Leading indigenous beverage manufacturer, Kasapreko Company Limited, has been awarded the prestigious International Standard Organisation (ISO) certificate for its quality food safety management system.

The ISO certification was awarded by the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company, SGS Ghana.

At a short ceremony to unveil the certification at its head office at Spintex in Accra, Managing Director of Kasapreko Company Limited, Richard Adjei, said the recognition could not have come at a better time.

“We see this as a great step because many local companies in Ghana do not take quality very important, and quality effort has driven a lot of international companies to drive out local competition. Taking this step to attain our ISO certification is a great one for us. It shows that Kasapreko really cares about quality,” said Richard Adjei.

- Richard Adjei, MD of Kasapreko

Certification Manager at SGS Ghana, Kwasi Okai-Mensah, said the ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management System did not come easy for the indigenous beverage manufacturer.

“Globally, there has been an increasing demand for Food Safety to reduce food-borne incidents caused by contaminated products that have implication for both human health and increase costs to the supplier and the community.

“Food born incidents include contaminated raw materials, mishandling of raw materials, change in product formulation, change in the product process, cross-contamination, inadequate maintenance, and addition of incorrect ingredients hence the need for a comprehensive Food Safety Management system such as ISO 22000:2005 which Kasapreko is now a proud recipient of,” Mr Okai-Mensah said.

Apart from enhancing the image of Kasapreko, which is already breaking into global markets, the ISO certification reinforces the willingness and commitment of the company to providing safe and quality products and improving efficiency in line with international standards and best practices.

Commenting further on what the ISO certification brings to the Kasapreko brand, Mr Adjei said products manufactured by the company will have an edge over others, revealing that there is a progressive plan to get airline companies to serve its myriad of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages on their flights.

“This ISO certification also gives confidence to the consumers that from now on, any product that they are taking from Kasapreko is going to be certified and it is going to be at the best beverage condition.

“This also gives us a very important step in the international market now that we export a lot of our products, especially the spirits. With this certification, we can sell our products in any airline in the world. We can take our products to any shop in any country in the world,” Mr Adjei reiterated.