General Catalogue 2023 DIGITAL

15 Gerlach quality assurance Compliance with high quality standards and product safety are two essential tasks of Gerlach‘s quality assurance. In order to fulfil these tasks, Gerlach runs through a three-stage quality assurance process. Immediately after delivery, the ingredients are analysed to produce safe and effective preparations. Bulk products are tested directly after production; then, the finished product is tested after filling. In addition, strict attention is paid to compliance with legal requirements and guidelines in order to meet the high demands of the international market. All raw materials for which contamination with germs cannot be ruled out are subjected to thorough microbiological testing before production. For this purpose, the diluted raw material is applied to a culture dish under a germ-free air flow. The plates are incubated at 36 to 37 degrees Celsius for three days. If, for example, bacteria or fungi were contained in the raw material being tested, they would multiply and become visible. In this rare event, the raw material is barred from production. This step ensures high product quality at Gerlach at an early stage. The Gerlach manufacturing process The quality standards in the production of GEHWOL products are high and based on two essential factors: Care in the selection of raw materials and diligence in their processing. Both aspects ensure the high quality of the products and the resulting recognition in professional foot care worldwide. The production process is based on the comprehensive specifications required by cosmetics laws. These specifications apply to all areas of production in order to ensure the best possible quality: Raw materials, personnel, premises and technical equipment, hygiene, manufacturing pro- cesses and their documentation, labelling and packa- ging. It is particularly important that all process steps of a production unit, a so-called batch, are recorded in detail in order to have certainty about the production process of one batch of cream or liquid at a time, even after the fact. For example, the stirring speed, the homogenizer speed, the vacuum in the vessel and the temperature are all documented. Subsequent sampling and testing for microbiological purity ensure that the product was not contaminated during production. These steps round off the high standards of quality assurance at Gerlach. Q U A L I T Y A N D M A N U F A C T U R I NG On the primary and secondary packaging, each product is marked with a batch number. This makes it possible to determine in which production cycle the product was manufactured at any time, and to reconstruct the manufacturing process.