E-Malt.com News article: Slovak Republic: SABMiller subsidiary Pivovar Saris achieved HACCP certification

Pivovar Saris, a.s., within its efforts to boost ongoing the quality of production as the first in Slovakia achieved the HACCP certificate aimed at critical points in the food industry through the Holland accreditation and according to the Holland scheme, SABMiller announced July 12. It means in practice that Pivovar Saris follows the quality control of production starting from obtaining and processing the raw materials up to the resulting product so that in the all moments of production to meet the food safety needs.

HACCP (i.e., Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is a system of critical points in the food industry and it relates closely to the Quality Management/Assurance System ISO 9001 that was certified in Pivovar Saris in the year 2003. Introducing the HACCP system implies also from the Food Codex of the Slovak Republic imposing to take measures and conduct activities aimed at safeguarding and attesting health harmlessness of foods. The process of implementation of the HACCP system started in Pivovar Saris already since the beginning of 2000, when the relevant provisions of the Food Codex and Good Administration Production Practice entered into effect. All the departments of beer and malt production together with the distribution department joint the efforts aimed at safeguarding harmlessness of food in the whole supplier chain, from the raw materials used, through production, up to distribution to the customer.

“I am very glad that this is just our company that as the first food firm in Slovakia is certified through the HACCP system by the renewed certification company Det Norske Veritas according to the sophisticated Holland scheme,” says Jaroslav Klein, HACCP project manager in Pivovar Saris. “We want to confirm through the HACCP certification our long-term value orientation of our Saris brewery towards the safe and high quality food. Our firm realises very well that at present the customer is very sensitive towards any non-quality and health-detrimental food and therefore we apply maximally possible protection. Our company through this successful HACCP certification gave clear signals to the consumer environment and the control bodies that protection of health and satisfaction of the customer belongs to corporate priorities of Pivovar Saris.”

The company Pivovar Saris, a. s., together with Pivovar Topvar, a.s., are members of the second largest brewery company SABMiller worldwide. This since its entry in September 1997 invested into Pivovar Saris over SKK1.5 billion becoming so one of the biggest investors in the Eastern Slovakia. Pivovar Saris has today the 28-% share in the Slovak beer market, selling more than 1.2 million of hectolitres of beer and employing 550 personnel.

Det Norske Veritas is an independent foundation seated in Norway employing 5 800 personnel in the worldwide network consisting of 300 offices in more than 100 countries of the world. DNV keeps the leading international position in rendering services in the field of risk management (i.e., certification, consulting, education, classification). DNV has been acting in the Slovak market already since 1997. Till the last year, it has issued in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic over 700 certificates, in particular, in the field of quality management systems (according standards ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, BS 7799) or quality management/assurance and health-harmlessness of food (HACCP, IFS, BRC, ISO 22000).


14 July, 2006