[AIB Company Profile] Food Solutions

In 2003, a small group of food safety and public health professionals responded to a great need in the Peruvian food industry and started a company to support continuous improvement. Today, Food Solutions S.A.C is dedicated to offering personalized services in developing and implementing food quality, safety and security systems.

Food Solutions is recognized in Lima, Peru, as the leader in offering technical support through creative, reliable, efficient and high quality services for small and less-developed businesses. Their services help the industry comply with the latest market requirements in terms of food quality and food safety, ensuring that their products meet the highest standards.

Agribusiness companies that export products worldwide, grocery store chains and their suppliers are the primary clients that Food Solutions serves. They partner with their clients and adopt their quality and safety goals to provide solutions that meet their needs.

PARTNERING WITH AIB. For the past two years, Food Solutions has actively partnered with AIB International to strengthen its services to meet client and market needs. Food Solutions originally sought to partner with AIB because of AIB’s food safety background and experience in the food industry. Each year, Food Solutions offers a few AIB seminars that cover allergen control, traceability and recall, and inspecting and auditing against the AIB International Consolidated Standards. Today, more than 100 people have participated in the AIB seminars offered by Food Solutions.

Food Solutions says that its partnership with AIB has helped its clients “better understand what a food quality system involves and how all the areas in the organization are connected in order to have a proper system in place.” As a team, Food Solutions and AIB International provide training to help their clients develop integrated systems. Since the beginning of the strategic partnership, there has been a significant improvement in the food safety practices of the companies they have trained.

TRAINING PROGRAMS. When Food Solutions offers a customized training program to its clients, the company usually visits the facility and interviews the people in charge of the food safety and food quality programs to discuss their challenges. Company representatives also observe the working processing environment and interview workers, supervisors and quality and production employees to gain a general overview of how they understand facility programs. Results from the visit are analyzed, and then Food Solutions discusses its suggestions for improvement and designs a customized training program for the client. Once the training is delivered, the company’s clients have a better understanding of food safety and food quality, which improves their programs, product standards and the services they offer.

AIB International is pleased with the partnership it has established with Food Solutions and looks forward to another successful year in 2009. Together, both companies proudly serve the food industry to continually improve the safety of the food supply.

The author is Publication Coordinator, AIB International.