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Kingsville, ON (Feb 17th )– With the concern of food safety, traceability, and Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) very much at the forefront of the media and the fresh produce industry, leading gourmet greenhouse vegetable grower/marketer Mastronardi Produce/SUNSET® has yet again raised the bar by completing the first step in SQF (Safe Quality Foods) Certification for fresh whole produce.
“Mastronardi Produce is very committed to food safety and food quality and is always striving to achieve higher standards by continuous improvement,” stated Joe Darden, Vice-President, Food Safety. Mastronardi has been making significant capital investments in its comprehensive Food Safety System since its inception in the late 1990’s. “By satisfying the requirements for SQF 2000: Level 2 for our warehouse and SQF 1000: Level 1 for our home farm, it gives us HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Certification for our headquarters in Kingsville, Ontario,” said Darden.
The SQF Certification is an internationally recognized program that is based on guiding principles established by CODEX Alimentarious, ISO, National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and proven HACCP methodologies.
“We believe that we have a moral and ethical obligation to always do the right thing towards our customers and our end-product consumers. We have an extensive farm to shelf traceability program that allows us to identify our source-point growers in just a few minutes,” commented Paul Mastronardi, Executive Vice-President. Mastronardi Produce is one of the few greenhouse growers in the industry that has dedicated in-house microbiology and post-harvest research programs.
“Our goal is to provide the highest level of food safety and to continuously exceed government requirements; and our approach is to be proactive rather than reactive. These are a few of the reasons why we chose to harmonize our food safety approach into one internationally accepted and recognized food safety system under the SQF standard,” concluded Joe Darden.
While the SQF Certification is a lengthy process, Mastronardi is well on its way to meeting the requirements for certification for all of its warehouses in the coming months.
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