January 30, 2018
International Food Safety Standards – Here’s how they are applied in our country

Food Safety means that every person has the opportunity to find enough healthy food in order to enjoy full health and be active in his life. But ensuring healthy eating necessarily requires that the food and preserving control system work well.
Food safety is as important as nutrition itself. Food safety has several processes that are: production, transportation, storage and preservation, exposure, control and monitoring of refrigeration equipment and trading. And if one of these links does not function properly, then the product we are consuming is not safe.

Is there a supply network in Albania that guarantees food safety?
In the multitude of food merchants in our country, SPAR network is the one that fully guarantees food safety. Spar is the first company to bring in Albania the highest standard of food safety.

But how does Spar Albania guarantee quality and food safety?

Of course, these are closely related to one another because an uncertain product is unsafe and vice versa. Spar categorically stops any product that is not accompanied by relevant certifications, periodic analysis sheets for microbiological content from certified state institutions, origin certificates, veterinary certificates for meat products.
Following HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control points) principles and the Good Manufacturing and Hygiene Practice are the basis of SPAR Albania to ensure that products are in the right quality standards.

Order
The company follows the process starting from products ordering, their transportation, accompanying products with relevant documentation, certificates, and any documents that guarantee the quality of the product and its consumption.

Transportation
Products Transportation is done by means of transport according to the specifications that the products have, fresh, frozen, dried etc.

Warehousing and trading
After transport according to standards, warehousing and control that is done before being exposed to the store is another very important process. Trained and certified staff checks the packaging and verifies the quality of the product. The product is then stored or exposed in the shop and is safe to be consumed. Products placed on shelves for sale are always implemented according to the FIFO method and are constantly checked to be in the best storage conditions. Especially for fresh, frozen or hot products, temperature monitoring (min. 2 times per day), documented under HACCP standard, makes all devices in control for their well-performance.

Disposal of products
Spar Albania strictly adheres to all European standards of functioning of a food network. Every month, according to the Albanian legislation and in the presence of the relevant authorities, Spar declares and disposes all products that are out of date of expiry, and in any case these products are not modified to resell.

Feeding ourselves with Safe Products is very important to everyone’s health and SPAR takes care to provide the best, every day, by standardizing Product Cycle Processes so that the food products that SPAR trades guarantee the health of every customer.

SPAR Albania, present from a year in Albania is part of SPAR International, one of the most successful brand and leader in Western European countries such as the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy and many other countries of the world.

Spar Albania is part of Balfin Group, the largest and most innovative investment group in the country and one of the largest in the region, which is well-known in the market with its brands such as TEG, QTU, Jumbo, Neptun, Fashion brands such as Mango, Cortefiel, Okaidi, and many others.

SPAR Albania offers a standard of international levels in the retail of food products and product safety is one of the values of this network.