Receiving a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate is an important part of a company’s ability to store, handle, and ship food as well as other perishables anywhere in the United States. At Strategic Warehousing, we’re proud to announce that we have just finished our GMP for warehouse and distribution certification in the Minneapolis, MN, area. GMP is a system that has been designed to help make sure that products are accurately and consistently produced and controlled in accordance with the quality standards that have been set. This certificate covers all aspects of the industry, including production, equipment, training, and personal hygiene of staff.
In pursuing a GMP for warehouse and distribution, a company must complete a few steps before it can officially receive its GMP certificate.
- Audit. First, a separate auditing company must start with a review of the company’s storage operations. This includes documentation and a facility walkthrough.
- Deliberation. After the review has been completed, the auditing company takes all of the information that has been gathered, including information about the conditions and practices of the company and interviews with its staff. The auditing company then deliberates on which aspects fit within the guidelines and which must be remediated to meet the GMP standards.
- Remediation. After the company has been reviewed and all parts and practices have been looked over, it is given scorecards for all functions that involve their GMP certification. Next, if any inconsistencies are found, the company makes a plan to remediate any deficiencies or deviations that are uncovered during the audit.
- Final Review. Finally, following remediation, the company will be reviewed once more to ensure that all processes are up to the standards required and that any remediation needed has been completed successfully.
Within this process of auditing required to get the GMP, Strategic Warehousing also underwent training to ensure our employees were able to meet the standards. Some of the education we underwent included 16 hours of online training and detailed documentation of our protocols and procedures for food safety systems regarding our company policy and mission statement. We have also increased the responsibilities required by our employees and have adjusted the job descriptions of the affected jobs to match the additional duties required.
We at Strategic Warehousing are very proud of our GMP certificate and look forward to better serving our customers. Whether it be with food or other perishable products, we are always excited to work with our next customers to tackle their shipping and warehousing needs in the Minneapolis, MN, area.