Cairo, Egypt – 23 June 2026 – Rich Bake has announced the successful renewal of its FSSC 22000 certification for its Food Safety Management System across its factories, in a step that reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to applying the highest standards of food safety, product safety, and quality, while strengthening operational efficiency, control systems, and production-site readiness to meet the requirements of local and export markets, customers, and regulatory authorities. The renewal further supports sustainable compliance, enhances operational reliability, and reinforces food safety culture as an integral part of the company’s day-to-day operating model.
This achievement comes as part of Rich Bake’s ongoing strategy to advance its quality and food safety framework through production line upgrades, stronger monitoring and control systems, and enhanced process control and operational practices across its factories. These efforts align with international best practices, support the continuous improvement of operational systems, and strengthen sustainable performance and export market access, while embedding food safety culture as a core pillar of operational discipline and preventive control effectiveness.
Coinciding with World Food Safety Day, the company emphasized that its efforts in this area go beyond compliance with technical standards and certification requirements. They also extend to embedding food safety culture throughout the workplace as a fundamental element across all stages of production, supporting product safety, product quality, and sustained compliance with relevant regulatory and legislative requirements, while ensuring that food safety practices become part of the daily professional behavior of all employees.
In this context, Gilbert Hobeika, Chief Executive Officer of Rich Bake, said that renewing the FSSC 22000 certification marks an important milestone within the company’s strategy to continuously develop its Food Safety Management System across its factories, ensuring the efficiency of production operations, the stability of quality assurance and control systems, and the company’s ability to meet evolving market and customer requirements, while further embedding food safety culture as a guiding framework for operational practices across production sites.
He added that, over the past period, the company has continued to implement a number of development initiatives aimed at enhancing the efficiency of its food safety framework, alongside the application of ISO 22000 requirements and the enhancement of operational procedures related to quality control and process control within factories. These efforts strengthen the company’s ability to implement preventive risk management, control operational and food safety risks, and achieve higher levels of efficiency and operational discipline, while reinforcing a culture of preventive awareness and collective commitment to food safety principles.
Hobeika explained that Rich Bake has intensified its internal and external training programs for employees to strengthen food safety culture, raise awareness, and enhance compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and sound operational practices. This is in addition to advancing food defense and food fraud prevention programs in line with international best practices, supporting sustainable compliance, regulatory readiness, and the integration of food safety requirements into daily institutional practices across all work sites.
He also noted that the company has worked to further enhance factory readiness for customer visits and inspections by various regulatory authorities, while maintaining the group’s factories on the white list, reflecting its continued commitment to requirements related to food safety, product safety, and quality, and reinforcing the confidence of customers and business partners in the strength of the company’s operating model and institutional culture.
Hobeika confirmed that the renewal of the FSSC 22000 certification supports the effectiveness of the company’s Food Safety Management System, strengthens the confidence of customers and business partners, and enhances Rich Bake’s competitiveness in local and international markets, particularly as the company seeks to expand its export footprint, broaden its business base, and unlock new growth opportunities supported by an integrated operational model built around quality, product safety, compliance with international standards, and a deeply rooted food safety culture that supports sustainability and reliability.
He added that the company holds a portfolio of certifications and accreditations that support its position in the market, including Halal certifications for a number of products and target markets, FDA registration, as well as ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001:2018, in addition to several customer-specific approvals related to quality and food safety requirements. These certifications reflect the company’s commitment to implementing an integrated framework that combines technical compliance with the institutionalization of food safety culture across both operations and people.
For his part, Belal Mahmoud, Head of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment at Rich Bake, said that maintaining certification requirements depends on an integrated operational and control system that is applied daily across all production stages, starting with the inspection and approval of raw materials and suppliers, through the different stages of processing, and ending with finished product testing before products are released to market. This ensures the safety of inputs, product safety, and the consistency of manufacturing quality, while reinforcing food safety culture at every stage of operations.
He explained that the company relies on the internationally recognized FSSC 22000 Food Safety Management System, alongside the implementation of HACCP and prerequisite programs, to ensure risk assessment, control of Critical Control Points (CCPs), and the stability of the manufacturing environment in line with the highest food safety standards, while enhancing the effectiveness of preventive controls across production sites and embedding a prevention-based, disciplined operational approach.
Belal added that the company’s quality framework includes daily internal inspection rounds, continuous monitoring of quality indicators and critical control points, and close follow-up of temperatures and hygiene levels within production areas, in addition to strict personal hygiene policies and supplier performance reviews. These practices help ensure the safety of raw materials, the consistency of finished product quality, and faster response to operational or regulatory requirements, while strengthening employees’ day-to-day commitment to food safety principles and practices.
He further noted that the company also relies on a full product traceability system across all stages of manufacturing, enabling faster access to data, stronger oversight, and greater ability to manage risks and support rapid response and decision-making. This contributes to protecting product safety, maintaining supply chain reliability, and reflecting the integration of operational infrastructure with an institutional culture built on prevention, proactivity, and disciplined food safety management.
Belal confirmed that Rich Bake has continued to enhance its technical infrastructure within its quality and food safety framework through expanded use of automated control systems, improved traceability and data analysis tools, and stronger environmental monitoring across production sites. These efforts support more accurate follow-up, enhance the effectiveness of verification and internal review, and improve performance efficiency and decision-making speed, as part of a broader direction aimed at strengthening food safety culture through modern technical and control solutions.
He added that, in the next phase, the company aims to continue developing its quality and food safety framework and expand its international accreditations in ways that strengthen competitiveness and open the door to broader growth opportunities in export markets. This is driven by a vision that places quality, food safety, and product safety at the heart of operations, and recognizes that a strong food safety culture is one of the most important pillars of sustainability, operational excellence, export readiness, and customer trust across markets.
