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Sea star Bakery's journey in achieving H.A.C.C.P. certification has been filled with enthusiasm from the very beginning, it all started with management demonstrating to its employees that its commitment to providing safe products is the single most important ingredient every bakery must possess.

In 1999 the Victorian Government required all food premises & vehicles to prepare and lodge a food safety plan as a condition of their registration.

The compliance date for their plan to be lodged was 31December 2000.

Sea Star ignored the delay and immediately recruited the services of a food safety consultant to learn more, Sea Star bakery employee's worked side by side with its consultant, through day & night discussing methods, assessing current practices and then documenting all procedures.

Flow charts were developed, along with learning sessions for all employees and management. All feedback and constant communication via email, telephone, fax and s.m.s. the food safety consultancy put together a food safety plan with a twist, it was colour coded, and very functional.

The plan was implemented mid 1999 and with some fine-tuning, it was lodged ready to be audited, however a change of Government and renewed legislation the compliance date was deferred to December 2001

Sea Star continued with its new business tool fully functional and operational.

Sea Star decided in early 2001 that it should look for alternative methods of being able to display their credible record of producing safe food in the ever-competitive bakery arena.

Their colour coded food safety plan was serving their bakery well, so they contacted their Food Safety consultant from Capital Food Safety Pty. Ltd. They expressed their requirements and it was agreed to commence work on upgrading to H.A.C.C.P.

Capital Food Safety commenced work, drawing the floor plan including all of its Hi tech machinery that shape, bake and cool the their products before they are finally inspected for slicing, wrapping and packing.

More flowcharts and regular meetings with all employees at the bakery and their H.A.C.C.P. plan went into action.

Each person in the bakery is the key to their success, contributing to the smooth and safe running of the bakery.

Critical control points were assessed and the plan continued to grow. Product specification were written and now the plan was ready to be colour coded, the format of their council based plan was introduced and the document became very easy to follow and serviceable.

All products were sent to an independent Micro lab for testing, the results showed that the Bakery was producing very safe bread.

In September 2001 it was agreed to have a preliminary document review by a third party. The purpose of this was to identify Sea Star's readiness for a full H.A.C.C.P. audit.

The preliminary audit was a success and a date was set for a full H.A.C.C.P. certification audit, the earliest available was 7 November 2001.

The date was set for 7 November 2001, while the bakery was in full production the auditor arrived and was taken through all the processes by management and Capital Food Safety.

After the physical inspection of the bakery, the documentation was checked and a full report was made. Sea Star worked with Capital Food Safety and within 4 weeks of the audit received its H.A.C.C.P. certificate.

Sea Star Bakery's continued commitment to their plan is observed by being reviewed regularly to ensure that its kept up to date and reflects the activities and processes of their business.