Tata Steel Trostre scores elite food packaging standard rating
Image: Tata Steel
Following a recent unannounced audit, Tata Steel’s packaging site located in Trostre, Wales has achieved the highest possible AA+ food packaging standard rating.
The prestigious classification from BRCGS means the site is now among an elite band of premier suppliers to the food industry.
Howard Saxty, food packaging standards quality specialist at Tata Steel Trostre, said: “While the packaging operation at Trostre is at the end of the steelmaking process, it is the start of the line for high-profile, end-user customers who make the canned goods we all recognise on the supermarket shelves and in our cupboards at home.
“We must demonstrate to auditors that the tinplate we process is safe enough to make the tins that hold safety critical ingredients including baby formula – so compliance with the most stringent of packaging food safe standards is non-negotiable.
“The steel packaging material doesn’t get cleaned after it has left our site, so it simply has to be food safe before it heads out the door.”
Having achieved AA rating for the past few years, the site agreed to undergo unannounced audits, thus electing to be challenged at a higher level.
“This displays the confidence we have in our day-to-day food safety culture and procedures,” said Gemma Finn-Lewis, Tata Steel’s product and process development manager at Trostre.
“Following a hugely impressive two-day audit, Trostre has now achieved AA+ rating as part of our annual external accreditation for food safe packaging material.
“While customers expect this standard, very few businesses have the confidence to move to unannounced audits, so this really elevates us to an elite level and gives us a competitive advantage over other suppliers.
“This is the most stringent, comprehensive audit we can do. Given the auditors could turn up at any time during a four-month window, at just twenty minutes’ notice, we worked across all our teams to make sure we were ‘match-fit’ and ready at all times.”
Works manager, Joe Gallacher, said: “Certification is critically important as it provides the business with a licence to operate in the food packaging industry – quite simply: no certificate, no food packaging customers.
“To achieve AA+ rating elevates us to the top level. Not only does it give our customers confidence that we will protect them and their customers, it also gives us a competitive advantage, making us a supplier of choice.
“This prestigious certification could not have happened were it not for the sustained professionalism displayed across every team, at every level.”
