart of everything we do, while prioritising our colleagues' health, safety and wellbeing.

About the Role:
Based at Rainworth, NG21 0HJ, you will be working 37 hours a week. You'll play a key role in supporting the delivery of a high quality, compliant and commercially effective food offer across Vertas catering operations, ensuring menus are innovative, nutritionally balanced and meet School Food Standards.

Your responsibilities will include

• Supporting the development, implementation and continuous improvement of menus across catering operations
• Assisting with recipe and food development, ensuring meals are nutritionally balanced and cost effective
• Supporting allergen management and medical diet provision, ensuring compliance with legislation and accurate record keeping
• Maintaining digital food systems including recipes, allergen and nutritional platforms
• Liaising with procurement teams and suppliers to source quality, sustainable products
• Researching, trialling and evaluating new dishes and products
• Carrying out quality audits of food standards, service and presentation across sites
• Supporting catering teams with training, guidance and best practice
• Supporting pupil engagement activities such as tastings and menu initiatives
• Support the planning and delivery of innovative food initiatives and events, including pop ups, themed catering, community engagement activities and promotional campaigns to enhance the food offer and drive uptake

Who are we looking for?

• Previous experience within catering or food services environments, schools experience desirable
• Strong knowledge of food standards, allergen legislation and school food requirements
• Experience of menu and recipe development with cost control awareness
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage a range of stakeholders
• A team player providing an excellent service across the Vertas Group
• The ability to make the best decisions with Vertas in mind
• The ability to adapt and respond to change in a growing organisation

What You'll Bring

• A passion for food quality, innovation and customer service
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills
• Strong IT skills including Microsoft Excel
• NVQ Level 3 or equivalent

Apply Today

If you're ready to bring your skills to a company that values people and places, apply now and start your journey with Vertas

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees to share this commitment.

Offers of employment are subject to appropriate pre-employment checks, which may include:

* Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check* Children's Barred List check (where applicable)* Right to Work checks* Satisfactory references* Verification of qualifications and professional registrations (where applicable)* Occupational Health and medical clearance (where applicable)* Assessment of suitability to work with children

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. As this role is eligible for an Enhanced DBS check, applicants are required to declare any cautions and convictions that are not protected under current filtering rules.