Quality

Quality Control in the manufacturing process ...

Austicks Quality Management System certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 HACCP (food Safety) standards as well as BRC Global Packaging Standards (Food) for packaging and packaging materials, which ensures that at every stage of production, quality parameters are monitored and controlled continuously. The process commences with the selection of logs in the forest. At the factory, the protective bark is removed and the logs steamed at 70°C to condition the timber fibre to produce high quality veneer. The best veneer is then selected to be punched into ice cream sticks, the shape and size required by the customer. At this point the sticks are slightly oversized to allow for shrinkage in drying. The sticks are then dried, and coated with food grade paraffin wax, before finally being 100% vision sorted. Austicks products comply with USA Food and Drug Authority Foods and packaging regulation PDA 172.888/FDA 178.3710. The fully refined paraffin wax used also improves the surface smoothness and the flow of our sticks through your high-speed stick unscramblers and inserters.

Austicks sorting equipment is technologically advanced using recently developed technology to ensure only uniform high quality sticks are despatched to Austicks customers. Advanced machine-vision laser and computer interface systems check each stick for: thickness, width, length, colour, straightness, twisting, curvature, damaged ends, smooth edges, smooth surfaces and mechanical damage.

Moisture content is checked at every stage of the process and only sticks of an average moisture content of 12% or less are released. Hoop wood is a very stable timber and does not change under normal warehouse conditions. Tests on three year-old sticks revealed no detectable change.

Sticks not conforming to standards at any stage of production are isolated and where practical, re-processed or processed as a by-product. At all stages manual inspection provides and additional check on the automatic processes.

Microbiological Testing

Random microbiological testing is a continuous procedure with swabs being taken from work areas, employee’s hands and finished sticks. The swabs are applied to a plate of sterile nutrient agar and incubated. A count of colonies is compiled to determine test results.

Austicks is monitored by a nationally accredited laboratory with an independent, bi-monthly analysis. Health and hygiene work practices appropriate to the production of food grade products are observed by Austicks. All operators wear hairnets when working in the sorting and packing areas and all must wash their hands before entering or re-entering the critical production area.

Factory pest control is maintained only using chemicals approved for use in hospitals and food processing environments.