Quality & Monitoring

For safe Enjoyment

Quality & Product Safety

Our guiding principle: Enjoy with confidence.

Put your trust in us! Choosing Wollenhaupt means choosing enjoyment. We are passionate about tea and create successful products. The safety of all related aspects is directly linked with this – from the selection of ingredients, the composition and the blending, up to the testing and packaging: As our customer, you can rely on the safety of our production systems. 
Not only do we know what tastes good and goes well together, we also know how to cultivate and process food, making it an enjoyment for you, providing you with variety, surprising tastes, and boosting your success. Ensuring that you can enjoy our products with confidence is our drive, our commitment.

Our Quality Management for Safe Enjoyment

From the tea growing regions of the world all the way to the consumer’s cup: At Wollenhaupt, “enjoy with confidence” first and foremost means reliable quality and safety. Herbal tea, rooibos tea, fruit tea, black and green tea — common to all of these is our demand in terms of quality, safety and purity.

All of our products, systems and processes have to meet clear and comprehensively documented standards for product and production safety. Our customers can rest assured that we have established an internationally binding combination of the certification requirements specified in ISO 9001:2008 and the International Food Standard along with additional, internal requirements. As a producer, wholesaler and supplier this is a matter of course for us.

We view quality management as a continuous, ongoing dynamic effort, and in this respect, we also exchange experience and knowledge with others about this topic. Wollenhaupt is a member of the Deutscher Teeverband (German Tea Association), Wirtschaftsvereinigung Kräuter- und Früchtetee  (Trade Association of Herbal and Fruit Teas), the European THIE association, and the U.S. Tea Association.

From field to cup

In the Country of Origin:

During the process of selecting our suppliers, we make our own audit visits to the countries of origin. We go right on-site, inspect the production facilities, the farming, growing and harvest conditions, talk to the people there and get our own impression, which, in conjunction with the code of conduct, serves as the basis for our cooperation. We also visit longstanding partners on a regular basis.

Incoming Goods:

Once the raw ingredient arrives at our site in Reinbek, it is subject to a strict and systematic incoming goods inspection: How does the raw ingredient look, how does it smell? Are there any abnormalities or noticeable problems? Our raw ingredients are regularly analysed by accredited external laboratories subject to a continually updated raw material specific inspection report. We do not release the ingredient for processing until it has passed the sensory and analytical incoming goods inspection and acceptance process.

Production Preparation:

We put high demands on our suppliers as to the purity of the raw ingredients. However, depending on the type and condition of the raw ingredient, an additional cleaning may be necessary. Our Production Preparation department uses various methods for this: If needed, the raw ingredient is e.g. sieved, treated with CO² and steam, or an air seperator is applied. Modern techniques such as laser sorters are also used. We then properly store the cleaned, sorted product or directly add it to blends (flavoured or natural).

Production:

We process and produce all of our tea products as gently and carefully as possible. Whether it concerns active allergen management or preventing cross-contamination, there are a lot of details that we attend to, monitor regularly, inspect and continuously improve. During production, we apply our HACCP concept, which we have defined for our ongoing internal quality management process and implement on a daily Basis.

Outgoing Goods:

Once the product is packaged, we retain reference samples of it. We can track and trace the raw ingredients, their packaging and the original batches at any time. Before the product leaves our company, our sensory team meticulously tests it on the basis of our tasting standards, and if necessary, any technical questions (such as how does a flavour affect the packaging) are answered by the Wollenhaupt experts. The product is not delivered to you until it has been approved and released by our trained employees.