Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

At the turn of the century the world was bombarded with a slew of recalls and deaths relating to the unsafe treatment of food products being widely shipped and consumed.  Because of this many new processes, organizations and certifications were born to begin to help putting the things in place to protect the public.   One of these new groups, The Consumer Foods Forum, a collection of global CEOs, was established to begin to regain the trust that had been lost by consumers by building safer supply chains.

From this group came the Global Food Safety Initiative, the purpose of which was meant to development standards that would consolidate the many different processes being currently used into a standard which could easily be applied to audits worldwide.

Today’s blog is going to look at this foundation and the audit processes that have been developed and what it means to businesses.

Globally Supported – Founded from a group of global CEOs it is no surprise that there has been a global adoption of this initiative.  8 of 25 top global retailers including Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Kraft, TESCO, Danone, Ahold, Ecolab, Wal-Mart are involved.  This level of adoption means that the standards being set here are strong and likely to be maintained for many years to come.

Defined Role Levels – Part of any strong initiative, organization or process is to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities for everyone involved.  The current flow of roles which includes: Audit Scheme Owners; Accreditation Bodies; Certification Bodies; Manufacturers; Retailers has a detailed description for each groups responsibilities to the process defined along with where each falls in the audit process.  This helps to create an efficient process where each entity knows exactly what is expected of them.  The last two; Manufacturers and Suppliers are described in more detail below.

Manufacturers – For those of you who are food manufacturers there are a number of good things that will come with a global adoption of the GFSI standards.  Having a clearly defined set of certification standards enables a company to ensure that each of their facilities is following the same processes.  This leads to a reduced number of total audits, clarity of food safety requirements, and reducing the overall time and resource investment in food quality and safety levels by having processes to follow all of the time rather than before periodic audits.

Retailers – Retailers and consumers are the biggest benefactors of initiatives like GFSI.  With the manufacturers and distributors being held to standards that will raise the confidence of those involved in the sale and purchase of these items.  Retailers will be able to expect improved production standards from processors, they can expect an increase in the quality of information on food safety schemes and they will be able to help exchange ideas, best practices and knowledge on a safer supply chain practices.

For more information about GFSI or how the initiative will affect your business, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  

We look forward to your comments.

Can any one tell me how many different types of produce there is in the world? How about how much of it is imported into North America daily. I’m not sure it matters, but it is a lot. And because we consume it, we would like to know it is safe to eat and not contaminated with E.Coli, listeria or other food born pathogens.

One of the tools that have been used for years is at risk of being eliminated that can screen these products. It is the Agricultural Departments Microbiological Data Program. According to and Article attributed to the Associated Press by Garance Burke, this program was due to be cut from the budget by the current administration but has been saved at least until December.

The good news is that this program scans high risk fruit and produce for bacteria that causes food born illnesses. I’m not sure it will make any difference, but during the same week the FDA finally backed into a decision on BPA while the USDA tried to cut a program that screens the produce we eat. Does the right hand even know what the left hand is doing?

Is anyone one paying attention to this lunacy. Is there an effective overriding food safety policy in the government? I don’t think so. Here’s my voters  smile to that issue and  two  disconnected organizations.

the government always likes to take credit for issues or issue resolutions that they really did not have much impact on, failed to act or just moved way too slowly. Many times because of external pressures we hear more and more about every day. SafeSourcing has posted on BPA 10 times since May of 2008.

Here’s an old post  post titled “What can you do to lower your risk from BPA?”

The fact is that all the FDA is doing, is announcing a policy change that supports what manufacturers have already done. The manufacturers have responded to consumers and pressure from other countries to do the right thing.

So, there really is no big deal here. The FDA is a day late and a dollar short. And, the fact is that BPA is stilled contained in hundreds of other products.

 Let’s hope that upcoming budget cuts won’t eliminate effective programs that are already in place or delay others that are needed very badly to protect as all from the ever growing problem of food born illness.

If you’d like to find out more about food born illness and other safety standards that may impact your purchasing, please contact a SafeSourcing customers services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Today’s post is  from David J. Wenig a customer services manager at SafeSourcing.

The other day while I was mowing the lawn, a man pulled up to ask if he could take some logs that had been stacked by the curb to use as firewood. We started talking and the conversation was pretty typical for two people that had never met. Then, it took an interesting turn when I mentioned that I had been up at the high school football game and had a burger there.

