AmeriPride Gets Its 1st Food Safety Certification

Posted March 9, 2017 at 5:14 pm

Learn More about Hygienically Clean Food Safety

AmeriPride Services Inc., Fresno, CA, recently earned TRSA’s Hygienically Clean Food Safety designation, reflecting their commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by TRSA inspection and their capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing.

The certification confirms the laundry’s dedication to compliance and processing garments and linens using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, the focal point for TRSA inspectors’ evaluation of critical control points (CCPs) that minimize risk. The independent, third-party inspection must confirm essential evidence that:

  • Employees are properly trained and protected
  • Managers understand legal requirements
  • The facility is OSHA-compliant
  • Physical plant operates effectively

In addition, the AmeriPride laundry passed three rounds of outcome-based microbial testing, indicating that their processes are producing Hygienically Clean garments and linens and zero presence of harmful bacteria. To maintain their certification, laundry plants must pass quarterly testing to ensure that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained.

This process eliminates subjectivity by focusing on outcomes and results that verify textiles cleaned in these facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards and BMPs for animal processing, dairies, fruit/vegetable, bakeries, grain and other food and beverage industry segments.

The Fresno facility is the first in the AmeriPride chain to receive the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification. Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification, for serving hospitals, surgery centers, medical offices, nursing homes and other medical facilities, was previously awarded to 11 of the company’s U.S. locations: Little Rock, AR; Phoenix; Watkinsville, GA; Topeka, KS; Bemidji, Minneapolis and Twin Falls, MN; Springfield, MO; Omaha, NE; Memphis, TN; and Lubbock, TX. The company’s Canadian Linen facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, is also Hygienically Clean Healthcare certified.   

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) practices are examined in the Hygienically Clean Food Safety inspection process, evaluating the plant’s techniques for:

  • Conducting hazard analysis
  • Determining CCPs, monitoring their control, correcting them if not under control
  • Validating and verifying HACCP system effectiveness
  • Documenting and record-keeping to show ongoing conformance

 

TRSA’s inspections also evaluate practices relevant to handling and processing textile products used in food manufacturing/processing establishments for adherence to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directives. Introduced in 2014, Hygienically Clean Food Safety brought to North America the international cleanliness standards for laundering garments and other textile products for food manufacturing used worldwide by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services and the European Committee for Standardization.

“Congratulations to AmeriPride on their certification,” said Joseph Ricci, TRSA president and CEO. “This achievement proves their dedication to building their customers’ confidence that their laundry takes every step possible to prevent human illness.”

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