175 Delegates attend LRQA Food Sector Webinar

Cor Groenveld, one of the world's leading global food safety experts, delivered the 3rd LRQA food sector webinar, "Assurance in the Food Supply Chain" yesterday. The webinar was delivered twice, once at 9 am UK time and again at 12 noon EST (US) to allow global participants to choose the time that best suits them.

The 60 minute webinar featured over 175 delegates between the two sessions, with the afternoon session topping 100 people! After Cor's presentation, the Question and Answer sessions proved to be very interactive, with each session featuring over 20 audience questions.

Words into Actions – moving from inspections to process based Assessments

ISO 22000, PAS 220 and FSSC 22000 are changing the world of Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) assessments. The inspection method, long the standard bearer in FSMS assessments, is slowly giving way to the process based assessment. Put simply, the checklist approach is being replaced by one that takes a more in-depth look at the processes behind the results.
That was one of the issues discussed last week at LRQA’s FSMS Trainers Course in Orlando, Florida. Vel Pillay, Food Safety Program Manager - Americas, Erasmo Salazar, ISO 22000 Lead Assessor and Trainer from Mexico and Dave Sherring, UK Trainer Manager and course designer, delivered the latest ISO 22000 Auditor/Lead Auditor course to a group of clients from an interesting range of organisations across the food supply chain; including fruit processing, chemical processing and even the US Army.

Food Safety and Business Assurance

Recently, a food manufacturing client asked me why they needed a FSSC 22000 management system certification and Business Assurance from LRQA. The conversation was all about “what could a certified management system approach offer that a checklist approach could not?”

To answer this question, we need to first go back to a clear definition of management systems. Management systems can be defined as a company’s internal processes that help them safeguard their current and future business and provide confidence that they are meeting the needs of their internal stakeholders and promises they have made to their customers. Personally, I like the definition supplied by Henri Fayol from the book General and Industry Management, “Management Systems play a part in all undertakings, large or small, industrial, commercial, political, religious, or any other.”

TRUST comes by Food and leaves by Horse

A deliberate typo in relation to last week’s Global Food Safety Conference. Yet a relevant typo, as the issue is “who do you trust?” I will explain later.
It has struck me that GFSI has been very successful in creating awareness and acceptance in bringing food safety on the management agenda. Even so successful, that many customers today are regaining confidence that food safety risks are being managed. This is a great achievement and is a direct result of tremendous efforts across the entire supply chain. We at LRQA pride ourselves in being part of this success. It does not mean that we now can relax. Maintaining rigorous food safety standards, performing independent and experienced audits, and supporting our clients in continuous improvement and management of change, all remain as much a challenge as they were before.
A single lapse of attention and controls, and a major food safety incident may hit the market with devastating impact on the parties involved. We at LRQA set ourselves clear goals every day at every audit; avoid these disasters, within the scope of our work. Companies, their clients and their suppliers need to have trust in our work, and in the work of our clients.

GFSI, FSSC 22000 and Washington, D.C.

I just returned from the GFSI Food Safety Conference that was held last week in Washington DC. With a few days delay because as you all will know the weather conditions were extreme. It snowed for more then 30 hours this weekend and the centre of the city had 70 cm…
The conference was one of the best ever organised by GFSI. Especially because it was held for the first time in the USA. Third party certification in the USA is emerging. Mainly because the retailers and large food manufacturers realise that robust systems are needed to achieve the highest level of assurance of food safety and quality in the food supply chain.

Building Consumer Trust through Assurance

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) conference that took place last week in Washington D.C. is a very timely one. According to the IBM Consumer Confidence Survey conducted in June 2009, 80% of consumers do not trust their food. This is because of breakdowns in food safety protocols and fraud perpetrated by unscrupulous manufacturers that eroded consumer confidence.

The food industry has changed over the years and tremendous progress has been made in the way we look at identifying issues associated with food safety. The industry has moved from a reactive inspection based approach to a more proactive approach of identifying, evaluating and controlling physical, chemical and microbiological hazards at all stages of the process.

Food Safety - Stakeholder Views

The stakeholders for food safety are numerous. This blog takes a look at the latest news and views from some of those groups, including some stakeholders that are less obvious:

Consumer activists

Food Safety Defense Attorneys

Small Businesses

Meat Suppliers

Non governmental organisations (NGO's)