NCBJ Presents ISO Certificate to Carib Brewery

The National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ) has certified the St. Kitts and Nevis-based CARIB Brewery Limited for food safety management systems.

This has been done in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22000:2018 standard.

This standard defines what an organisation must do to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards and ensure that food is safe for consumption.

The certificate was presented at the Brewery on Friday, July 14.

Speaking at the ceremony, General Manager for the NCBJ, Navenia Wellington-Ford, shared that her team worked with the brewery throughout its certification journey by “evaluating them [and] conducting an audit of their system, matching them against the requirements of the standard”.

“Food safety is everybody’s business, and when the brewery made the strategic decision to implement this standard, they were thinking about food safety, their company and customers,” she pointed out.

Not only did CARIB Brewery implement a food safety management system in their operations but they went the extra mile and reached out to the NCBJ to ensure that the work they did was in keeping with international standards.

In the end, the company’s dedication and hard work paid off, as they are now certified.

“We are here to celebrate and to congratulate the movement that we are seeing in St. Kitts and Nevis [and] across the region as we embrace quality and food safety,” Mrs. Wellington-Ford said.

She thanked the management and staff of the Brewery for partnering with the NCBJ and looks forward to “working with you as you continue to move from strength to strength”.

Meanwhile, the brewery’s Quality Manager and ISO Team Lead, Desroy Tate, said that receiving the certification “signifies that we can produce all of our products to an internationally recognised standard”.

He explained: “Essentially we recognised that our consumers should be provided with beverages that are safe and of the best quality… for consumption without any risks or potential hazards.”

The Quality Manager informed that a few years ago, the brewery made a strategic decision to take food safety to the next level as part of its strategic plan to further improve its operations.

“We understand as a company that within the global space we can never settle. We embarked on this project in 2021 during the pandemic, which was a challenging time worldwide, resulting in us having to resort to the virtual space to complete the implementation activities,” Mr. Tate said.

Nonetheless, the team remained focus on the goal, and Friday’s ceremony saw the management team and staff of CARIB Brewery, the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and other Caribbean representatives coming together for the joyous occasion.