South African group Naranja Packers, a specialised citrus packhouse in the Waterfalls River Valley of the Limpopo province, has achieved aBlue Rating from Tesco and an AA grading from the British Retail Consortium Accreditation (BRC).
The Tesco rating is the highest possible grading achievable from the UK’s leading retail group, as well as the highest possible AA grading from the BRC for an announced audit.
Both audits are internationally recognised as the highest packhouse accreditations available.
Naranja is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced packhouses in South Africa and packs all fruit produced by Indigo Fruit Farming, which is well-known for its ClemenGold mandarin brand, supplied locally in South Africa to leading retailer Woolworths and internationally to a number o0f countries.
Naranja receives its fruit from ANB Investment Group’s orchards in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, as well as fruit from other farmers within the Burgersfort region.
The accreditation means that Naranja Packers is one of the few selected packhouses able to supply Tesco supermarkets.
“BRC is the leading global brand and consumer protection organisation,” explained Josef Malan, packhouse manager at Naranja. “BRC sets the benchmark for good manufacturing practice, and helps provide assurance to customers that your products are safe, legal and of high quality.’
“Both audits started with a physical inspection of the facilities, interviews with employees on practices and processes, hygiene and quality verification,” Malan said. “All the details are verified against policy and procedures and validated by reviewing records at random. A full forward and backward traceability is also conducted to ensure that products are 100 per cent traceable to and from the market.”
According to the statement, the seasoned professionals who conducted the audit complimented the Naranja Packers team and senior management on their commitment and found it to be an excellent example of a well-implemented food safety and quality management system.
