ALEXANDRIA, Va. — January 3, 2017 — UniFirst Corp. facilities in Tampa, Fla., and Tulsa, Ok., are the company’s newest recipients of TRSA Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification, reflecting their commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by TRSA inspection and their capability to produce hygienically clean textile product cleanliness as quantified by ongoing microbial testing.
The certification confirms a laundry’s dedication to compliance and processing garments and other textile products using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, the focal point for TRSA inspectors’ evaluation of critical control points that minimize risk.
This process eliminates subjectivity by focusing on outcomes and results that verify textiles cleaned in these facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards, and BMPs for servicing animal processing, dairies, fruit/vegetable, bakeries, grain and other food and beverage industry segments.
UniFirst now has 14 TRSA Hygienically Clean Food Safety certified facilities, more than any other textile services operator. In addition to those in Tampa and Tulsa, these are located in Stockton and Ontario, Calif.; Stratford, Conn.; Albany, Ga.; Boston; Landover, Md.; Charlotte and Kernersville, N.C.; Lebanon and Nashua, N.H.; Amarillo, Texas; and Richmond, Va.
The TRSA Hygienically Clean Food Safety protocol examines a laundry’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) practices, including its techniques for:
- Conducting hazard analysis;
- Determining CCPs, monitoring their control, and corrections if required;
- Validating and verifying HACCP system effectiveness; and
- Documenting and record-keeping to show ongoing conformance.
Inspection and re-inspection verify laundry practices including washing procedures (detergent formulas, temperature, disinfectant, pH, extraction), drying, garment inspection and transportation. Each certified laundry plant’s operational flowchart is evaluated, ensuring these procedures (as well as pickup, unloading and sorting of soiled items and sorting of clean laundry) are mapped. Additionally, employees’ use of personal protective equipment is documented.
Inspectors also evaluate practices relevant to handling and processing textile products used in food manufacturing/processing establishments for adherence to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directives.
“More and more, we’re seeing our customers in food-related industries looking for third-party validation that our specialized Product Protection Process and our hygienically clean standards are consistent with HACCP guidelines,” said Adam Soreff, director of marketing and communications at UniFirst, with headquarters based in Massachusetts. “Working with a Hygienically Clean Food Safety certified laundry helps reassure them that their managed uniform program is working in concert with their own food safety protocols to help them ensure food safety for consumers.”
Posted January 3, 2017
Source: TRSA
