ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Cintas Corp. facility in Nashville has been awarded the Textile Rental Services Association’s first Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification, TRSA reports.
For the new Food Safety designation, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) practices are examined, making the Cintas facility the first laundry operation to be heralded for performing these procedures in accordance with the TRSA standard.
The new specialty designation extends TRSA’s existing Hygienically Clean certifications, recognized for validating effectiveness in laundering for healthcare and other industries to ensure that reusable textile products are free of pathogens in sufficient numbers to cause human illness.
“Hygienically Clean provides a quantitative measure that ensures ongoing adherence to best practices and outcomes based on internationally recognized, proven and accepted testing for bio-contamination,” says TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci.
Laundries seeking the Food Safety certification are inspected to evaluate HACCP procedures, compliance with their flowcharts, and other practices relevant to handling and processing textile products used in food manufacturing/processing establishments. These include adherence to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directives.
Hygienically Clean certification is awarded when a laundry facility passes inspection and three consecutive months of microbial testing result in no failures based on TRSA microbiological performance specifications. Testing is then repeated every quarter.
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