Ice is used in many parts of our life: to chill beverages, it helps to transport, to process and to display fresh produce in a food safe and hygienic manner, but it is also a crucial item for medical treatments and processes, as well as organ transport.

A HACCP certificate today is not a necessary standard, we want to provide our customers and partners and additional and certified assurance about the highest hygiene standards around our products, the produced ice, and our production facilities.

These are the steps of the procedure leading to a successful HACCP certification of a product.
1. Conduct a hazard analysis
2. Identify critical control points during the manufacturing process
3. Establish critical limits for each of those critical control point
4. Establish critical control point monitoring requirements
5. Establish corrective actions
6. Establish procedures for ensuring the HACCP system is working as intended
7. Validation: the production site will be required to validate their own HACCP plans.
8. Verification: ensures the HACCP plan is adequate and HACCP plans, CCP records, critical limits as well as microbial sampling and analysis.
9. Establish record keeping procedures
In order to keep the maximum standard of hygiene for both machines and produced ice, we keep a record of all relevant procedures
10. The HACCP regulation requires that all plants maintain certain documents, including its hazard analysis and written HACCP plan, and records documenting the monitoring of critical control points, critical limits, verification activities, and the handling of processing deviations. Implementation involves monitoring, verifying, and validating of the daily work that is compliant with regulatory requirements in all stages all the time. The differences between those three types of work are given by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food.

A CE marked product enjoys free movement within the single markets of the EFTA and the European Union. The CE mark is only required for products that a subject to certain requirements and regulations of the EU.

Responsibility of Manufacturer:
Ice makers and refrigeration devices are subject to a number of regulations issued by the European Union. Depending on the product group, there are different standards to follow, such as directives applying to pressure equipment, low voltage, electromagnetic compatibility, and of course eco-design of energy-related products.

With the CE mark, the producer declares his products’ conformity with the regulations in question. Countries, where a CE marking for certain products is obligatory are the 28 EU states, the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, as well as Switzerland and Turkey.

These are the steps of the procedure that lead to a successfull CE marking:
1. Identification of applicable directive(s)
2. Identification of applicable requirements of the directive(s)
3. Identification of appropriate route to conformity
4. Assessment of the product’s conformity
5. Collection of complete technical documentation for a specific product
6. Composition of a Declaration of Conformity, followed by the actual attachment of the CE marking to the product

The CE Mark was created to ensure product safety for end users in and from European countries. Similarly, the states of EAEU have established a counterpart for conformity declaration for their markets. With an EAC mark producers declare their product’s conformity with current health and safety regulations, directives and standards, touching aspects such as electromagnetic compatibility, low voltage and general safety of electrical devices.

Ice Makers and refrigeration devices are electrical devices for commercial use and are subject to a number of regulations.  With the EAC mark for our products, we enable their free movement into and between the EAEU states Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.

An EAC mark loses its validity as soon as any alterations are made to the original product design, to make sure producers keep up their protocol to follow the local standards and regulations.

There are two main routes that lead to a successful EAC certification. One method is the Certification of Conformity (CoC), and the other method is the Declaration of Conformity (DoC) followed by official registration.

1. On their own responsibility, producers have to make sure, that their products are compliant with all technical requirements stipulated in the specific framework of regulations for specific products.
2. Producers from Non-EAEU countries require a local and authorized body or institution to process the application submission, testing and eventually the attachment of the EAC mark to the product.

ISO certifications are not legally required, but gained enormous significance, especially when it comes to large scale purchases or tenders or if public institutions, where comprehensive scrutiny of a product’s lifetime and overall investment costs are integral, are involved.

We produce and supply refrigeration devices and ice makers mainly to the foodservice and hospitality industry. For operators, these devices are long-term investments, intended to last several years, without any outfalls or malfunctions. When we think about product quality, there are two dimensions that matter to us (and to customers). One aspect is the quality of the machine, such as the materials, components and product design of a refrigerator or the ice maker. The other dimension is the quality of the stored foods inside the refrigerator or the ice that our ice makers produce. To maintain the highest quality on both levels, we commit to constant improvement and external validation of our quality management systems by authorized bodies and are able to demonstrate with our ISO 9001 certifications.

Especially in hospitality, where the downtime of a device directly results in potential revenue losses and expensive repair, we want to provide additional third-party assurance that we have complex quality management in place belong to the best devices in the commercial refrigeration and ice maker segment.

The parameters or requirements for a successful ISO 9001 certification engulfs the following aspects in dedicated sections:

1. Identification of the applicable scope (product series, production capacities, etc
2. Definition of normative references
3. Compilation and composition of terms and definitions
4. Description of the context of the organization
5. Information about Leadership
6. Planning Process
7. Support Activities
8. Operation
9. Performance evaluation
10. Commitment to constant improvement Continual Improvement
After initial certification, all documents need to be renewed on a regular basis.

