Lavans set the standard for the food industry

Lavans is the first laundry for workwear in the Netherlands to obtain the ISO 22000 certificate. With this unique certification for the renewed high-care laundry, the company from Helmond is fully in line with the hygiene requirements in the food industry.

Equivalent level with ISO 22000 

In the laundry sector, RABC (Risk Analysis and Biocontamination Control) is the applicable hygiene standard, but last year Lavans decided to go a step further. "Of course our high-care laundry complies with RABC and more than that, but we wanted our process requirements to be fully in line with the food industry", says Lavans-director Michel Heerkens. "The certification for ISO 22000 means that we work with the same hygiene requirements and hygiene measures as food processing companies. In this way we can talk about food safety and the prevention of contamination at an equal level."

Renewed high-care laundry

In order to achieve ISO 22000, Lavans renewed its own high-care laundry and expanded it from 100 to 300 square metres. This means that the high-care laundry, where only food clothing is maintained, again has sufficient capacity to process the 30,000 food garments per week. In addition, the washing process is now more hygienic and sustainable than before and the logistics process has been further optimised. Employees have also been retrained in personal hygiene.

As close as possible to FSSC 22000'.

The laundry for workwear has even incorporated the technical standard ISO/TS 22002-1 for food-related companies into the certification process. "In combination with ISO 22000 and some additional requirements, this brings us as close as possible to FSSC 22000, which is only intended for the food industry," says Margriet Heling of MGM Heling Kwaliteitsadvies en Training. As an external quality consultant, Heling was partly responsible for the ISO 22000 certification by Lavans. "This standard requires food companies to ensure that their employees wear clean work clothing. Fortunately, most quality managers realise that workwear plays a role in ensuring food safety. The last thing you want as a company is for dirty clothing to contaminate a product."

www.lavans.nl