Product safety comes from the quality of operations

Food is much more than nourishment. It brings you together, comforts you, delights you - and above all, it must be safe. At Virtasalmi Cereal Products, this is not just a goal, but the starting point for everything we do.

We produce gluten-free flours and flour blends for consumers, bakeries, wholesalers and the food industry. For us, safety is not just a word on a product label - it is an everyday action that starts with the inspection of the raw materials that come to us and ends with the food or baked goods that our customers enjoy.

Food safety in a nutshell

Safe food is clean and reliable. It does not contain contaminants, allergens or microbes that could be harmful or pose a health risk. Creating and maintaining such assurance requires continuous, systematic work at every stage of the production chain.

In a large kitchen, a mistake can affect hundreds of diners in a single day; bakeries produce thousands of products a day. Each individual consumer is as important to us as a large industrial manufacturer. We use reliable suppliers of raw materials, implement self-monitoring and our system allows us to trace a product back to a specific batch of raw materials if necessary.

Gluten-free - accuracy and care, no assumptions

For people with coeliac disease, going gluten-free is not a choice but a necessity. With cereal products, all manufacturing takes place in production facilities where no gluten-containing grains are handled. Our products only go forward once they pass our standards. We don't make assumptions - we check and measure. This is our responsibility in practice.

FSSC 22000 - a standard that lives in everyday life

Virtasalmi Cereal Products operates an international FSSC 22000 food safety system. It covers everything from the reception of raw materials to staff training. At its core are, among other things:

• Audits by an external company every year
• Critical Control Point Control (HACCP)
• Selection and evaluation of raw material suppliers
• Cleaning practices
• Continuous development and improvement

For us, this is not bureaucracy - it's a day-to-day job that gives you confidence in our products.

A company's safety culture is created by everyday actions

A good safety culture is not just words on paper - it shows in the way you do your work and in your attitudes. We continuously train our staff, hold regular HACCP meetings and carry out regular internal audits as required by the certificate. Every member of our team knows what they are doing - and why.

Mistakes can happen, but there are lessons to be learned. This is part of the certified production concept of continuous quality improvement, which is reflected in our daily work and in every product we make.

Why is this important to you?

When you buy gluten-free flour, serve meals to customers or bake at home for the family - you want to know that the ingredients are safe. We want the same. That's why we're transparent and accurate. We want you to focus on cooking and baking - we care about safety.

Genuine gluten-free - how can you tell?

According to EU legislation, a product can be called gluten-free if it contains less than 20 ppm (mg/kg) of gluten. Finnish shops and online stores have a very high level of product safety. When choosing gluten-free foods or ingredients for your shopping basket, pay particular attention to:

• Gluten-free labelling - this usually indicates that the product meets the requirement for gluten content
• List of ingredients - where you can see the raw materials used to make the product
• Allergen warnings - such as "may contain traces of sesame", which indicate possible residues
• Information provided by the manufacturer - gluten-free producers often use completely separate lines and production facilities

The AOECS label - an international guarantee of gluten-free status

The crossed-out cereal star is a mark awarded by the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) to indicate that the product is gluten-free. It means that:

• Annual audit by an external company
• The product is manufactured under controlled, gluten-free conditions
• Its gluten content is regularly tested
• The manufacturer complies with the AOECS certification programme and self-monitoring

Virtasalmi Cereal Products' products bearing this mark have undergone a systematic inspection process. So the label is not just a symbol - it is a promise of gluten-free status for the coeliac or gluten-sensitive.

The gluten-free product label is managed in Finland by the Coeliac Disease Association. For more information about the label and the companies and products that have been awarded the label, click here. The label can be found on a number of flour and flour paste packs sold in cereal product retail outlets.

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📌 Want to know more about gluten-free, product safety or our food safety practices?
Contact us - we'll be happy to tell you more.