The latter group is of particular interest in this context. The people elaborating them strive for safer, easier to clean and maintain equipment. Through these standards, the equipment is manufactured at a higher hygienic level and manufacturers that maintain these standards are helping to prevent future problems. Others, such as ISO 9000, which concentrate on standardising existing processes without questioning these standards, are less useful. They may help in formalising processes and improving documentation, but if the company introducing them does not at the same time question its standards and strive for a higher performance, the benefit is not worth the effort.
Certification is important as a tool to get an independent view of systems and plans in place.
It would however be wrong to rely on certification or to have certification as an objective for enhancing food safety and food quality. To show due diligence and to become best in class can better be done by using benchmarking as a technique, which has become an important tool to stimulate improvement. Its advantage is that it does not compare to fixed standards, but to the best in class. What really helps are gap analysis by people knowing the products manufactured in the plant, the equipment and machinery used and the control procedures needed to obtain the desired results. Such people are professional experts in the field of food technology and hygiene, who can compare with the best in class.