Two dairies, Danish-based Birkum Ost and UK-based Oakthorpe, have been granted ISO 9001:2000 and HACCP accreditation. Both are owned by dairy giant Arla Foods.
Over the past year, Birkum Ost near Odense in Denmark has been preparing for ISO 9001:2000 accreditation, a standard which replaces four former ISO standards. These are due to cease at the end of the year.
As a result, all Danish dairies must achieve the new standard before the end of 2003 if they wish to retain their quality control certificate.
"This means relatively big changes in relation to our previous accreditation because the new standard is more process oriented," explains operations engineer at Birkum Ost, Rikke Bekker Henriksen.
Oakthorpe Dairy in London recently achieved the Danish HACCP food safety standard as the first Arla Foods dairy in the UK to do so.
"We decided to go for the accreditation after a visit to Denmark where we gained first hand knowledge of the advantages," says quality co-ordinator Nick Martin.
The HACCP accreditation was achieved after 12 months hard work and with the support of Danish colleagues experienced in HACCP. Arla Foods wants to ensure that all six dairies in the UK will achieve the standard by the end of June 2004.