Hi Yaser,
Congratulations for being amongst the firsts. We hope you can share with us your vast experiences on ISO 22000 implementation and perhaps, the template you use in achieving zero concerns, NCs or issues. I am very impressed and look forward to your further contribution on ISO 22000.
Regards
Charles Chew
Dear All,
I didnot find out if they are 5 stars or not. However, the first hotel is from South East Asia.
Read below:
"Aitken Spence, to be the First Hotel Chain in Southeast Asia with the Latest International Food Safety Standard
Heritance Hotels & Resorts and Aitken Spence Hotels & Resorts announced today the successful completion of ISO 22000and
HACCP certification audits for three of their properties.
Heritance Kandalama, The Tea Factory and Earl’s Regency have been certified in compliance with ISO 22000 by SGS- the certifying company.
Aitken Spence, which owns and manages a chain of internationally award-winning properties, revealed that the other hotels in the chain too will be conducting certification audits. When so certified, the Company would have the distinction of being the only hotel chain in Southeast Asia to have this privilege.
Recently, the Group’s Skills Development Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe, who won in Singapore “The Food and Hotel Asia” Culinary Competition and the highest gold medal tally in the last Culinary Olympics held in 2004 in Frankfurt, while Aitken Spence were the runaway winners at the last Culinary Art competition in Colombo organized by the Chefs’ Guild of Sri Lanka. It has also won many prestigious international awards for food and service, the CNN American Express award for excellence in hospitality service the SAGA award continuously for 10 years, the Green Globe 21 Certification, ISO 14001 Certification and the American Leeds certification on environmental standards.
Commenting on a yet another pioneering achievement by Aitken Spence Hotels, its Managing Director Mr Malin Hapugoda said: “We have established Food Safety Management Systems (
FSMS) to ensure that all our clients enjoy safe and quality food”.
“Winning many international accolades or setting new standards in the industry has not diminished our commitment to constantly offer superior service to our valued clientele. I am very pleased to say that it is this commitment by our highly-trained staff that has won us this certification”
During the certification process the hotels exposed their entire food chain from the producer through the supplier to the consumer, in ensuring that high standards of quality and hygiene are maintained.
Effective interactive communications throughout the food chain downstream and upstream was developed to ensure delivery of safe food.
A structural managements system was incorporated into the overall operational management system, which has been aligned with the ISO 9001 quality standard. Based on these basic standards, our chefs with advice from SGS compiled their own quality and safety standards
manual for their individual hotels. While most companies would seek assistance of the auditing company for the rules, we are proud at Aitken Spence that it was our own staff who took ownership and laid down the needed quality standards. This would ensure continuity and commitment as ownership is by ourselves.
With auditable requirements, ISO 22000 standard combines the
HACCP plan with prerequisite programmes (PRPs). The standard requires that all hazards expected to occur are identified and analyzed, in order to control critical points where hazards can occur in the operational flow.
The standards includes planning, implementing and maintaining a
food safety management system, which will comply with all regulatory requirements, assess customer requirements, effective communication with the food chain, confirming to the food safety policies of the state, and demonstrate conformity to all relevant parties while seeking certification.
All food handlers in the chain have been trained, while the other stakeholders are sensitized and their awareness enhanced. All stakeholders would play an active part in maintaining the standards.
25th October 2006
http://www.aitkenspe...0_whats_new.htm