FOOD SAFETY FIRST
UK plant receives HACCP certification

Change is part of the way we work. It can be motivated by internal factors, but often change is driven by our customers. When a Danish dairy producer began requesting that membrane cleaners meet new food grade standards outlined by the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and ISO 22000, the team at our Weavergate plant in the United Kingdom stepped up to the challenge. 

“When you’re talking about HACCP, there are four different types of contamination risk – physical, biological, chemical and allergen,” said Paul O’Connor, plant manager during the project. 

Weavergate supplies customers with the products they use to clean the membranes used in their production facilities. The certification process required the plant to make many changes to meet stringent hygiene and safety standards. For example, they had to physically raise the height of equipment and pipes to make cleaning easier. They also had to alter a lot of equipment to prevent any product from leaking. Despite these changes, the Weavergate plant continued to meet production requirements and maintain its safety standard of two years without a recordable accident. 

These certifications demonstrate that our customers can have complete confidence in both our products and how we manufacture them. The auditor who visited the site said the team had performed “miracles in months” and commended Ecolab as a leader in the industry. 

“There are always lessons to be learned and the timeline was really tight, but I’m ecstatic about the effort the team put in to get us to this point,” said Paul. 

Our new standards are now part of an Ecolab program to increase food safety and efficiency for our customers. Following Weavergate’s success, several of our other plants are on their way to receiving the same HACCP certification, raising the bar for our operations and our customers.