The man then began talking about E. coli and how he does not trust the grocers to provide him with safe meat. He actually went on to tell me that his son is a chef who grinds his own meat. Not just that, the man actually went on to name a retailer where he bought ground beef that he claimed gave his wife food poisoning.

This conversation, albeit brief, was very interesting to me. At SafeSourcing, we are very aware of product safety issues and the ramifications of unsafe products. To this man, his fear of the meat was based on his distrust of the supply chain. He struck a chord with me when he mentioned that he had no idea where his meat comes from. 

Can this man’s concerns be managed? Through traceability, the products you offer could be proven to be safe. Retailers must be aware of their entire supply chain and the product safety procedures in place at each point. Here again, it is fair to ask; what certifications do your suppliers hold? Clearly, when these product safety questions arise such as an outbreak of E. coli, only a relatively small portion of the product is affected. With the technology available today, retailers should be able to defend their products against this type of concern.

If you don’t think this is important, ask yourself this question: How many other people did he tell?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

The first step is to familiarize yourself with SQF and then the certification process. The best way to accomplish that is by visiting the SQF Institute website. Once there, the following information will stare you right in the face.

How to Achieve Certification from the SQF Institute:

1. Learn About the SQF Standard
There are several ways on how to learn to implement the SQF system in your company. Based on your level of expertise, the follow options are available:
? Attend an on-site ?Implementing SQF Systems? training course through a licensed SQF Training Center (Recommended);
? Take the online ?Implementing SQF Systems? training course provided by LearnSomething;
? Train yourself by utilizing the SQF documents available for free on our website;
? and/or take the SQF online exam.

2.?Register Your Company with our Online Assessment Registration System (Quickfire Registration)
The registration fee to our Assessment Database is based on the gross sales of a company. Click here to view our Registration Fee Structure.

3. Designate an employee as the SQF Practitioner
This individual will serve as your company?s internal expert on SQF. Further information on the requirements for an SQF Practitioner is available in section 8.2.1 of the SQF 1000 or 2000 Code.

4. Choose Your Level of Certification
There are three levels of certification for each SQF standard (SQF 1000 and SQF 2000). Level 1 is mainly for low risk products and it incorporates fundamental food safety controls. Level 2 is a certified HACCP food safety plan that is benchmarked by GFSI. Level 3 is a comprehensive implementation of safety and quality management systems that incorporates Level 2. In many cases, a supplier?s customer has already designated a minimum level of certification.

5. Obtain Proposals from Potential Certification Bodies
Contact a license Certification Body directly to obtain quotes on an SQF audit. Click here for the duration outline of a general SQF audit.

6. Conduct a Pre-Assessment (Optional)
Either an SQF auditor or your SQF Practitioner can identify the ?gaps? between your program and the desired level of SQF certification.

7. Choose a Certification Body and Schedule an Audit Use the licensed Certification Body directory to find a Certification Body that can conduct an audit in your country.

8. Certification Body Conducts Initial Certification Audits:
? Document review
? Facility Assessment

If you want to learn more about reinforcing the use of standards in your sourcing efforts, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

This post is not intended to poke fun or suggest that this is not a serious issue, it is to use a well known poem form the past to hi-lite the serious nature of this issue.

The poem Purple Cow has been attributed to many authors over the years and also rephrased by many, coming to represent something that is not normal. And having mad cow disease in our food chain is definitely not desired or normal.

So here is my derivation of the original by Gelett Burgess in 1895.

Mad Cow

I never saw a mad cow
I hope I never see one,
But I can tell you this right now:
I’d rather see than eat one.

Ah yes, I wrote “The Mad Cow”
I’m Sorry now I wrote it
But I can tell you Anyhow
It could kill you if you ate it!

To our friends at the FDA, please solve this issue ASAP and insure  industry buyers and their consumers that they do not have to worry about this type of contamination in our food chain.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

SafeSourcing in our best efforts to provide safe sourcing solutions makes sure that we continue to update our internal certifications. The following is probably something?our internal?ISO and OSHA auditors would have a probelm with.

How often do these types of situations happen on your retail properties? I’ll bet more often than you know.

We look forward to and appreciate?your comments