ALEXANDRIA, Va. — April 12, 2019 — Canadian Linen and Uniform Services’ Calgary, Alberta plant has recently the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification, reflecting its commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by on-site inspection and its capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing. Canadian Linen and Uniform Services is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aramark Corp., and the Alberta location joins these Canadian locations that have previously earned the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification:
- Alberta: Edmonton and Lethbridge;
- British Columbia: Victoria and Vancouver/Burnaby;
- Manitoba: Winnipeg;
- Nova Scotia: Halifax;
- Ontario: Etobicoke, London, North York and Ottawa;
- Quebec: Quebec City; and
- Saskatchewan: Regina and Saskatoon.
The certification confirms the laundry’s dedication to compliance and processing garments and linens using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, the focal point for inspectors’ evaluation of critical control points (CCPs) that minimize risk. The independent, third-party inspection must confirm essential evidence that:
- Employees are properly trained and protected;
- Managers understand legal requirements;
- OSHA-compliant; and
- Physical plant operates effectively.
In addition, each facility must pass three rounds of outcome-based microbial testing, indicating that their processes are producing Hygienically Clean garments and other reusable textiles with diminished presence of harmful bacteria. To maintain their certification, laundry plants must pass quarterly testing to ensure that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained.
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 animal processing, dairies, fruit/vegetable, bakeries, grain and other food and beverage industry segments.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) practices are examined in the Hygienically Clean Food Safety inspection process, evaluating the plant’s techniques for:
- Conducting hazard analysis;
- Determining CCPs, monitoring their control, correcting them if not under control;
- Validating and verifying HACCP system effectiveness; and
- Documenting and record-keeping to show ongoing conformance.
On-site inspections 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. Introduced in 2014, Hygienically Clean Food Safety brought to North America the international cleanliness standards for laundering garments and other textile products for food manufacturing used worldwide by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services and the European Committee for Standardization.
The company’s Canadian Linen and Uniform Service facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, is also Hygienically Clean Healthcare-certified.
For information on Hygienically Clean and other TRSA certification programs, contact Angela D. Freeman, manager, certification programs.
Posted April 12, 2019
Source: TRSA
