Advantage Profile:
Derewlany Mini Carrots Ltd.

Certification means fewer breakdowns, better-trained staff

"Kids love carrots, and those little peeled ones are great because they're ready to eat," says Dana Melanson. She should know what she's talking about. Not only does Melanson work at Derewlany Mini Carrots Ltd. - an enterprise owned by her parents - she's also the mother of two young children.

The fourth-generation business used to produce a variety of vegetables from the family farm near London. Melanson's father decided to narrow the focus to mini-carrots in the early 1980s, and in the early 1990s they introduced a peeled version.

The little veggies are a big hit with busy cooks. "It takes less time and effort," she says. "You can just throw them in a pot and cook them or you can put them on a tray for dip - you just open the bag and go."

Figure 1: Dana Melanson, HACCP Coordinator and Darrin Derewlany, Raw Product Manager, Derewlany Mini Carrots Ltd.

Thanks to Advantage HACCP certification, they now have their finger on the pulse of everything that goes on in the plant.

But switching to a ready-to-eat product made food safety measures more crucial than ever.

"Carrots are a low risk, but once you take the peels off and you're eating them fresh out of the bag, you have to make sure that they're clean and safe," Melanson explains.

For the past ten years, the company has been investing in state-of-the-art, stainless steel equipment and updated cooler systems. What they lacked, until now, was a documentation system. That's where Advantage HACCP came in.

The company turned to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) program because it matched their dedication to the highest standard of food safety.

Designed especially for small and medium-sized, non-federally registered food processing plants, Advantage HACCP is a science-based system. It pinpoints where a process is most vulnerable to biological, chemical or physical contamination and puts measures in place to reduce and monitor those risks.

Signing on to the program meant a shift in jobs for Melanson, from quality assurance and packaging manager to full-time HACCP coordinator. Because of the seasonal nature of their business, the time to develop and implement the program was limited. So, for several intense months, her workdays were taken up with meeting food safety professionals, documenting procedures, creating records, testing them on the floor and getting feedback from staff.

Thanks to a concerted effort from everyone in the company, Derewlany Mini Carrots successfully passed the audit conducted by the Canadian General Standards Board after only nine months of preparation.

Already, Advantage HACCP certification has made a lot of difference to their operations. "We have our finger on the pulse on everything that's going on in the plant," says Melanson.

The preventive maintenance program and equipment monitoring has paid off with fewer breakdowns, while food safety records are kept in an organized system, not scribbled down on any handy scrap of paper.

One of the biggest benefits has been greater employee satisfaction. Each person has a proper job description and training, as well as a uniform. "It makes the employees feel like everyone cares, and everyone wants to work in a place like that, right?" says Melanson.

And while staff turnover is a fact of life for any organization, she knows that with Derewlany's GMP and HACCP training program in place, she can put a new hire to work within hours, confident that everything will be done properly.

Most importantly, HACCP certification also means greater confidence for Derewlany's clients. In the past, the company had to provide a letter outlining their food safety measures. "This makes it simple," says Melanson. "Now we just say we have Advantage HACCP."

Among other things, the program ensures that every bag they send out is fully traceable. If a customer ever reports a problem, Melanson can call up the records of all the things that happened in the plant on the day those particular carrots were packaged and, if necessary, do a recall.

"They know they can call us and we are able to quickly do everything we need to do," she says.

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Contact Information:

Andy Derewlany, President, Derewlany Mini Carrots Ltd.
Tel: 519-268-7119
Email: danamelanson@hotmail.com

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In the past, the company had to give clients a letter outlining their food safety measures. "This makes it simple," says Melanson. "Now we just say we have Advantage HACCP."

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For more information:
Toll Free: 1-866-641-3663
E-mail: advantage@ontario.ca