Food Safety Certifications: Why You Should Implement and How You Can Achieve

Food Processing

Breaking Down The Importance of Eliminating Contamination

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,reducing foodborne illness by just 1 percent would keep roughly 500,000 Americans from getting sick every year.It’s all in the details—making sure every step of the food production process avoids any chance of contamination can go a long way. Food safety certifications can significantly help with this mission.

If you haven’t considered acquiring new food safety certifications for your business, here are a few of the accompanying benefits that you’d be able to take advantage of if you did: 

  • Your reputation conveys your dedication to the industry. To consumers, employees, or key stakeholders, putting in the work to attain additional certifications is a vital way of showing that your business sector is devoted to good governance, corporate responsibility, quality production, and contribution towards improving the industry.
  • Consumers are demanding higher safety standards due to food recalls. Your company would hold a competitive advantage over others in the field, especially in the eyes of the consumer, as awareness of food production safety grows with every announcement of a food recall.
  • Your production can achieve greater quality. The advantages are not all external. Implementing systems into your operation that are compliant with safety certifications will assist with the actual consistency and quality of production.
  • Your liability remains an important factor. It’s true that some insurance companies will only provide coverage for food sector businesses with safety certifications such as HACCP.

Regarding the construction side of things specifically, EAD Engineering listed what to look for when selecting the construction company for a food processing plant. Several of the key factors included food safety certifications acquired by many leaders within the company.

Implementing Safety on All Fronts

EAD Engineering also specified some of the steps involved in food processing that reduces contamination during construction. These are similar to many requirements of food safety certifications. They include:

  1. Train contractors through recognized programs.
  2. Develop safety checklists.
  3. Pre-plan workloads.
  4. Identify which areas within the plant require certain levels of protection.
  5. Implement enclosures and hygienic segregation.
  6. Continuously sanitize personnel, equipment, and materials.
  7. Control fumes and odors from vehicles and materials.
  8. Designate specific routes for materials to travel through.
  9. Prioritize the processes of testing and cleanup.

For a free guide on food safety during construction, click here.