Third-party audits and food safety - Part II: Harmonisation of standards and a process-based approach

Globally, food has never been safer. Driven by food scares and a heightened focus on risk mitigation, there has been a move by governments, manufacturers and retailers to join forces and put independent third-party assessment and certification at the heart of food safety.

Today’s global food supply chain is exponentially more complex than it was 50 years ago and yet, the food products that are grown, processed, packaged and sold in all corners of the globe are significantly safer than they have ever been. That these apparently conflicting facts can simultaneously exist is largely an output of the collaboration and transparency that is being led by the most influential food manufacturers and retailers. Two particular areas have worked together to bring this about; the first of these is the harmonisation of standards. Harmonised, robust food safety management system standards and schemes have brought increased transparency and best practice sharing across sectors and geographies.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) was formed in 2000 by leading global retailers and manufacturers specifically to address food safety issues and the lack of harmonisation in food safety standards and schemes. Together with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), they have driven the move towards a manageable set of globally accepted management systems-based standards and schemes.

This move has benefited suppliers as well, driving down costs by significantly reducing the number of audits they have to undergo and ensuring the audits that take place are addressing potential risks. In 2004, ISO 22000, the first global food safety management system, was issued. FSSC 22000, a complete food safety certification scheme, was developed in 2010 to meet the needs of food supply chain stakeholders. FSSC 22000 is owned by the Foundation for Food Safety Certification, an independent, not-for-profit organisation. January 2012 marked the 1000th FSSC 22000 certificate being issued.

Through the harmonisation of standards, the market at large could now easily benchmark against international standards and GFSI-recognised schemes such as ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000.

As Mark Overland, Director for Global Certification at Cargill, commented. “We are rolling out FSSC 22000 to over 1000 plants in 67 countries. Having the same level of food safety execution at every plant is an expectation from our customers.” Along with the Foundation for Food Safety, both the GFSI and ISO have to be applauded as very important initiatives. The GFSI’s work on harmonising standards and schemes has resulted in there now being only 12 approved standards from a starting point of 100, which is clearly a significant achievement and we may expect the number will decrease in the future.

Process-based approach

The second area is that of an evolving assessment approach, one driven by the strategic needs of clients and the technical expertise of auditors, which has led to a transition in the role of assessments and auditors. The single-snapshot-in-time checklist style is fading into the history books and being replaced with dynamic process-based management systems audits. Delivered through auditor competency and sector specific expertise, these audits focus on the systems and processes that strategically underpin organisations and their supply chains, and it is this holistic approach that is gaining a foothold amongst retailers, manufacturers and suppliers.

Food safety is embedded in the culture at ACP Europe. As a specialist in the provision of carbon dioxide, ACP cannot afford any food safety issues. “FSSC 22000 delivers a whole new approach to risk management and quality assurance,” explains Mr Speelmans, Safety Health Environmental Quality Manager. “Through LRQA Business Assurance, the whole network of interacting processes is assessed and monitored, thus providing greater assurance to both internal and external stakeholders and protecting our brand reputation.”

While FSSC may have come in for some criticism for being costly, the cost savings in real terms are potentially huge and the value of harmonisation is clearly supported by Wrigley, a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated, which stated that, “Wrigley’s North American factories saw on average a 25-50% reduction of audits by retailers with the adoption of FSSC 22000.” In direct opposition to the holistic approach embedded into FSSC 22000, the certification body that undertook the audit at Jensen Farms which lays at the heart of the Listeria outbreak commented that “the audits are intended to assess whether the client’s operations are in compliance with current baseline industry standards - not to improve those standards or push a client towards best practices”. This is a crucial difference with the management system audit approach where improvement and best practices are a significant part of the process.

Part III will conclude this article. See also Part I.