Quality Assurance

Rainbow Confectionery takes Quality Assurance seriously and our Food Safety Programme has been constructed to ensure the products we manufacture are of the highest quality and meet all regulatory requirements.

Quality Assurance at Rainbow is about giving our staff the necessary tools to ensure:

• Our products are food safe.
• We can make the product consistently the same every time.
• We build quality into the product at each step of our process.
• Our products, at all times, meet the expectations of our customers and the respective regulatory bodies.

Food Safety

We have an accredited HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) based Food Safety Programme. This programme is audited on a 12 monthly basis by an independent Quality Assurance auditing company on behalf on New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) and also on a 6 monthly basis as specified by some of our major customers. The NZFSA issue an exemption certificate if compliance is met.

The independent auditing body used is SGS New Zealand.

Rainbow's exemption certificate & SGS certificate are below.

Allergens

A food that causes an allergy is called an allergen. An allergen will affect a food-allergic person every time they eat it. Sometimes, only a tiny trace can trigger a reaction. There are around 160 food allergens.

Food allergens we are concerned with at Rainbow are:

1. MILK – A component of our Choc Products in the form of Skim Milk Powder and Anhydrous Milk Fat.
2. SOYA – A component of our Choc Products in the form of Soya Lecithin.
3. TREE NUTS – include the following:
• Hazelnuts
• Almond (marzipan, amaretti, almondine)
• Walnut (butternut)
• Brazil nuts (cream nut, para nut)
• Pecans
• Pine nuts (pignoli, pinon nuts, Indian nuts or stone nuts)
• Pistachios
• Macadamia nuts (Australian or Queensland nuts)
• Chestnut (but water chestnut is not a nut)
• Cashew nuts

NO TREE NUTS are used in our factory or are present in our ingredients.

4. PEANUTS – NO PEANUTS are used in our factory or are present in our ingredients.
5. OTHERS ALLERGENS INCLUDE – and are NOT used in our factory or present in our in
• Fish or fish products
• Egg or Egg products
• Bee products – Royal Jelly and Bee Pollen
• Quinine
• Guarana
• Yeast
• Shellfish
• Crustacea or crustacean products

We operate an Allergen Management program at the factory which considers cross contamination and ensures all staff are trained in Allergen management. We have a robust testing program to verify the success of this program.

To help us assess the risks of allergens on site we use an industry recognised tool called V.I.T.A.L VITAL (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling) system is a standardised allergen risk assessment tool. VITAL allows food producers to assess the impact of allergen cross contact and provide appropriate precautionary allergen labelling on their products.

For more information on Allergens and VITAL use the following link: Allergen Information

Gluten

GM stands for genetically modified organism and ingredients.

All products made by Rainbow Confectionery Ltd are GM free.

Written confirmation from our approved suppliers is obtained stating that the ingredients they supply us are GM free. We require written confirmation (e.g. certificates) and evidence from our approved suppliers to support their claims.

The GM status of our approved suppliers is reviewed annually.

GM Status

GM stands for genetically modified organism and ingredients.

All products made by Rainbow Confectionery Ltd are GM free.

Written confirmation from our approved suppliers is obtained stating that the ingredients they supply us are GM free. We require written confirmation (e.g. certificates) and evidence from our approved suppliers to support their claims.

The GM status of our approved suppliers is reviewed annually.

Gelatine

Rainbow products are manufactured using Gelatines with a country of origin of New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina.

The source of the Gelatines is 100% Bovine and the part of the animal used is the Hide.

BSE statements from our Gelatine suppliers are available on request.

Our Gelatine suppliers are HALAL Certified. Our products, however, are not HALAL Certified.

Palm Oil

Can be labelled Vegetable Oil or Palm Kernel Oil.

Palm Oil is an ingredient used in and on our products.

Palm Oil is a component of our Confectionery Glaze and a major component of our Choc.

All Palm Oil from our suppliers comes from sustainable sources.

Our suppliers are required to provide documented evidence of this.