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social corporate responsibility

Quality and Safety

INALCA'S QUALITY SYSTEM

For Inalca, the foundation of sustainable development can be established through progressive functional and economic integration with agricultural activities, based on production specialisation and planning, as well as on the mutual exchange of the best knowhow and techniques available.
Inalca, aware of its own technical skills, has radically developed production technologies and implemented the relative control systems, in order to manage, in an optimal manner, all the principal requirements necessary to satisfy its own target markets, in particular:

  •  Food safety requirements
  •  Sensory requirements
  •  Service performance
  •  Respect for the environment
  •  Optimal management of employee health and safety
  •  Awareness and implementation of corporate social responsibilities.

Inalca considers the use of various international standards, applied harmoniously in a single integrated system, to be an essential instrument for the management of the company, in particular:

  •  UNI EN ISO 9001 “Quality Management Systems”
  •  ISO 14001 “Environmental Management Systems”
  •  BRC “British Retail Consortium”
  •  REGULATIONS FOR THE LABELLING OF MEAT as in (CE) Reg. 1760/2000 “Regulation of the European Parliament and Council establishing a system of identification and registration relative to beef and to the labelling of beef meat and beef based meat products, which repeals the regulation (CE) n. 820/97 of the Council”.

Food Safety

Food safety is the fundamental prerequisite on which Inalca’s production is based. Product safety is the result of a very complex network of measurements implemented at all stages of the production process.  All these measures can be defined generically as the Self-control Plan, which following the most modern criteria is implemented through "general" actions (operator hygiene, premises, processes, equipment and products) and "special" type actions (HACCP plan, hazard analysis and critical control points), which develop in an integrated manner within the normal production activities.

Inalca’s traceability system

Inalca’s system of traceability and labelling of meat was the first in Italy to be recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in accordance to regulation 1760/2000 (authorisation no. IT 001 ET - 22nd April, 1999). Such recognition has permitted Inalca to provide to the consumer numerous, detailed and voluntary information about its own products evidenced on the labelling: information useful to understand the effective quality of the product bought and that finds in the Inalca regulations a formal guarantee of authenticity. 
Inalca was one of the first European producers capable of managing electronically all the information about the origin and source of every single cattle and relative meat. The system is systematically verified with the national database (registry) of cattle.

Animal Welfare

The activities relating to animal welfare are handled by the subsidiary Inalca S.p.A.
Concerning their manufacturing plants, the issue of animal welfare is controlled primarily by the Official Veterinary Service and is carried out on-site by an internal operating staff, expressly qualified and specialised in this subject. This group of experts proceeds systematically to train skilled workers who operate in direct contact with the animals and carry out periodical inspection checks relative to the correctness and the efficacy of company procedures.

The activities and the responsibilities relating to issues of animal welfare are in fact evidenced in various acts of national and community legislation. On the basis of present regulations and above all the scientific knowledge acquired over time, Inalca has elaborated a series of company internal procedures in animal welfare which refer in particular to the operation of unloading, handling, stationing and stunning prior to putting down the animals.

The procedures include, for example:

  • Methods of animal movement so as to avoid any trauma, fatigue and/or stress.
  • Surface transit conditions and a pause for the animals to prevent falls, slides and any type of injury.
  • Rigorous maintenance of the cattle in their groups of origin, it is an important rule in order to respect the natural behaviour of this species, characterised by the distinct attitude to form stable social groups. 
  • High standards in shelter and shed constructions, in order to respect suitable microclimatic characteristics and available space.
  • Correct conditions of water and food supply.
  • Protection of the animals from adverse environmental and climatic conditions.
  • Systematic control of the effectiveness of the stunning method in order to avoid any suffering during the putting down.
  • The competence and sensitivity of the company, regarding the delicate issue is furthermore evidenced by the active participation and updating of its own experts in the principal national and international technical meetings, which periodically update rules and best practices about this topic, both in relation to new scientific acquisitions and to regulatory changes.

Inalca, for example, participates actively in the European platform EWP (http://www.animalwelfareplatform.eu) Inalca has also put its operational structures at the disposal of the principal research institutes. (e.g. EFSA)

For further information refer to the company catalogue Good Practice for Breeders” on the Inalca web site.

 

MARR’S QUALITY SYSTEM

MARR’s Quality System has been developed so as to be functional to the implementation of company objectives, among which are counted as a priority, the quality, the safety and the ability to supply products and services in accordance with client requirements.

The certification according to the ISO 9001 System Quality standard is performed by an external institution, accredited and recognised worldwide for the following purpose: “Processing, storage, packaging and distribution of food products and other products for extra-domestic catering and the development of owned brands”. To ensure furthermore that all the stages of the distributive and productive processes take place in full compliance with the control standards of the community and national regulations, MARR has achieved certification standards in the supply chain, for products and in sanitation self-control, according to the following standards:

  • UNI 10854:1999 - Guide Lines for the design and creation of a self-control system based on the HACCP method
  • ISO 22000:2005 - Management system for food safety
  • ISO 22005:2007 -Traceability system for the agricultural and food companies
  • Voluntary labelling system for beef meat as in EC Reg. 1760/2000 
    (MARR regulations under EC Reg. 1760/2000 and DM 30th August 2000 approved by MIPAAF - IT 124 ET)

    To guarantee compliance with the quality and safety requirements in all of MARR’s production sites, specific measures for processing and product control are enacted.


CHEF EXPRESS’S QUALITY SYSTEM

The policies to sustain quality that Chef Express has adopted is that of operating according to the following strategic guide lines

  1. retaining its own customers by offering a serene and welcoming environment
  2. maintain adequate the quality and service offered to ones clients
  3. optimise the company processes by adopting:
  • the best technical and managerial control systems of the processes provided
  •  information support systems
  •  models of analysis and decisional support
  •  respecting delivery times of service provision
  •  optimising the ratio  price/quality of the products/services supplied.

Chef Express is also committed to:

  • guaranteeing Customers satisfaction
  • guaranteeing compliance with UNI EN ISO 9001:2008 standards in all Points of Sale
  • observe the relevant regulations relative to food safety, environment and health and safety during work
  • manage all activities in coherence with the principals of quality, placing all employees in condition to satisfy specific requirements and obliging compliance.


Certification

  • "Blue Sticker for Catering”, standards issued by FIPE and Ministry of Heath;
  • "Certification CERMET“ in accordance with voluntary Certification Schemes”.