Label Apeel gets clean bill of health for toughest standard journey

UK self-adhesive label company Label Apeel has begun the eight month journey to become accredited with the BRC (British Retail Consortium) / IOP (Institute of Packaging’s) Global Standard – Food Packaging and Other Packaging Materials standard – and is seeking the highest ‘Category B’ ranking.

This is the quality and hygiene standard required by UK’s most prominent grocery retailers and their suppliers. Following an initial assessment of its Leicester plant, Label Apeel was told that it had already met the lower level standard for the accreditation and that its operation was good enough to seek the top level.

This level of accreditation requires an initial certification visit, which Label Apeel has already passed, followed by a surveillance visit after six months, whereupon if successful, the company will be awarded with the highest standard in the country.

The new accreditation, which was designed by members of the BRC, will give the company blanket approval to supply labels for the packaging of all retailer branded products.

Label Apeel print room manager, Steve Johns who is overseeing the accreditation explains: ‘We knew our operation was good as we already work with lots of top names and meet every health and safety and food safe standard – but we were still extremely pleased when the auditor was full of praise and suggested that we should effectively “go for gold”.

‘The whole team has worked really hard and I am very proud of what they have achieved and this standard will obviously open up new opportunities for us to work with more of the leading retailers and their suppliers through a whole new set of channels.’

Pictured: Label Apeel print room manager Steve Johns