Product quality and product safety

Thanks to its molecular structure, glass is a form of packaging for foods and beverages that is impermeable to air and moisture, thus extending the shelf life of the contents and reducing food waste. Consumers appreciate the fact that glass packaging does not impair the taste of foods and beverages. This is because – as opposed to other materials – glass is virtually inert: this means that it does not react with the food it contains, or reacts only to a negligible extent. Nevertheless, glass packaging also has disadvantages such as its weight and fragility. Product quality and safety are top priorities for Vetropack in order to reduce the risk of possible impact on consumers' health. For this reason, product quality is also enshrined in the Leader in quality pillar of our Strategy 2030+. Inadequate product quality and safety would adversely impact customers’ trust in the Vetropack brand, leading to financial losses.

Concepts, policies and measures

Standardised processes and certified management systems

Within the scope of our certified quality management systems, we continuously standardise and improve our processes. This enables us to manufacture our glass containers in the defined quality and in compliance with our customers’ specifications at all times. Responsibility for guaranteeing product quality is assigned to interdisciplinary teams comprising experts in technical performance, technology, purchasing, and quality.

A quality management system certified in accordance with the ISO 9001 quality management standard is in place at all our plants. Furthermore, all our plants have a food safety management system certified either to FSSC 22000 or to ISO 22000. The following sites are certified to FSSC 22000: Pöchlarn (Austria), Kremsmünster (Austria), Kyjov (Czech Republic), Hum na Sutli (Croatia), Boffalora (Italy), Nemšová (Slovakia), and Gostomel (Ukraine). The certificates for our sites can be accessed here.

FSSC 22000 includes the requirements of ISO 22000, the global standard for food safety management systems. FSSC 22000 is recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative, so it enjoys a particularly high level of acceptance. Our Food contact material safety concept defines the procedure to be followed in order to identify and prevent risks relating to food safety (food safety, food defence, food fraud).

By defining requirements and workflows in our processes, we ensure high product quality so consumers can confidently enjoy foods from safe glass packaging. For the purposes of quality assurance and continuous improvement of our processes, we implement risk-based planning and we conduct internal audits. The production and quality assurance areas, for instance, are audited more frequently than areas more remote production. The local quality managers are responsible in this regard. Our customers also carry out audits during which we jointly identify potential for improvement.

Quality and food safety policy

Our Quality and food safety policy establishes the framework that is applicable for quality and product safety throughout the company. This policy sets out overarching intentions, and it defines our orientation in respect of quality so we can attain our strategic ‘Leader in quality’ goal. In addition, the policy includes our obligations to comply with regulatory requirements and customers’ specifications.

Within the scope of our Quality and food safety policy, the Compliance monitoring policy (QM/FSM compliance monitoring) defines the specific performance indicators used to monitor compliance with the Quality and food safety policy.

Comprehensive quality inspections

Our objective is to guarantee the specified quality of our products. To monitor our quality standards and verify our processes, we determine the number of complaints per ten million units sold, as well as numbers of critical defects identified in-house. For competitiveness reasons, we do not publish these key indicators.

Based on customer requirements, the type of food or beverage for which the glass container will later be used is one of the aspects determined during product development. This information, together with other parameters, will then govern the test procedures to be applied. To guarantee consistently high quality (and therefore safety), all our glass products undergo fully automated inspections for product faults during the production process. The effectiveness of the inspection equipment is monitored on a regular basis. Additional laboratory tests are performed to measure further quality parameters. In this context, we differentiate between destructive tests (such as internal pressure or thermal shock tests) and dimensional checks that are non-destructive.

Progress and events in the reporting year

Performance indicators

GRI 416-2 Incidents of non-compliance concerning the health and safety impacts of products and services

In 2024, Vetropack received 7 (2023: 8) critical complaints. In this context, critical means that these products posed a potential risk to the health and safety of consumers. However, the affected products were identified and separated so that no products had to be recalled.