News Articles

INTERNATIONAL FOOD PROCESSOR ENDORSES QUALITY FOCUS

NZ BUSINESS, OCTOBER 2001

In the business of producing food ingredients of consistent quality grown under variable conditions, Cedenco Foods faces and overcomes quality management challenges every day.

An internationally competitive food ingredient processing company, Cedenco's New Zealand operation is based in Gisborne and exports the majority of its sweetcorn, pumpkin, tomato, apple and kiwifruit powders, pastes and purees. Cedenco is a publicly listed company turning over around NZ$ 25 million per annum with key export markets in Japan, Korea and Australia, as well as food manufacturers in New Zealand.

Cedenco achieved ISO 9002 in June 1993, becoming the first New Zealand horticulture-based food processing company to achieve certification from Telarc Limited.

The international ISO 9000 standard offers organisations a widely accepted guide to best management practices. Since its introduction in 1987, the standard has been regularly improved and the most recent change, in 2000 to ISO 9001:2000, has been the most significant with a much stronger emphasis on continual improvement to benefit customers.

Peter McCracken, General Manager of New Zealand operations says, "Our decision to become certified was driven primarily by Cedenco's desire to have our processes documented and to implement a set of agreed procedures. The decision also reflected the international trend for companies to be recognised by the ISO 9000 standard. This was especially important to us with some of our major markets, like Japan, who are now changing their business quality systems to ISO 9000 standards."

"Whilst the delivery of a consistent, quality product has always been critical to Cedenco's success in the international market, ISO 9002 certification offers that extra element of credibility," says Mr McCracken.

"As you can appreciate, the growing of vegetables and fruit can be an imprecise business, where the variability of weather conditions plays an important role. The manufacturing processes we use to convert the produce into powders, pastes and purees are all carefully monitored and documented. We then prepare detailed quality specifications for each product. This enables us to provide assurance to our customers that Cedenco has supplied what the customer has requested, and allows the customer to monitor its own standards against these specifications.

"When we first started working with Telarc, whilst we knew the quality management documentation process was critical to our own success, it did seem a little like we were working for Telarc, as the compliance and audit procedures were quite a lot to take on board. Now the on-going assessment audits fit in as part of our own continual improvement processes, allowing the successful development of new product lines," says Mr McCracken.

The relationship between the client and the assessment organisation is a key factor in the success of the whole ISO 9000 certification process according to Telarc client manager Alan Sheath, who adds, "Cedenco has always been receptive to change. They have fully embraced the ISO 9000 management system and we all agree the purpose of the audit is to add value to Cedenco's business; it is not just an inspection."

Cedenco's achievements in the international food marketplace have not gone unnoticed by a number of organisations. Described by Tradenz as 'most committed to innovation, product development and market penetration', Cedenco received the Governor General's supreme award for exporter of the year in the 1992 Tradenz Air New Zealand Export Awards. Cedenco was also recognised with the Prime Minister's Award for Outstanding Export Innovation in 1991 and received the Industrial Product Award in the 1992 Printpac UEB Awards for the development of their new Pumpkin Powder product. In 1991 and 1997 Cedenco won the TVNZ/Marketing Magazine Awards in the Business to Business Category.

In conjunction with Cedenco's food safety programme, the ISO 9000 quality assessment programmes are being used to improve the company's business process systems.

"We have gone from measuring the 'cost of quality' to 'return from improvements'," says Mr McCracken. "We definitely have a positive outcome from the whole process."

"Our food safety programme involves assessing and managing the risks within our own business. There are risk factors in the supply chain, for example, in purchasing vegetable seed, the raw material for our whole product lines. Both quality processes have helped us and our suppliers focus on improvements and risk minimisation throughout the supply chain."

The majority of Cedenco's products are exported to industrial food manufacturers, primarily in Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Korea and Australia, therefore the packaging and storage requirements to maximise shelf life and protect the high value food ingredients are important factors in the quality management process.

"We take pride in producing natural food ingredients that are additive and GMO free. Our aseptic packaging operation is a heat sterilisation process which destroys all micro-organisms to a commercial sterile level," says Mr McCraken. "ISO 9002 certification gives our customers an extra level of comfort that every step of the Cedenco process is fully documented, bringing discipline and structure to each stage of the operation.

"The international food industry can change very quickly. It's important we stay abreast of food safety trends and incorporate these into our food safety programmes as necessary. A well-documented process can have specific variables changed relatively easily.

"We work with our Telarc client managers to review and adjust our food safety programmes regularly. We've also noted the whole ISO 9000 process, over nearly a decade now, has helped our people understand the whole business more clearly. This gets back to the basics of good internal relationships. When everyone is committed to the same goal, the company continues to grow and succeed."