Intertek launches training sessions in South Africa to promote food safety

Nov 28 2013

Intertek, the global testing, auditing and certification organisation, have launched a series of training sessions in South Africa to promote food safety within the country. South Africa's population is growing, as is the demand for safe and quality food. Intertek have recognised this opportunity to develop effective food safety systems within local organisations and have committed the investment to achieve this.

The two-day training sessions were successfully launched in Johannesburg on the 21-22 November, and Cape Town on 25-26 November. The focus of the sessions was on the globally recognised Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) scheme, to highlight how businesses could implement and benefit from it.

Chetan Parmar, Senior Vice President of Food Services at Intertek, stated "With significant improvements, South Africa has the potential to develop a world-class food safety system. This is why schemes such as the FSSC 22000 are so important to promote and increase awareness of food safety. It is for this reason that we at Intertek consciously made the commitment and investment to support the local food industry in order to improve the quality of food that is produced."

The FSSC 22000 certification promotes the production of safe food at the point of consumption as well as the implementation of a food safety culture within an organisation. It places responsibility for the safety of food products with senior management - changing their thought processes and attitudes towards food safety which then filters down to each and every employee. This can provide significant benefits to the business through cost savings by reducing waste, returns, reworks, customer complaints and overtime.

Donna Crockart, General Manager of Intertek South Africa added "We are delighted with how the sessions have gone and how many engaged professionals within the food industry attended to understand more about the FSSC 22000 scheme. We are firm advocates of the scheme and believe a strong food safety culture within an organisation can benefit the whole supply chain right through to the end consumer."

The scheme is recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) which is formed from a collaboration of some of the world's leading food safety experts from the industry.

Source: Intertek