The production of one of the leading brands of nuts and dried fruits on the Russian market, Semushka, successfully passed an audit for compliance with the food safety management system under the FSSC 22,000 international scheme in 2020. The auditor was the international certification body TÜV NORD CERT GmbH.

FSSC is an organisation of the non-profit Foundation for Food Safety Certification, headquartered in the Netherlands. The FSSC 22,000 certificate is a widely recognized international food safety certification scheme recognized by GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative).

"Having FSSC 22,000 certification confirms that the company's food safety and packaging management system is fully compliant with generally accepted international requirements. In addition, organizations complying with FSSC requirements are entered into a public register on the official FSSC website," said the company representative.

He specified that this certificate is recognized not only by the GFSI, but is also accepted by the world's largest brands and international trading networks, which significantly promotes the company in export sales.

A company that has obtained FSSC 22,000 certification has a number of advantages over its competitors:

• recognition of the company's products in most countries of the world;
• the certified products are allowed to be sold in all major international retail chains;
• significant reduction of risk of product returns;
• Certification reduces the number of audits conducted annually by retail chains.

About "Semushka" company

The company produces and sells high-quality natural products for healthy nutrition under the trademark "Semushka" - nuts, dried fruits, different sorts of seeds and the products manufactured from them.

The company uses only selected raw materials imported under direct contracts from the largest manufacturers and suppliers from Latin and North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Besides producing under its own "Semushka" trademark, the company is also one of the largest wholesale suppliers of nuts and dried fruits in the Russian Federation.

Production

In 2017, in order to expand the production and storage space, as well as to optimise logistics processes, Semushka's production moved to a new site located in the village of Novoseltsevo in Mytishchi District of Moscow Region. The total area of new production premises is about 6 thousand sq. m., including production premises of about 2500 sq. m., warehouse premises - about 2500 sq. m., refrigerators - about 1000 sq. m.

The production equipment includes: modern automated packing lines which produce doy-packs of different sizes and are equipped with multi-heads for precise dosage of the product; semi-automatic stream-type machines; air roasting ovens; photo separator and metal detectors; blanching machines, etc.

Dried fruits are mostly selected and packed manually. For salting nuts and seeds we use both our own salt-salting technology (peanuts, almonds, cashews) and traditional drumming in salt (pistachios and sunflower seeds).

All raw materials are subjected to careful incoming inspection, organoleptic and laboratory tests. Upon receipt of raw materials in the production process, they are additionally sorted by hand on inspection conveyors in order to exclude defective or damaged kernels and fruits.

Purchase of raw materials

Semushka" directly imports raw materials for its products from all over the world: Canada, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, South Africa, China, India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Israel, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Spain, Serbia. Contracts have been concluded and uninterrupted and timely deliveries of products from the world's leading manufacturers have been established.

Since 2015, Semushka started importing raw materials not only for its own production needs, but also for wholesale sales in the domestic market, further expanding the geography of sales to CIS countries. The company's partners are the largest domestic food producers and international companies having their production facilities in Russia.

Over the years, production processes have been improved and production of more complex types of products has been established: nut pastes, blanched, caramelized, roasted, salted and crushed nuts of all types and varieties. The quality management system, as well as our own production guarantees that the quality of goods and services meets international standards. The wholesale department was developed due to competitive prices, a wide range of products (over 210 items) and customer-oriented approach.

Today "Semushka" has become one of the largest importers of nuts and dried fruits in Russia, which is confirmed by the statistics of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. For 2019 the turnover of the company amounted to 5 thousand tons in quantitative terms.