Clootie McToot Have Had an Amazing Year!

Producing and selling traditional clootie dumplings from an old family recipe, they now have a thriving online business and supply their ‘Make Your Own Clootie Dumpling’ kits to John Lewis. With support from Scotland Food & Drink, Clootie McToot took part in the SALSA Go! programme with a SALSA Mentor to help prepare them for their first SALSA audit.

With support from Scotland Food & Drink Clootie McToot took part in the SALSA Go! undertaking the programme with a SALSA Mentor to help prepare them for their first SALSA audit. "To someone of my generation, clootie dumplings evoke many happy memories, so I was delighted to agree to mentoring Clootie McToot. The challenge was to move the business from a kitchen operation to small kitchen production. Michelle and her team embraced that challenge, culminating in a successful SALSA audit" Ian Service, SALSA Mentor

As well as working with Ian, the SALSA Go! programme enabled Clootie McToot to access SALSA’s online library of resources – including “how to” guides, template documentation which helped them set up food safety systems prior to their audit. They gained their SALSA certificate in the summer of 2021, 

Clootie’s auditor, Margaret Andrew told us – “As an auditor, first impressions are important, and it was clear from the start that Michelle was committed to the business getting everything right. Although SALSA certification was not a requirement for her customers at the time, she felt that the scheme provided her with the systems to achieve improving the business and had employed a SALSA mentor to help her through the process. A lot of time, effort and patience had been put into staff training: this was demonstrated by seeing the high standards of hygiene, housekeeping and records in place and by talking to the staff who were all very passionate about their job, the company and its products. It was a very pleasant audit for me (and hopefully was the same for Clootie McToot) and I was more than happy to approve them for SALSA.”   

We asked Michelle Maddox, founder of Clootie McToot, why she chose SALSA for their business,

“There are lots of different certification schemes for food producers in the UK. We chose SALSA because we share a lot of its core values. Their first value is safe food first, which is a principle we push to the forefront of our business.

To meet the SALSA Standard and gain our certificate, we had to prove that we produce safe and legal food in front of a SALSA auditor. We are now proud to guarantee our customers the SALSA Standard. Our customers can expect the best practices in food preparation and hygiene when they purchase a clootie dumpling from us.

Our new SALSA certification ensures that we not only meet current food laws and standards, but we also exceed them. SALSA promotes an ‘enhanced’ approach to food management which means that we stay head and shoulders above the competition.”

We are thrilled to work with a food producer who is innovating a heritage recipe with food safety at the heart of their operation.

#FoodSafetyCulture

#SafeFoodSells