Sustainability

Zvijezda works hard to reduce the negative impact on the environment and promote the sustainability of all aspects of its business.

Guided by the joint strategy of sustainable development of the Fortenova Group (one of whose members is Zvijezda), it continuously introduces innovative and environmentally friendly solutions, improves products and optimises production processes. Through a series of initiatives, it strives to increase energy efficiency, reduce environmental pollution and positively influence its customers, clients, business partners, employees and other stakeholders, ensuring a better future for our planet and community.

Zvijezda took a significant step towards sustainability by building a solar power plant with 2,808 panels on the roof of the factory in Žitnjak. This power plant, stretching across an area of 6,667.2 m2, covers up to 10% of Zvijezda’s total electricity consumption, simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions by 182 tonnes per year. The power plant has an installed capacity of 1.08 MWp, which corresponds to the average annual consumption of 380 households in Croatia. Responsible and sustainable energy management is the main backbone of the green transition and an important aspect of business in terms of energy cost management.

But this is just the beginning of the transformation. Like the entire Fortenova Group, Zvijezda is exploring opportunities for a rapid increase in the use of renewable energy, recognising its potential not only in strengthening its own competitiveness and innovation, but also in actively contributing to the fight against climate change.

By implementing green technologies, Zvijezda also contributes to the implementation of the UN’s global sustainable development goals – ensuring access to reliable, sustainable and modern energy for everyone, as well as promoting sustainable forms of consumption and production.

How do we develop recipes and products?

By following global trends, listening to the needs of the market, along with the omnipresent creativity and innovation of our expert multidisciplinary team, great effort is invested in the development of new products.

Behind every new product are days, months and years of painstaking efforts invested in the development, control, production and marketing brilliance of each product.

The beginning of every new product is precisely an idea. The idea stems from experience, knowledge, commitment and putting the needs of consumers first.

Starting from an idea, the Development Department, through various conceptual solutions and experiments on pilot plants, develops various recipes that lead us to proposals for new products that would further enrich our range of products.

Recipes are assessed by a multidisciplinary team of experts with great commitment and numerous criteria that lead us to a narrow selection of recipes. One of the key criteria is precisely the ability to recognise the right moment to choose a recipe and listen to our customers in order to launch the product on the market in a timely manner.

The recipes recognised by the multidisciplinary team continue to be developed in real industrial conditions through trial production. When the recipe passes all the tests and its quality is confirmed in the form of enrichment and brand maintenance, we devote ourselves to the development of the packaging and launching the product on the market.

Zvijezda standard

Certificates

A standard for food manufacturers is the one that assesses a manufacturer’s ability to produce safe, authentic, quality products and manufacturing processes in accordance with legal requirements and customer specifications.

The process of hazard analysis and critical control points includes a whole series of preventive procedures with the aim of ensuring healthy food.

The quality management system demonstrates the ability to meet customer expectations and the organisation’s commitment to quality.

The environmental management system sets requirements for environmental management within the organisation’s operations.

The energy management system provides a practical way to improve the use of energy through the overall development of the organisation’s system.

The information security management system provides guidelines for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of the organisation’s information security. .

There is also a system that monitors the trade exchange of RSPO certified palm oil products at the administrative level, throughout the entire supply chain.

Approval by the Jewish religious community confirms compliance with all requirements of the Kosher Law.

Approval by the Islamic community confirms compliance with the requirements of the Halal standard.

Quality above all

By recognising the quality of our products, consumers awarded us the first-ranked positions on the BRANDscore list. Our aspirations are to remain a recognisable brand among consumers through innovative processes by raising the quality of our products and developing new products.

Quality is a measurable and recognisable item in our business. Quality control consists of a set of procedures aimed at the quality of finished products through the control of cleanliness, incoming raw materials and finished products in accordance with legal regulations, but also prescribed criteria based on risk analysis.

In order to ensure the highest level of product quality, all raw materials are subject to microbiological, physical and chemical analyses and detailed checks of the documentation of our suppliers. At our five laboratories, we determine the efficiency of production processes and the quality of finished products through daily controls of samples from production and development, and through the preparation of samples, a series of different analyses and organoleptic evaluation.

Every year, our Quality Control Laboratory proves its competence with excellent results, by participating in inter-laboratory advanced tests.

The quality management system monitors activities and provides support to achieving all set quality goals and harmonising them with legal legislation within the framework of meeting all requirements of the norms incorporated into the operation of Zvijezda plus d.o.o.

Packaging development

In today’s world, when more and more consumers are turning to a healthy lifestyle and its ecological aspect, there is a need for greater innovation in terms of packaging and packaging materials.

By combining the health compliance and functionality of the packaging with the inevitable factor of recognition of the packaging, we aim our efforts at constant progress and following global trends in the development of the product packaging that we use. The selection of proper packaging is a key process in the development of a new product because it additionally ensures the quality of the end products.