These Hoshizaki and Gram Products Families carry an ISO 9001 Certificate:
The ISO 9001 certification applies to both Hoshizaki’s IM and FM series of ice makers and all Gram products

Climate change and the depletion of natural resources has become a global task. The amount and the handling of industrial waste, energy consumption for manufacturing and assembly, and CO2 Emissions of transport and shipping are the big contributors to the threatening state of the environment.

But research also shows, that with certain measures, the manufacturing industry could contribute to stopping the supposedly unstoppable destruction of nature and environment.

Substantial ease to the global environmental situation could be achieved with:

– Less energy consumption
– Avoiding of environmentally hazardous materials
– Correct handling of hazardous materials, where they cannot be avoided
– Water saving
– Preservation of environmentally significant geographies and areas

Over the last decades, European legislation increased the manufacturer’s responsibility and accountability. With the help of directives, regulations, and standards, the EU intends to motivate and to oblige manufacturers to do their part in reducing their impact on the environment. Strong motivators are incentives and rewards for environmentally friendly operations and products.

With a CE Mark (EAC Mark for the Eurasian markets) on a product, we declare that a specific product is compliant with all binding directives required for the European market, i.e. compliance with regulations regarding energy-efficiency and energy label.

But there are more criteria, that make a truly “green” product. Significant, of course, are product-related aspects, such as energy consumption rates of a specific product or if the materials and components used are recyclable. Agreeing with leading research, we believe that a green product can only emerge from a company that successfully translates the standards into actual measurable activities. Regular audits confirm a company’s steady strive towards more sustainability, energy-efficiency, less waste production, and better waste handling.

For the customer, selecting a product from an ISO 14001 certified company can carry many benefits:
– Publicly tendered projects often list energy efficiency and products with a sustainable and improved environmental footprint as a requirement
– The disposal of products from a company with ISO14001:2005 certification is less complicated
– Seen from a long-term perspective, successful EMS of companies result in substantial savings (energy, waste, water). In most cases, this leads to monetary savings with a positive impact on innovation, price structure, and quality.
–  The Plan-Do-Check-Act principle is the core of many ISO certification procedures, including ISO2014:2005. These processes require meticulous scrutiny of internal and external aspects of all business operations

With becoming ISO14001:2005 certified, we want to give customers and partners and additional assurance that not only our products but also the source (manufacturing facilities of Hoshizaki and Gram) have systematic Energy Management Systems in place.

Following the concept of the Plan-Do-Check-Act principle, these steps lead to a successful ISO14001:2005 accreditation:

1. Identification of legislation in question and source of information (if applicable)
2. Compilation of all key requirements for clarification
3. Identification of all key requirements for clarification
4. Identification of all controls that should be implemented
5. Draft of summary of compliance
6. Confirm a record of responsibility and date for entry
7. Confirm date for checking continuous compliance with a specific piece of legislation

ISO 14001:2015 is applicable to any organization, regardless of size, type and nature, and applies to the environmental aspects of its activities, products, and services that the organization determines it can either control or influence considering a life cycle perspective. ISO 14001:2015 does not state specific environmental performance criteria.

Claims of conformity to ISO 14001:2015, however, are not acceptable unless all its requirements are incorporated into an organization’s environmental management system and fulfilled without exclusion.

The RoHS Directive is closely linked to the procedure of CE Marking and the WEEE Directive. The WEEE, short for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive builds the fundament of EU regulations regarding the collection, recycling, and recovery of electrical goods.
In an effort to reduce toxic waste, manufacturers of electric and electronic products have to make sure all products do not exceed certain limits. Additionally, they have to create a more sustainable supply chain, including environmentally friendly paths of  disposal of hazardous materials and substances.
The directive reflects contemporary research in biological toxicology and the long-term effects of low-level chemical exposure on populations and is subject to regular updates mirroring new scientific findings.

The RoHS Directive is a guide that helps EU member states to create a legal and operational framework to ensure the implementation and enforcement of country-specific regulations. It applies to products produced in the EU, as well as imported goods.
RoHS does not require specific labeling, but many manufacturers label their products with individual logos to indicate RoHS conformity.

RoHS conformity falls into the scope of the CE Mark. A product carrying a CE Mark automatically indicates conformity with all relevant RoHS directives ( 2.)

These are the steps of the procedure that lead to a successful CE marking.

1. Identification of applicable directive(s)
2. Identification of applicable requirements of the directive(s)
3. Identification of appropriate route to conformity
4. Assessment of the product’s conformity
5. Collection of complete technical documentation for a specific product
6. Composition of a Declaration of Conformity, followed by the actual attachment of the CE marking to the product