2 replies to this topic

[Churchill]

Having submitted a question to the members of the forum, Simon suggested that it may be useful to let you know where I am posting from.

I am British, and have resident here in Ulaanbaatar for a number of years, following work in many of the former soviet republics.

I have a small bakery & catering food business – our main customer is the new private internal airline group, and we are having to face up to IATA contract standards – not an easy task for a former socialist country.

My interest in the need to integrate 22k & 9k systems is linked to the urgent need for quality and safety in the food industry. For any of you receiving FSnet, you may have seen a posting from the NY Times – about 3 weeks ago, 12 people in a small town suddenly died, the cause was quickly traced to VODKA – that had been mixed with industrial menthanol spirit.

To say the least, the food security system was in chaos, traceability unheard of, recall not a practice used here (caveat emptor), so Government immediately stopped all sales of spirit whilst they carried out investigations – in Ulaanbaatar 3500 shops were stopped from selling alcohol. In the meantime, crime, drink driving, child abuse, all drastically reduced - but consumers like in prohibition times, quickly went underground - so government has allowed a few large operators to resume selling.

Last week the Government announced the star of a major food safety & security programme, and I am part of an NGO set up to assist in training & education in Food Safety..

My question to the forum about "integration" is really drawn from some questions I asked to CB bodies - the response was not very helpful, so I am now in high learning mode about the methodology being used for Integrated Management Systems.

I appreciate that 22k may not be as popular in use yet in Europe as against say BRC and some other food safety standards, but I think that longer term, it makes great management sense in how to run your food company safely. Added to 9k, it gives potential to also raise efficiency and effectiveness.

Barrie Evans.


Churchill's (formerly mentioned in Lonely Planet Guide - Mongolia), was the first English Joint Venture Company Bakery / Restaurant – our speciality - English breakfast, and fresh bakery products. We have also worked in the gold mining sector.

The population is 2.6 million, and 40 million livestock, a surface area of 1.5 million square kilometers, and this year gold output is likely to be near to 30 tons, BHP Biliton and Rio Tinto are here, plus every other international mining company.

[Charles.C]

Dear Barrie,

Informative and truly fascinating post. Many thks. Sounds a bit like Desert Island Discs.

Regarding yr objective. I must say that, although I'm not an ISO user, after having stuck my neck into the I22k discussions for last few months, the seeming confusion would make me (after a prelim. study) look for an appropriate consultant if such exists in Mongolia. At least you might get a "validated' explanation of the i22k terminology as suitable for auditing purposes. Also depends a bit on yr familiarity with HACCP of course.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Simon]

I echo Charle's comments; a fascinating introductory post. Thanks Barrie and welcome to the forums.

Regards,
Simon