H.B. Fuller has successfully completed the Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) for its plant in Lüneburg, Germany, the company’s largest in Europe and an important manufacturing facility within its global network to earn this key certificate.

FSSC 22000 is a recognized industry standard for food packaging suppliers by the Global Food Safety initiative (GFSI), a Coalition of Action from the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) that brings together many of the world’s leading consumer goods companies to oversee food safety standards for businesses and to help ensure safe food for everyone.

Recent numbers from GFSI show that around the world, an estimated 600 million people become ill after eating contaminated food each year, and concerns over food hygiene have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. H.B. Fuller produces and supplies adhesives used to manufacture packaging for many must-needed food and beverage products, many of which were deemed essential throughout the pandemic.

“In recent years, the Lüneburg site has undergone a journey of expansion and capability upgrades to better serve customers in core segments, namely packaging, converting, beverage labelling and hygiene, among other industries,” says Dietrich Crail, senior vice president, Europe and global Rigid Packaging of H.B. Fuller. “Many of our developments and programs in the packaging and labelling markets are devoted to working closely with customers, suppliers and other key partners to improve food packaging safety across our operations and products, which makes third-party assessments, such as FSSC 22000, a key step toward demonstrating the safety and security of our adhesives inside consumer food and beverage packaging. It is our goal to leverage our learnings from this process to build a global network of GFSI-certified manufacturing facilities.”

The FSSC 22000 certificate was issued by an accredited third-party and certifies that H.B. Fuller food and beverage product lines in Lüneburg, such Advantra, Advantra BOLDTM, ClarityTM , SwiftTherm, SwiftMelt, and Lunatack, fulfill the requirements of global industry food safe standards in accordance to GFSI.