Rahr Malting’s Shakopee, Minn., facility receives impressive food safety certification

The Rahr story is an old one, founded by entrepreneur William Rahr in 1847 as the Eagle Brewery and then evolving into one of the world’s biggest malt producers. The company is still evolving. Today Rahr Corp’s business divisions include Gambrinus Malting, Brewers Supply Group (BSG), BSG Hops, Bevie, Bintani and Koda Energy, serving the brewing, wine and spirits industries worldwide.

Just today, Rahr Malting Co. announced that its Shakopee, Minn., malting facility has recently received FSSC 22000 certification. What’s that? It’s a food safety management system and thus certification. FSSC 22000 is ISO base Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked food safety “scheme.” It basically means that facilities certified against the standard are operating on a globally benchmarked food safety standard that requires formal food safety programs to be in place and maintained. It also requires engagement at every level of the company — from senior leadership to the folks on the floor executing the program.

In addition to government regulatory standards that a facility must operate under, the scheme requires work toward a few distinct fundamentals:

• Establishment and maintenance of a Food Safety Management System, which is organizational structure of all programs needed to satisfy the standard
• Documented Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP), where the facility evaluates inputs and processing steps associated with the foods produced at a facility, and implements controls to address identified hazards.
• Implementing Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) to ensure that the location of the facility, grounds, facility itself, employees, recall procedures and practices such as cleaning and maintenance are controlled in ways that enhance food safety.
• Implementing Food Defense controls to protect against food fraud and intentional adulteration.
• Participation in FSSC 22000 year over year will ensure that our continual improvement efforts are enhanced through audits by highly trained 3rdparty auditors.

Pretty impressive stuff.