Conlins Coffee World, Inc. became the first coffee company in the Philippines to get an ISO 22000 certification, the world standard for food safety. The ISO safety seal has emboldened Conlins Coffee, an almost decade-old family company that supplies locally roasted coffee to the country’s biggest hotel chains, restaurants and cafes, to bring its world-class products to international markets by 2012, said Michael Harris Conlin, president of Conlins Coffee.

The ISO 22000:2005 for Food Safety Management Systems is the toughest and most up-to-date certification in terms of global food safety standards because it vouches for the soundness of an entire system, said Meriam Grace Castillo, Management Systems Auditor for the Geneva-based SGS, a global inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

The road to getting ISO 22000-certified is a rigorous process that takes into account all stages in making the product – from how raw materials are acquired to how the final products are distributed. Getting this ISO seal guarantees that the product is up to par with global safety standards.

“You can be sure that the product you’re buying was produced in an internationally accepted system that is constantly undergoing rigid improvements,” said Roger Villanueva, SGS Certification Manager. This is also the reason the audit and certification processes are painstaking and rigid, he added.


The ISO 22000 certification also includes two other certificates: the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). HACCP prevents any health hazards in the food we consume by identifying potential gaps in the processes across all stages of production and preparation, including packaging and distribution. GMP is also concerned with food production and distribution, but it deals with factors that can impact the quality of the product such as employee training.

Since 2000, Conlins Coffee has been providing world-class premium luxury coffee under the brands Bluenotes Coffee, locally roasted premium coffee beans of the best varieties of Arabica; and Artisans Coffee, coffee blends specially crafted by artisan master roasters. Conlins also serves as the exclusive distributor of quality Swiss-made Jura super-automatic espresso machines, German-made WMF espresso machines, and Italian-made Wega Semi-automatic machines.