Case Study - Zinho is Certified with the Food Safety System Seal - HACCP

In 1998, in a small bakery in Ribeirão Preto, in the state of São Paulo, a great business idea emerged: to boost flour sales by creating a special recipe for one of the most popular barbecue side dishes, garlic bread. The insight worked so well that, in 2004, Zinho was founded - the first exclusive garlic bread factory in Brazil.

Throughout this time, Zinho has recorded great achievements. Besides the originality of the product, the brand's garlic bread started to be distributed in all Brazilian states and Zinho became a pioneer in exporting the product, taking the company's name and flavor to the United States, Paraguay and Uruguay. However, nothing happened by chance. The success achieved in these two decades was the result of a lot of effort, dedication, and the courage to innovate.

Case Study

In 2019, Zinho started to automate all its production, raising the company to the level of industry. In 2020 the company grew 45% compared to the first half of 2019, reaching the production mark of 100,000 trays of bread per day.

Focused on offering quality and safety, Zinho set out to add more value to the brand through certification. Under the supervision of the international certifier QIMA, the HACCP certification with the use of the seal to strengthen the image of the company ZINHO, adding reliability.

The challenge

The garlic bread producer had the goal of fomenting new commercial strategies with the production of its own brands. According to Aline Araújo, Coordinator of Quality and Food Safety at Zinho, the quality of the brand was already recognized by the retail sector, but to gain more space and get these retail chains to distribute through their banners the foods produced by Zinho, it was necessary to have a differential: certification.

One of the main reasons for the company to choose QIMA was that it already knew the certifier from other work and the possibility of displaying the seal on the packaging. Aline comments that, in addition to conquering space among the retail sector, one of Zinho's demands was to provide the final consumer with clear and accessible information about food safety. "We could have obtained the certification through another company, but the process would not have granted us the seal to display on the packaging. Getting the information to the final consumer was extremely important to Zinho, so we chose QIMA which offered the certification and the seal. It was the perfect marriage," he points out.

The Process

Already certified with IFS Global Markets, which has HACCP as one of its premises, Zinho needed a certification focused on food safety management. Aline points out that, in the case of the HACCP tool, when well managed, it helps the company to have a more systemic vision through risk analysis in relation to product contamination and how this issue can be treated - this was an important factor for the choice of the protocol. "Through hazard analysis, we can identify what is failing in our process and, from there, we can identify control measures," he explains.

Evaluation and implementation

With the certification and the QIMA HACCP Mark defined in the beginning of 2021, the first audit was performed in the first half of the same year, around May/June. As Zinho already had the IFS certification, the company had the audit scheme set up, which helped to facilitate the whole process, needing only to adapt some items of the checklist.

For Zinho, working once again with QIMA was extremely positive. Some of the points listed in this partnership relationship were:

• Team always available, ensuring agility in the service and certification process

• Highly qualified technical team for guidance in the certification process;

• Objective commercial negotiation;

• Highly trained auditors.

In relation to the auditors, the company highlights their professionalism in conducting the audits, adding ZINHO's confidence in the credibility of the HACCP Certification process for the use of the seal on its products and thereby fostering the business opportunities that the company was aiming for.

Results

Being able to carry the information about food safety through the seal on the product packaging was of paramount importance: "This was not only positive for the final consumer, it was very important for us here in the company as well," says Aline.

Among consumers who choose the brand, 63.25% choose for taste and 44.58% for quality.

Zinho is the leader in garlic bread sales in the Southeast, Northeast, North, and Center-West regions. In the South, where the leadership position has not yet been conquered, efforts are concentrated so that, in a short time, Zinho also occupies the first position in preference.

Zinho's leadership in almost the entire country and the consumer's confidence in the brand are results of the seal's implementation and certification. The goal now is to maintain the quality standard and expand into new markets.