RPC industry leader committed to providing pristine RPCs
RPC industry leader committed to providing pristine RPCs
Food safety has increasingly been in the media during recent years with outbreaks and recalls happening virtually every week. In light of these developments and the demand by retailers and grower-shippers to ensure the well-being of end consumers, IFCO developed a series of Best Practices covering all aspects of food safety as relates to the handling of reusable plastic containers.
"There is nothing we take more seriously at IFCO than food safety," Dan Walsh, president of IFCO North America, said in a press release. "Our grower customers and retailer partners trust us to provide them with sanitized containers each and every time, and that's exactly what we're going to deliver."
IFCO's best practices covering all aspects of food safety as relates to the handling of RPCs internally at IFCO facilities and externally by grower-shippers and retailers include:
- Maintenance of food safety
- Food defense
- Sanitation program
- Product quality
- Transportation
- HACCP
- Food-safety surveillance program
- Auditing process
- Grower handling practices
- Retailer handling practices
Combined as a comprehensive program, these best practices work to eliminate potential contaminants and keep consumers safe by ensuring IFCO RPCs are clean when distributed and inspected and cleaned when returned from use. The program and related training is also shared with users to apply in their internal supply chains.
"IFCO uses the latest science available to identify possible opportunities to improve the way we clean, inspect, distribute and retrieve our RPCs," Paul Pederson, director of food safety at IFCO, added in the press release. "We are working with trading partners and third parties like SQFI and AIB to continually improve our processes and ensure that no food safety issues ever arise from the use of our containers."
