Investor Presentaiton
Ferrero Group
Sustainability Report 2022
Product quality and safety
Introduction
Our sustainability
progress
Our reporting
F
A quality product requires high
standards of performance and
seamless execution. Attention
to detail and consistent quality
does not only matter in our
manufacturing, but throughout the
entire Ferrero supply chain.
Product and ingredients quality
and safety
Our Quality System operates globally through
our Central Quality Department and Local
Quality Departments in our various commercial
and industrial subsidiaries. The Group Quality
Organisation supervises the entire value chain,
from raw materials to market. It works in close
contact with local teams to define quality and
food-safety objectives, and periodically
monitors performance through a complex
system of indicators and auditing procedures.
We publish quality results periodically for all
relevant departments and our corporate
management.
Our factory in Arlon was closed on 8 April
2022 further to evidence produced by
authorities of a possible link between cases of
Salmonella and our products. After a product
recall and close cooperation with the Belgian
Food Safety Authority (AFSCA), the plant
restarted production in July 2022, with
a permanent authorisation granted on
16 September 2022. Ferrero has prioritised
quality and high food safety standards
throughout the company's 77-year history.
To ensure that this remains an isolated event,
and as part of our commitment to continuous
improvement, we have made and continue to
make significant investments into a
comprehensive set of preventive measures.
These include further strengthening quality
and food safety procedures and collaboration
with food authorities and external industry
experts. Performance data such as energy
efficiency and waste generation presented in
this Report have been slightly affected by this
event, as it refers to the period 1 September
2021 31 August 2022. Our FSSC certificate
was suspended in April 2022 and reinstated
on 29 July 2022.
Our Quality and Food-Safety Policy
As stated in our Quality and Food-Safety
Policy, our mission is to work together to
develop strategy, competencies and people,
leading the overall Ferrero team to ensure safe,
responsible, sustainable, high-quality products
that offer the best consumer experiences,
connecting people now and in the future. To
achieve this, our business model is built to:
• Promote a quality and food-safety culture,
strengthened by engaging our people.
• Achieve product quality and freshness
throughout the value chain in all global
markets.
Integrate our quality and food-safety
management system globally across the
business.
• Protect our brand reputation through
effective risk management.
• Ensure continuous improvement by
standardising the monitoring and analysis
of our primary processes, and our quality
and food-safety objectives.
•Manage information on quality, through
various communication resources, both
internally and externally.
Attention to consumers' feedback
During fiscal year 2021/22, we carried out
879,256 store visits worldwide to monitor the
trade age (freshness) of finished products, and
their temperature in store. In 424,414 of these
visits, auditors behaving as shoppers assessed
the perceived quality of our products at the
point of sale, checking for visual defects
against a list defined specifically for each
product.
To ensure each product complies with its
sensory profile, we carry out a sensory
evaluation in addition to the usual laboratory
tests. This assesses all organoleptic attributes
of a product (how it affects the sense organs),
as well as its aesthetic appearance and
presentation. Tasting and sensory evaluation
activities include:
• Raw-material taste tests during the
delivery phase.
• Taste tests of semi-finished and finished
products from the production line, during
the production phase.
• Quantitative descriptive analysis by a trained
panel of tasters in our central product
observatory and at production units.
Our quality-tasting panel involves trained
testers across the globe. We conduct tasting
sessions monthly at all our sites and in our
central tasting laboratory in Alba to verify and
guarantee the excellence and consistency of
the sensory profile offered to our consumers.
All assess the sensory performance of our
products according to the Ferrero Group
Tasting Procedure. We have developed
customised global software, designed to
ensure visibility of all the results of the tasting
sessions at our sites and business units.
Within the Commercial Quality Development
department is organised the Consumer
Contact Methodologies function.
With the objective of obtaining and
maintaining consumer satisfaction, this
function has the scope to organise and
constantly reinforce the best conditions
to answer and provide solutions to our
consumers' requests.
In providing consumers with information and
support, our company is also continually
improving product quality, by systematically
analysing our consumer feedback.
Our company is using the sole Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) tool, called
Ferrero CARE, and consumer feedback is
classified according to a uniform set of
definitions, procedures and operating methods
that apply to all our affiliates. Attention is
given to accessibility and 31 Contact Centres
over the world are managing the one-to-one
relationship with our consumers.
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