Within a month 16 member companies have already applied and successfully passed their assessments and have been issued accreditation certificates.
Maher said: "The formation of an industry safety accreditation in the form of cedaSAFE will raise the profile and credibility of the catering equipment profession and greatly reduce the volume of repetitive and unnecessary paperwork required to assess subcontractors.
“Manufacturers that subcontract their service repairs will have their contractors audited by a competent service provider and Ceda members who offer their service to a number of industry members will greatly benefit from having just one accreditation.
“If an applicant already has an SSiP [Safety Schemes in Procurement] accreditation then they only have to complete a few simple questions in order to achieve the certificate at a very competitive £120 a year. The accreditation has really started to gain momentum from both CEDA members and manufacturers that have signed up.”
The cedaSAFE accreditation scheme was devised because of the need for a single assessment standard for the foodservice, catering and hospitality industry.
Steve McEwen, Apeiron Catering Ltd, said: “I and my fellow director Will Oryino have been looking at different health and safety accreditations and decided to apply for cedaSAFE based on the content, requirement and the fact that it was relevant to our industry.”
The companies that have already received accreditation are:
● KCM Catering Equipment Ltd
● Tailor Made Catering Equipment Services Ltd
● Archer Catering Systems Ltd
● Apeiron Catering Ltd
● YCE Catering Equipment Ltd
● AGGORA - Bunzl UK Ltd
● CHR Food Service Equipment
● Catering Design Group Ltd
● Crystaltech Services (UK) Ltd
● Whitco Catering and Bakery Equipment Ltd
● Marren Microwave Ltd
● Hobart UK - ITW Ltd T/A Hobart UK
● Barcare Supreme Ltd
● Rational UK Ltd
● Gastronorth Ltd
● C&C Catering Equipment Ltd