MSC CRUISES’ SUPPLY CHAIN AND FLEET CERTIFIED FOR HIGHEST STANDARDS OF FOOD SAFETY

Geneva, Switzerland, 7 June 2021 - MSC Cruises is the industry’s first major line to have its entire food safety supply chain and fleet of ships certified for onboard food safety by the global International Organization for Standardization, commonly known as ISO.

The Company today – Monday 7 June - heralded its celebratory success on the World Health Organization’s ‘World Food Safety Day 2021’ following the granting of the internationally acclaimed and recognised ISO22000 food safety management system certification for 17 of the Company’s ships. Its two new vessels for 2021 - MSC Virtuosa and MSC Seashore – are on track to be certified in the next few months.

Onboard audits are undertaken by Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification services, to verify the highest standards of food safety are undertaken by MSC Cruises for its guests and crew and this year alone it has conducted 36 separate audit days and examined more than 5,000 food safety records on board the cruise line’s ships.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the global cruise industry to shut down its operations in March 2020, MSC Cruises annually served up nearly 285 million dishes and poured more than 125 million drinks for its guests.

Paolo Raia, Managing Director of MSC Cruises’ Food and Beverage Division based in Genoa, Italy, said, “Food safety is understandably taken for granted within day-to-day society and a cruise ship needs to have a systematic, well considered and planned approach in place to guarantee the food safety for guests and crew on board.

“With that in mind we’re extremely proud to be on top of the cruise industry’s league table for WHO’s World Food Safety Day with our fleet of ships and delighted that our entire food supply chain ‘from farm to fork’ has been certified.

“We have demonstrated at MSC Cruises that our industry-leading health and safety protocol goes above and beyond what regulatory authorities demand and it’s no different with food safety as we always strive to go one step further than what is required.”

Bureau Veritas is a member of the London-based International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), a global not-for-profit organisation that establishes a range of standards for the maritime sector, including safety.