The Akshaya Patra kitchens at Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat have successfully completed their certification audit. They have been recommended for certification by DNV, a leading global provider of accredited management systems certification.
Akshaya Patra implements ISO 22000:2005 (Food safety Management System) to ensure delivery of safe mid-day meals to children in Government Schools across India. The Food Safety Management System standard ISO 22000 enables the Foundation to identify the relevant food safety risks and to manage them efficiently. Currently, Akshaya Patra has twelve ISO certified kitchens across India, with the rest in the process of receiving certification.
Previously DNV has conducted the stage 1 audit at the Hubballi kitchen in December 2007. Subsequently along with the Hubballi kitchen, the HK Hill, Vasanthapura, Gandhinagar, Jaipur and Vrindavan kitchens also successfully completed the certification audit in 2008. In a later stage, Akshaya Patra also added Ballari, Bhilai, Guwahati, Vadodara and Nathdwara to the Food Safety Management System to ensure food safety. Now Akshaya Patra has successfully completed 2 cycles of certification, each cycle for 3 years. After the completion of each cycle, the Foundation faced a Recertification Audit. Now in the third cycle, Ahmedabad and Surat also successfully completed their certification audit and have been recommended for certification by DNV.