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Food Safety Accreditation Award 2023

We are delighted that 19 food facilities across Ireland from a range of sectors received their Food Safety Accreditation awards on Wednesday 22 February. The event was held in the beautiful surroundings of Airfield Farm in Dundrum, Dublin and was attended by The Food Safety Authority of Ireland CEO Dr Pamela Byrne, guests and FSPA members. Dr Byrne gave the keynote speech, drawing particular attention to the commitment of businesses to achieve this level of excellence through accreditation. Dr Byrne spoke of the challenges facing food producers in all sectors and the role of the FSAI in supporting and helping them to achieve and surpass compliance.

Lorraine Oman, chairperson of the Food Safety Professionals Association welcomed all attendees and thanked them for their continuous commitment to strive for excellence through accreditation. Lorraine described accreditation as the result of the willingness of a food producer to “independently elect to evaluate their business against a third party standard”. Consistency in the day to day processes, training and developing a good Food safety culture across the business were key elements spoken about by both Lorraine and Dr Byrne. This resonated deeply with the recipients who all put a high value on the awards both in terms of compliance and peace of mind.

Elizabeth Byrne, Catering Manager, National Maternity Hospital, Holles St spoke passionately about the importance food safety and quality standards has in their everyday practice and how the role of the FSPA’s Food Safety Assurance Accreditation help them to move forward and achieve accreditation for ISO 22000:2018 FSMS.

Our third speaker was Lisa Kleiner of Nibbed, a bean to bar chocolate producer from Kilcoole in Wicklow. Alongside running her cacao enterprise Lisa is the current secretary of the FSPA. Having recently attained Organic Trust certification and Bord Bia Origin Green Lisa is starting her FSAA journey this year. She outlined why third party accreditation was important to her and her business and how she can leverage this against potential investment opportunities and selling in the global market.

During her introduction speech Lorraine thanked all for their help in making the event a great success with particular thanks to Grace O Brien, Administrator for the Accreditation Awards. A great word of praise was also given to the wonderful staff of Overends Restaurant in Airfield for the delicious food, all grown or sourced from their working farm and prepared by the team from Gather and Gather.

Check out our photographs from this wonderful evening  by clicking on the link below

https://www.fspa.ie/fsaa-awards/6/accreditation-awards-2023-food-safety-professionals-association

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