Nestlé invests $31m in food safety

Swiss food giant Nestlé has invested $31 million in expanding its quality assurance centre in the US, which was designed to support the implementation and maintenance of food safety programmes.

The Nestlé Quality Assurance Center (NQAC) in Dublin, Ohio, has nearly doubled in size to 82,000 sq ft, making it the company’s largest and most sophisticated testing facility. It includes an expanded 32,000 sq ft microbiology lab and renovated chemistry lab and associated facilities. It has the ability and capacity to test every Nestlé product, ingredient and manufacturing environment to verify that they conform to all applicable regulatory requirements, and meet the company’s quality and safety standards.

The move is part of Nestlé’s global quality roadmap to increase capacity and efficiency and improve safety for all products tested.

Nestlé says the investment will help anticipate and exceed regulators’ expectations for the verification of the quality and safety of ingredients, the verification of environmental hygiene and the assurance of finished product quality and safety.

The facility employs more than 220 chemists, microbiologists, food scientists, quality specialists and support staff.

To further support food safety efforts, Nestlé is joining the Partnership for Food Safety Education in autumn by supporting ‘The Story of Your Dinner’ communication programme, which is an invitation to consumers to join the fight against foodborne illness.

“As we celebrate our 150th anniversary, the Nestlé Quality Assurance Center exemplifies what we mean when we say ‘at Nestle, quality means more,’” says Edgar Vanegas, NQAC regional manager for the Americas. “We recognise that we have a responsibility to the public and hold all of our foods and beverages to the highest safety and quality standards. This is a responsibility we never take lightly.”

Gregory Pritchard, vice president of quality management for Nestlé USA, adds, “At Nestlé, each and every employee is accountable for food quality and safety, and we are investing in the leading tools in the world to ensure quality that allows our millions of consumers to have confidence in our products. We aim to earn consumer trust by never compromising on quality in anything we do.”

Each year, Nestlé’s global NQACs analyse more than 3m products.