Westbury Dairies has successfully attained ISO 22000:2005, the new international standard for food safety management.
"We wanted to attain ISO 22000 certification for a number of external and internal reasons," says Westbury Dairies' Technical Manager, Martyn Allcorn. "Externally, we're a relatively young company, established in 2003, and we saw ISO 22000 as a good way of becoming better known and increasing existing and potential customers' confidence in us. ISO 22000 is widely recognised in our export markets, particularly in EU, Asian and developing countries.
"Within the organisation we saw ISO 22000 as a way of further improving our existing food safety and quality processes, further increasing staff attention to detail and reinforcing our culture of continuous improvement."
Westbury Dairies achieved full compliance, with no non-conformities. It's ISO 22000 certification covers the five years to March 2009. Westbury Dairies is a joint venture between the dairy co-operatives Dairy Farmers of Britain, First Milk and Milk Link.
Westbury dairy factory, located just outside Westbury, Wiltshire, is the largest single-site dairy in the UK and the most technically advanced skimmed milk powder and butter plant in Europe.
Using milk from each co-operative and from around 200 direct-supply farms in southern England, the dairy can process over 2.5 million litres of milk a day. At the height of production it can produce 3kg of skimmed milk powder, 4kg of cream and 2kg of butter every second. The plant employs 120 people and can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Sold worldwide, the plant's milk powder, cream and butter are used in the production of confectionery, ready meals, cakes, biscuits, ice cream, custard, yoghurt and other foods. Milk powder is also reconstituted into drinking milk, particularly in developing countries.
www.westburydairies.com