The Felsineo quality management system was certified for the first time to UNI EN ISO standards on 14 February 1997, having fulfilled the requirements of ISO 9002.
ISO 9000 lists a series of standards and guidelines developed by ISO to create, implement and run a quality management system. The purpose of this system is to manage organisational processes in such a way as to make the organisation more effective and efficient, as well as promote customer satisfaction. Previously (until 2003), there were also ISO 9002 and 9003 standards which have now been withdrawn and replaced permanently by ISO 9001:2008.
The Italian national standards body UNI, is a private, non-profit association whose more than 7000 members include businesses, self-employed professionals, associations, scientific institutes, schools and local authorities.
Representing Italy, UNI participates in standard-making with supranational standard bodies ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation).
Over the years, we have been approved to the following quality standards:
• UN EN ISO 22000:2005. This standard sets forth the requisites of a food safety quality system whereby an industry in the food chain needs to prove it can control any food safety hazards to assure that all foodstuffs are safe for human consumption.
• UNI EN ISO 14001:2004. This is the internationally recognized standard for environmental management systems. It deals with the management of environmental aspects, with a focus on safeguarding the environment, preventing pollution and considering socioeconomic requirements.
• IFS and GSFS. Felsineo was one of the first businesses in the sector to be certified to the international standards GSFS (Global Standard for Food Safety) and IFS (International Food Standard). IFS and GSFS were introduced to establish a standard for supplier approval that organisations supplying large retail chains can adopt to show they have fulfilled their legal and contractual obligations and supply safe, hygienic products. Felsineo is grade A GSFS certified and higher level IFS certified.
• OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series). In keeping with pledges made when we obtained ISO 14001 certification (environmental), we then decided to implement an Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) management system. OHSAS 18001, a voluntary and internationally recognized standard for occupational health and safety systems, was created to have an independent third-party certification of issues relating to occupational health and safety, with the clear intention of making it compatible with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 (certifications that Felsineo S.p.A has already achieved). As mentioned earlier, this standard is not obligatory and considers the conduct and system adopted by the organisation which, as well as complying with applicable regulations, exists to guarantee a control system monitoring the health and safety of workers, the underlying aim being to control and manage risk. On 1 July 2007, the British Standards Institution published BS OHSAS 18001-2007 in which the standard, now formally recognized and no longer a guideline, was corrected and adapted along the lines of ISO 14001; in this version, the one adopted by Felsineo S.p.A, the focus is on the control and management of occupational health, with consequent reduction of risk. In this seemingly subtle difference lies the huge difference between this version and previous ones because in this version, organisations focus on health rather than on safety. A system of this kind promotes compliance with legal requirements, reduces injury (through the careful analysis of risks, the underlying causes and how to remove them, or the management and control of risk where it is not possible to eliminate it) and therefore engenders an organisation naturally predisposed to improving performance in line with set objectives. This standard covers multiple aspects, including: planning a risk control schedule (a legal requirement); a health and safety training programme for all workers (more than the legal requirement); consultation and communication to and with workers; career path control and performance assessment, from which the improvement plan emerges.
