The eighth largest mill in the world, Foodcorp Milling division in Western Pretoria, was awarded with its ISO 22 000 certification on the 29 November last year.
South African Bureau of Standards auditor, Orap Moses, attended the ceremony held at the Voortrekker Monument, to hand over the award. ‘I recently completed the internal audit myself at the mill,’ Moses said, ‘and was very happy with what I saw.’
It took ‘dedication, passion and commitment’, said Kevin Clarke, general manager of R&D for Foodcorp Milling. The team had been working on the certification process since last year January and achieved it in ‘record timing’, said Clarke.
‘The certification is more than a hygiene standard, it’s a culture change for the division’, Clarke said, and there have been numerous successes to date after implementing the ISO strategy. ‘With a high degree of certainty, we can now trace back from the customer to the raw material. Full product traceability of up to 90% in 90 minutes! And, monitoring of high risk processes such as water and mycotoxins is made much easier.’
In view of food safety and security concerns, it has become a global trend of importance amongst food manufacturers to secure certifications that maintain high standards. Being compliant with international standards has also become a bigger concern, as imports and exports grow.
Optimistic that the ISO certification gives them a certain edge, Clarke said, ‘We are cleaning in places where before we wouldn’t have ever looked and major customers are cancelling their own internal audits because of the guarantee that the certification provides.’
