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Last week, TraceGains had the opportunity to host a webinar, Inside the Mind of a Food Safety Auditor, with Nancy Scharlach, President and Chief Technical Director at Soterian Systems, LLC, and Registered SQF Consultant in High Risk Processing. During her webinar presentation, Nancy took us behind the scenes as she explored the topic of audits and helped to give listeners an idea of what auditors will be looking for and asking.
Becoming certified with a GFSI scheme is a great accomplishment for any food manufacturing company, especially when one thinks about the amount of effort that goes into achieving compliance. Gathering the required documentation alone can be a daunting task.
As consumers become more and more educated about the food they’re putting into their bodies, they expect more from their retailers and food service providers, who in turn expect more from their suppliers. This is where the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program comes in.
As a result of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), food inspections are on the rise. Under FSMA, all high-risk facilities must be inspected by January 2016, repeating every three years; all other facilities must be inspected by January 2018, repeating every five years.
When it comes to audits, there are plenty of reasons for failing, especially in the food and beverage industry. Whether it’s an audit for GFSI, FDA or an audit required by any of your customers, the consequences of failing can be very costly.
As the ever-changing landscape of the food supply chain industry evolves, more and more food manufacturers are becoming frustrated with certain pieces to the audit puzzle.
Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rules require most retailers to provide country of origin labeling for fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, shellfish, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, ginseng, meat and poultry. The rules are required by the 2002 farm bill as amended by the 2008 farm bill.
Likes, shares, tweets, comments - Oh my! What did you all love the most in 2014? From audits to FSMA to what is safe food, there was a lot to talk about this year. Check out what you all loved the most!
At the end of each fiscal year the US FDA posts a summary of the Inspectional Observations from Form 483. The fiscal year for the FDA begins October 1 and concludes on September 30. The fiscal year summary provides an excellent opportunity to review the enforcement activities and interests of the FDA. In comparing the observations made from fiscal year to fiscal year trends emerge that allow facilities to prepare for a facility inspection. This year, as with most, the top ten observations remain largely unchanged. FY 2014 did note a marked increase in the number of food facility inspections as can be seen in the graph below.
The vast SKU proliferation much discussed in the past year has yielded more than a million new food products in assorted sizes, shapes, colors, packaging configurations, and each has introduce another opportunity to contaminate food safety.
The result of all these permutations is the increasing demand for Quality Assurance food safety experts combined with the vast food safety and quality regulatory demands introduced by FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act).
