About 380 member companies of the German Certification Association for Professional Textile Services are especially committed to the hygienic processing of laundry from retail, trade, industry, hotels, restaurants and the health services.

The hygienic processing of laundry from hospitals and care homes is one particular focus of quality certification. This requires systematic hygiene management in the connected laundries, which is defined by the stringent requirements of RAL quality certification mark RAL-GZ 992.

Criteria

RAL 992 quality certification marks are only awarded by the German Certification Association for Professional Textile Services with headquarters in Boennigheim, Germany.

Criteria for obtaining the quality certification mark include a membership of the commercial laundry in the German Certification Association, as well as compliance with the specifications contained in the quality and test regulations for the quality certification marks:

• General conditions such as a structural separation between clean and unclean areas
• Implementation of a quality management system
• Compliance with microbiological values
• Regular in-house and external checks (audits)
• Inspection of results from in-house and external audits by external experts and adjustment to specified values

External audits have been carried out on behalf of the German Certification Association for Professional Textile Services by audit representatives from the independent Hohenstein Institute since 1959. They audit the quality management system as part of their annual unannounced visits to the operations.

Different industries

Requirements related to cleanliness and hygiene of textiles can sometimes differ significantly for different industries. This becomes evident in the large number of standards and laws, which also make reference to the processing of laundry.

By covering all normative specifications, the RAL 992 quality certification marks are said to offer the highest level of security both for the laundries processing the textiles, according to these specifications as well as for their customers.

Medical textiles

To provide perfect hygienic processing for healthcare linen, the German Certification Association for Professional Textile Services expanded the quality certification mark for commercial linen in 1986.

Especially after the amendment of the Infection Protection Act in the German healthcare system, the RAL quality certification mark 992/2 for healthcare linen is used as proof of compliance with the requirements of the Robert Koch Institute for subcontracting textiles to external laundries.

Food processing industry

The third quality certification mark (RAL 992/3) for linen from the food processing industry was introduced in 1998 in connection with the implementation of the European Directive on hygiene when handling foodstuffs.

The RAL 992/3 hygiene certificate covers the requirements of the RABC hygiene management system of the European standard DIN EN 14065, as well as of the global standards for food safety BRC (British Retail Consortium, version 6) and IFS (International Food Standard, version 6).

Clothing of care home residents

In addition to the previously existing quality certification marks, the RAL quality mark 992/4 for clothing of care home residents was established in 2011.

The RAL quality certification mark 992/4 makes a significant contribution to the prevention of infections.  This is based on the recommendations of the guideline Textiles in care homes, which has been providing practical and reliable help for this sector since 2009.

The RAL quality certification mark 992/4 is an independent quality certification mark and can be applied for and awarded through proof of process management and hygienic standard without waiting time.

Maximum hygiene safety

The proven monitoring system of the RAL quality certification mark with its internal and external audits ensures a maximum of hygiene safety. By systematically complying with binding hygiene specifications during the processing of laundry, the risk of contamination with dangerous microorganisms is minimised.

For laundry from  hospitals, care homes or the food industry, in particular, it is important to work with a safety-oriented quality management system.

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