Transforming food audits

Complex food supply chains can mean multiple, parallel requirements for suppliers and lead to duplicate systems, audits and paper work, writes Outi Maatta of certification body SGS. So why are there are so many similarities in the requirements of so many food safety and quality standards? And how can we innovate to find a solution?

Food laws are among some of the earliest of enactments known to man. Governments, monitoring bodies and other organisations have struggled over many centuries to combat rude forms of fraud, such as adding worthless substances to food or extracting valuable constituents from it. But more commonly, they have checked the day to day food standards that ensure malpractice, ignorance and neglect that could cause ill-health, or even death, to the public are prevented from entering the food supply chain at any point .

Obviously, constantly changing technology and customer demands mean innovation is absolutely essential if food auditors are to cover the industry in its entirety.

The current situation

There are a proliferation of standards and requirements covering the food industry. How can food companies efficiently and effectively comply with so many standards and requirements? If, for example, ABC Pineapple exports products to many countries in Europe as well as Saudi Arabia and USA, how can it meet the many system standards are required to be implemented and certified to satisfy their customers’ requirements without becoming mired in complicated processes and regulations like the one shown below?

For an overview of the present supply chain and stands, click here

The problem is that multiple systems mean third party auditors often focus on the same thing, churning out countless audits, procedures, documents, manuals. A lack of recognition of any single scheme results in high costs of setting up and maintaining multiple systems for producers, transformers, retailers and, inevitably, clients.

As there is no single international standard, many major retailers continue pushing their own private schemes, with varying degrees of recognition from various governments.

The solution?

Getting all stakeholders aligned under one scheme will probably take some time. However, applying some innovated thinking to this complicated situation could yield some results in the short-term. A single management system that covers all requirements and issues of all stakeholders, while integrating food safety and quality with overall business processes is possible.

SGS's approach has been to look at the needs of all involved and come up with a practical, workable solution. We have created, for example, a single audit to meet the requirements of most internationally recognized food safety or quality standard including ISO 22000, ISO 9001, HACCP, GMP, BRC and IFS. The audit addresses the requirements of any of these standards, leading to certification where appropriate against each one as required by the certified organisation. Supreeya Sansawat, Global Manager of Food Safety Services at SGS, says: ‘The single food audit pack provides a straightforward and a cost-effective route to achieve quality and safety objectives’.

Having one, aligned management system in place reduces parallel and duplicate management time. A single audit to cover the combined requirements of different combinations of food safety and quality standards means less audit time and less disruption of operations, all of which increase operational efficiency. 

Outi Helena Maatta is the Global Marketing & Business Development at SGS. For more information, visit www.foodsafety.sgs.com or join a free web seminar at http://sgsevents1.webex.com