Our Tinplate for Containers， Certified for “HACCP，” Japan’s First in Steel－Certification of the International Standard for Food Safety Will Promote Further Contribution to the World’s Food Industry －

Nippon Steel Corporation’s tinplate for containers(*1), such as beverage cans and food cans, has been certified for “HACCP,” an international guideline for food safety, first in the Japanese steel industry(*2). Certification was given by JIC Quality Assurance Ltd. (JICQA)(*3).

HACCP (short for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is an international guideline for food-safety control, announced by the food standard (Codex) committee, a joint body of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and widely recommended for adoption in many countries in the world.

HACCP is defined as “a hygiene maintenance method by which to monitor and record, on a continual basis, important points for preventing the occurrence of hazards in all of the processes of food manufacture from receiving of raw materials and manufacture to shipping”.

Unlike a conventional judgment of food safety by sampling inspection, HACCP requires that food safety should be secured, real time, through the conduct of hazard analysis in the manufacturing process and by the constant monitoring & recording to check whether the manufacture is made according to the control procedures.

Nippon Steel is a world-class tinplate manufacturer, accounting for more than 70% of the combined total of tinplate exports from Japan.

Recently, against the background of the mounting consciousness of hazard in “food safety” worldwide, leading food and beverage companies overseas, in particular, from the standpoint of the food chain, are beginning to intensify the cry for improvement of safety control not only to food manufactures but also to manufacturers of containers and materials.

In recognition of the globally accelerated need for yet safer food and the impending need for an objective assessment of safety, we promptly started going about obtaining a HACCP approval.

For this purpose, we employed food-sanitation control experts and started working on the improvement of the manufacturing and product-control levels through the improvement of corresponding systems. As a result, all of our steelworks making tinplate in Japan (Yawata, Nagoya and Hirohata) have now been HACCP-certified at the same time.

Already, at the news of HACCP certification, inquiries about the expanding of transactions are coming in from our customers overseas. In future, we continue to make further contribution to the world food industry through the supply of high-grade products commensurate with the rigorous food-sanitation control levels required by customers.


*1;Scope of certification:
①Registered organizations and registered products
Tinplate mill of Yawata Works : Electrolytic tinplate, Tin-free steel.
Tinning plant of Nagoya Works : Electrolytic tinplate, Tin-free steel,
　 Resin laminated tin-free steel.
Tinning plant of Hirohata Works : Electrolytic tinplate, Tin-free steel.

②Date of registration
January 20, 2011 (effective until January 19, 2014)

*2;Status of HACCP certification in the Japanese steel industry, as investigated by JICQA based on the information made open by each individual certification institution.

*3;JIC Quality Assurance Ltd. (address: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Muneyuki HIGUCHI).
Japan’s first private ISO examination & registration organization. It is Japan’s second in the number of registrations (according to the data on registrations with Japan Accreditation Board). JICQA has long and broad experience in HACCP examination of food, since 2001.


For more information, contact:
Public Relations Center, General Administration Div. Tel: +81-3-6867-2135