Modern Restaurant Management: The Importance of NSF

Recently OLFA Sr. Brand Manager, Cassie Donnelly, sat down with Modern Restaurant Management magazine to discuss the importance of NSF Certification in the restaurant world. 

 

In the restaurant industry, sanitation and health safety have always been held at the utmost importance – and that has been even more so through the past year. National and international organizations, health codes, and other rules and regulations hold restaurants to high standards of cleanliness to prevent foodborne illnesses, cross contamination, and any other spread of germs and bacteria. In 2011, the U.S. government created the Food Safety Modernization Act, which transformed the nation’s food safety system by shifting the attention from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. This Act prompted even more eyes to focus on the food processing and food service industries to ensure sanitation. 

The global, independent organization that was formed in 1944, the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), is dedicated to protecting and improving global human health. Manufacturers, regulators, and consumers look to the organization to facilitate the development of public health standards and provide certifications that help protect food, water, consumer products and the environment. The NSF has a standards team that facilitates the development of public health standards, and a service team that test, audit, and certify products and services – which brings us to NSF Certification. According to the NSF, “NSF testing, auditing and certification services assure suppliers, retailers, regulators and consumers that an independent organization has reviewed a product or system to comply with specific standards for safety, quality, sustainability or performance.” 

Companies seek NSF certification for many reasons, but the top three reasons according to NSF are to:

  • Demonstrate compliance with national or international standards and regulations
  • Demonstrate independent validation and verification of their commitment to safety and quality
  • Increase credibility and acceptance with retailers, consumers and regulators

Read the full article here