Food Safety, Quality & Ethical Trade Consulting — Sydney, Australia

The solution is only
half the work.

Anyone can tell you what needs to change. Making that change stick — embedded in your people, your systems, your culture — that's where most consultants disappear. I don't.

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30+
Years in food industry
ASPAC
Export compliance reach
End‑to‑end
From greenfield to audit-ready

The approach

Compliance isn't the constraint.
It's the architecture.

"Innovation with the intent to implement successfully encompasses the technicolour spectrum of potential from the beginning."

Does your innovation team bristle when QA gets involved in the creative phase? It's one of the most common — and most costly — tensions in food manufacturing. Compliance gets treated as a constraint, something to deal with after the brief is met.

It shouldn't work that way. When food safety thinking is built into the process from the start, you spend less time fixing problems at the boundary — and more time building something that actually works.

The grey process holds ideas back, fettered by late attempted amendments, rising costs, and compromise. The technicolour process builds stakeholder needs in from day one, solves boundary challenges with the right expertise, and arrives at implementation ready — not just theoretically correct.

The part most consultants skip is what happens after the recommendation. A report that sits in a folder changes nothing. What changes things is the training, the capability building, the HACCP systems updated, the teams who understand why — not just what.


My work isn't finished when the technical answer is found. It's finished when the business can run it without me.


That's the difference between a recommendation and a result.

Background

Thirty years from chicken farm to C-suite.

I grew up on a chicken farm. Food wasn't abstract — it was work, and it mattered. That grounding never left.

I'm a microbiologist by training, and I cut my teeth at Nestlé in HACCP and food safety before moving into consulting roles supporting ASPAC food exporters. The last twenty years have been in food manufacturing — across retail standards, meal preparation, confectionery, food ingredients and protein production, raw and cook-chill.

My wheelhouse is developing and implementing risk management strategies in greenfield sites and uplifting management systems through framework renovation and skills and capability improvement. I've managed and audited NATA labs. I have deep experience in Modern Slavery management and reporting and building ethical trade programmes for businesses operating in Australia and internationally.

My passion is modular competency-based training — not a workshop you forget on Monday morning, but embedded capability built alongside a continuous improvement culture using a DMAIC approach. The kind of ecosystem that motivates people, builds stronger teams, and keeps improving itself long after I've left the building.

Quality culture starts at the C-suite. Providing the right tools to communicate effective messaging upward is as much a part of my work as the systems I build downward. Inclusivity from all stakeholders creates strategies that people actually follow.

Most of all — I hope today is a great day for each of us.

Foundation
Medical microbiology. HACCP and food safety at Nestlé.
Industry reach
Retail, confectionery, ingredients, protein, meal prep. ASPAC export compliance consulting.
Systems
Greenfield sites, management system uplift, NATA lab management and audit.
Ethical trade
Modern Slavery management and reporting. Vendor assurance programmes for Australian and international operations.
Engagement model
Contract, part-time and short-term ad hoc. Gaps, technical projects, capability deficits.

What I do

Where I can help

Available for contract, part-time and short-term engagements. If you have a gap, a project, or a system that isn't working the way it should — let's talk.

Food Safety Systems

HACCP development and uplift. Management system renovation. Greenfield site builds. Audit preparation and gap closure.

Shelf Life & Technical Projects

Shelf life extension programmes. Accelerated and ambient testing methodology. Clean label reformulation. Product and process troubleshooting.

Learning & Development

Modular competency-based training programmes. DMAIC continuous improvement culture. Capability uplift that embeds rather than evaporates.

Vendor Assurance

Supplier approval frameworks. Ethical trade programmes. Modern Slavery management and reporting. Domestic and international supplier assessment.

Innovation Support

QA embedded in the creative phase. Compliance built in, not bolted on. Export and regulatory requirements mapped from the start, not discovered at the finish.

Step-in & Interim QA

Bridge capability gaps. Cover key roles during transitions. Provide senior QA leadership while you find the right permanent fit.

Who I work with

The right fit

  • Small to mid-size food manufacturers who need senior QA expertise without a permanent headcount
  • Export-focused businesses navigating international food safety and compliance requirements
  • Innovation teams who want QA as a strategic partner, not a sign-off at the end
  • Businesses building food safety systems from the ground up — greenfield sites, startups, rapid scale-ups
  • Operations with systems that technically exist but aren't working the way they should
  • Organisations that need capability embedded in their people, not just documented in a report

"Build the process to encompass all stakeholder needs, solve the challenges at the boundaries with the right expertise — it will cost you less and give you more in the build."

Recommendation

Tania is a dedicated and collaborative leader who consistently demonstrates leadership qualities. Her strong communication skills, coupled with her ability to mentor and coach others, have empowered her colleagues to embrace quality management principles and actively contribute to our culture of continuous improvement. Tania's contributions to the organisation's quality management efforts have been exemplary, and she is a valuable asset for enhancing quality practices and driving continuous improvement initiatives.

AS

Ardi Sastrohartoyo MIEAust CPEng, MBA, MAICD

Chartered Engineer & Senior HSEQ Executive — Opal Group

Get in touch

Let's talk about your project.

Available for contract, part-time, and short-term engagements across food safety, quality, technical projects, and learning and development.

Based in Sydney. Working across Australia and ASPAC.

Sydney, NSW, Australia