Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance accredited to deliver food safety

Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) has been accredited to deliver FSSC 22000, a complete certification scheme for food-safety management systems.

LRQA is one of the first organizations to receive United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) approval and has already issued its first accredited FSSC 22000 client certificate.

"Across the food supply chain, organizations are facing tougher stakeholder demands, rapidly changing business conditions and increased competition," said Cor Groenveld, LRQA's global product manager for food services.

"As a result, they are seeking more effective control of operations, improved performance and better management of risk throughout their business. The FSSC 22000 accreditation is a further endorsement of LRQA's competence, impartiality and ability to add more value to organizations across the food sector."

There is an increasing need for synchronized certification of food-safety systems to create confidence that all necessary measures have been taken to ensure food safety in previous links of the chain.

As a result, FSSC 22000 has drawn the interest of more than a few blue chip food-services companies such as Cargill.

"Having a single, trusted partner is very important for Cargill. We are rolling out FSSC 22000 to over 1,000 plants in 67 countries," Mark Overland, director of global certification for Cargill.

"We feel that having LRQA delivering a high level of consistency is the best approach to ensure that we are delivering on our promise to our customers."

The scheme is using existing standards for certification (ISO 22000, PAS 220 and ISO 22003) and the certification will be accredited under the standard ISO guide 17021.

Manufacturers that are already certified against ISO 22000 will only need an additional review against BSI PAS 220 to meet this certification scheme.