At Elliot’s, we get excited talking about new flavors, local collaborations, our ESG efforts, the specific fat percentage in our ice cream that creates the perfect mouthfeel. But behind all the exciting things that we do is something much less exciting, but of equal (if not more) importance: our commitment to safety that makes our ice cream obsession possible.

We’re excited to let all of our customers know that Elliot’s Ice Cream kitchen is fully HACCP and ISO 22000 certified!

You might have seen these certifications on the back of food packaging and not think too much of them. For food and beverage manufacturers, these are promises to you. They are the rigorous frameworks that guide how ice cream is made, ensuring that every scoop is delicious and safe. Not every ice cream company has them, so double check before you buy!

Simple Analogy

Think of HACCP as planning a safe road trip. You don’t just start driving and hope you arrive safely. You proactively identify and manage risks along the way. HACCP is a system of proactive checks and rules to prevent problems from ever happening, rather than just inspecting the car for damage after the trip is over.

If HACCP is the plan for one specific, safe road trip, then ISO 22000 is like running an entire professional limousine or shuttle company. ISO 22000 is the entire business management system that ensures the company is built on a foundation of safety, from the CEO to the suppliers to the drivers. HACCP is the critical plan they use for each individual journey.

It’s not just about one trip; it’s about creating a whole system of trust and safety for the entire business.

HACCP: The Playbook

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is the foundation of modern food safety, often treated as an operational bible within the industry. It’s a proactive, scientific system that allows a company to identify and neutralize potential dangers before they ever have a chance to become a problem. Instead of just testing the final product and hoping for the best, this system builds safety into every single step.

Below are the seven core principles of HACCP and examples of how a certified ice cream company brings them to life:

1. Conducting a Hazard Analysis: The process starts with a detective-like analysis. A dedicated team maps out the entire production process from the moment fresh ingredients arrive to the final sealed pint and identifies every conceivable hazard. This includes biological hazards like bacteria (Listeria, Salmonella), chemical hazards from cleaning agents, and physical hazards like a stray piece of metal or plastic.
2. Determining Critical Control Points (CCPs): Once the risks are known, the team pinpoints the exact moments in the process where control can be applied to eliminate them. These “make-or-break” moments are the CCPs. For ice cream, key CCPs include the pasteurization stage, metal detection scans after churning, and the allergen handling station where mix-ins are added.
3. Establishing Critical Limits: For each CCP, strict, non-negotiable rules are set. These aren’t guidelines, they are absolute limits backed by science. For example, an ice cream company’s pasteurizer must hold the ice cream base at a minimum of 74°C (165°F) for no less than 30 seconds. A temperature of 73°C or a time of 29 seconds is a critical failure that triggers immediate action.
4. Establishing Monitoring Procedures: Rules are only effective if they are followed. Calibrated digital thermometers and timers are used to continuously monitor CCPs. Every check is logged by trained team members, creating a permanent record that the process is always operating within its critical limits.
5. Establishing Corrective Actions: If monitoring ever shows a deviation, a pre-defined emergency plan is activated. The affected batch of product is immediately quarantined and investigated. The focus is not on “fixing” the batch, but on discovering what went wrong to ensure it never happens again.
6. Establishing Verification Procedures: A good system includes checks and balances. On a regular basis, a ice ccream company will conduct verification activities to prove its HACCP plan is working effectively. This includes sending finished products to an independent lab for microbial testing and swabbing equipment to test for any environmental pathogens. This proves the system is effective in practice, not just in theory.
7. Establishing Documentation: Everything is documented. Every temperature reading, every supplier delivery, every sanitation cycle, every corrective action. This detailed diary provides complete traceability and holds the ice cream company accountable for the safety of everything it produces.

ISO 22000: The System

If HACCP is the detailed playbook for the production line, then ISO 22000 is the framework that builds a food safety culture across an entire organization. It’s an internationally recognized standard for a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) that integrates the HACCP plan into a broader, holistic system of excellence.

