Earlier this year I spoke about our historical and continuing commitment to food safety. This commitment is manifest in the safety and quality of each of our products, throughout our culture, and in our continuing drive for improvement and validation of our existing food safety systems. One of the many ways we validate and enact improvement of these systems is through 3^rd party audit programs. In March I wrote about our intention to pursue the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification, one of the most cutting edge, inclusive, and difficult certifications for a food manufacturer to obtain. SQF differs from previous audit requirements (AIB, GMA-SAFE, etc.) in that this is not a once-per-year audit, but instead an inclusive food safety and quality management system. The audit is not a snapshot in time but a health check of the underlying processes that ensure the safety and quality of our products. Three months later I am so very proud to report that we not only achieved this certification, but achieved it at the highest possible degree (scheme 2000, Level 3) with a score of 99.25%! Achieving this certification validated the effectiveness of our existing processes and, what’s more, required us to re-think some of our previous assumptions and continue to improve our overall food safety and quality processes.

Gum Guru Guest Blogger: Ian Sklar, M.S., director, quality & regulatory affairs