ISO 22000 ensures that safety isn’t just a job for the quality team; it’s the responsibility of every single person in the ice cream company. It expands this commitment through:

• Prerequisite Programs (PRPs): These are the fundamental, non-negotiable conditions for a hygienic environment. Before a CCP is even considered, the PRPs must be perfect. This includes everything from stringent pest control programs and staff hygiene protocols to equipment calibration schedules and building maintenance.
• Total Supply Chain Management: The promise of safety extends beyond the ice cream company’s own walls. ISO 22000 requires producers to vet their partners, ensuring the farmers supplying the milk, the bakers crafting the brownie chunks, and the orchards growing the strawberries all share the same deep commitment to safety and quality.
• A Top-Down Commitment: The company’s leadership team must champion this mission. They are responsible for providing the resources, training, and encouragement necessary to empower every team member to be a food safety advocate.
• A Cycle of Continuous Improvement: An ISO 22000 certification isn’t a one-and-done award. It commits a company to a process of constant self-auditing and improvement, pushing it to find new ways to become even safer and more efficient.

The Process for Getting Certified

These certifications are not just pieces of paper that are applied for online. They represent a months-long journey of intense work, scrutiny, and dedication from the entire ice cream company. It’s a challenging process that responsible companies willingly undertake because they believe it’s the only way to truly guarantee the safety of their products.

Here’s a quick look at the steps an ice cream company is required to take in order to earn these certifications:

1. Building the Foundation: The first step is perfecting the basics. A company must document and strengthen all its Prerequisite Programs (PRPs). This means ensuring sanitation procedures are flawless, pest control is airtight, staff hygiene training is rigorous, and suppliers are held to high standards.
2. Designing a Custom HACCP Plan: A dedicated food safety team, including members from production and management, maps out every step of the manufacturing process. The HACCP plan is custom-built from the ground up—it’s not a generic template, but a plan specifically designed to control the unique risks of an ice cream company’s specific ingredients and processes.
3. Living the System: A plan is useless if it sits in a binder. The company must spend months implementing the full ISO 22000 management system. This involves training every team member, rolling out new documentation procedures, and living by the system daily to generate months of detailed records.
4. The Internal Audit: Before the final exam, the company tests itself. A full, top-to-bottom internal audit is conducted to find and fix any gaps, acting as its own toughest critic before the official inspection.
5. The Third-Party Certification Audit: An accredited, independent certification body is hired to conduct the formal audit. This is a multi-stage process:
   • Stage 1 (Documentation Review): The auditors first review all manuals, plans, and procedures to ensure they meet the strict requirements of the standard.
   • Stage 2 (On-Site Audit): The auditors then spend several days in the facility, watching production, interviewing team members, inspecting equipment, and reviewing months of safety records to find objective evidence that the company consistently follows its own safety procedures.
6. Earning Certification and Staying Vigilant: Receiving certification is a big deal, but it’s not the finish line. To maintain ISO 22000 certification, the ice cream company is subject to annual surveillance audits, ensuring its commitment to safety is unwavering.

You Should Only Trust Certified Ice Cream Brands

When you choose an ice cream company to work with, you are putting a lot of trust in them. For Elliot’s specifically, our brand is often an extension of our customers’ brands, because we sell ice cream to businesses in a B2B model. That means restaurants, hotels, cafes, bars, corporations, enterprises, and more are serving our ice cream to their customers.

When an ice cream company forgoes these critical certifications, it is asking customers to take a gamble where the stakes are high. Working with or buying from a non-certified ice cream company exposes you to serious risks:

• Danger of Foodborne Illness: Ice cream is a prime environment for harmful bacteria like Listeria monocytogenes, which can survive freezing temperatures and cause serious illness. Without a validated HACCP plan, the risk of contamination increases dramatically.
• Black Hole of Traceability: In a food safety crisis, speed is everything. A certified ice cream company can trace a problem to a specific batch within hours, enabling a swift recall. A non-certified company may lack this ability, leaving dangerous products in circulation. This is why a strong food traceability system is so essential.
• Risk of Allergen Cross-Contamination: For individuals with food allergies, a mistake can be life-threatening. Certified companies have strict, validated procedures for handling allergens. A non-certified company may have casual, unverified processes.
• Inconsistent and Inferior Quality: The same lack of process control that jeopardizes safety also kills quality. Without strict standards, customers can expect variations in ice cream texture, flavor, and shelf-life.

Just because a company is selling ice cream (or any food item for that matter) does not necessarily mean that they have these certifications. To be safe, double check with the company first!

At Elliot’s, we believe peace of mind and trust are the most important flavors that we can serve. Our HACCP and ISO 22000 certifications are not just plaques on the wall, they are the unseen ingredients that are in every single scoop of Elliot’s ice cream.