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Vikash Lutchmiah
Posted in June

Message

The value of your business relies on your brand, and hence it is vital to protect your Brand equity. As you may be aware, the consumer packaging industry is now required to develop and maintain food safety (HACCP) & quality programs for primary packaging. Some major retailers and customers also require their suppliers to be certified in the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards, such as SQF 2000, BRC & ISO-FSSC 22000. These certification differ from traditional audits you had been receiving, since not only do they ensure the safety of your products and protect your brand equity, but add value to your operations and make organizations become more efficient.
 
This may not be new to many of you, and you would agree that it is indeed an extensive process to achieve certification. The food industry has had HACCP programs for at least ten years, has been audited yearly by the governement agencies and third party companies, but still struggling in getting certified in the GFSI standards. We have noticed an increasing trend in recruiting  full time employees to manage the day to day product safety and quality, and would like to commend those of you with such initiatives. Though the person you would be recruiting may have significant experience in quality management, you may find it is very hard to get someone who really knows what HACCP is about, how to adapt it to the packaging industry, and add value in your programs in getting you certified to GFSI.
 
 With extensive experience and certified GFSI specialists in both the food and packaging industry, allow me to sharing some valuable insights, and suggest the following:
  • It is not necessary to recruit an expensive Quality expert from the food industry and ask them to work in the packaging industry- He or she will implement drastic measures that are not practical and cause havoc, since they may not be exposed to the packaging processing and environment. You could recruit someone with the basic knowledge and skills of food safety & quality. We could then conduct a training needs analysis to establish what additional knowledge & skills are required, and then provide necessary training. Training are intended to be carried out on-site to prevent any disruption of operations.
  • With the tight deadlines (To implement GMPs, developing and implementing HACCP, verify that the programs work, and then get certified to the GFSI standards), it may be challenging and often frustrating for a new recruit to do it all. We could be of vital assistance in guiding the facility how to develop the cost effective programs that have proven to be sustainable. We want to make sure they do not depend on us on the long term, and will explain how to develop and implement, rather than doing it for them. In that way, there are no trial and error from their part while trying to do their best, and they will still meet the deadlines established.
  • It is important that the programs are audited to confirm adequacy. It takes a lot of time to audit all areas of the facility, and the personnel auditing must be independent of the function. We either conduct the internal audits or train a team in conducting their own internal audits.
  • All programs (GMPs, pre-requisites and HACCP) should be validated, i.e providing scientific evidence that measures established adequately control hazards identified. This is a complex and time consuming process, and may turn out to be very costly if not done properly. We could assist in identifying significant risks in the manufacturing operations, establish effective control measures, and validate their programs.
  • Currently, most manufacturers rely on Certificates of Analyses (COAs) for monitoring of their raw material suppliers. However, COAs only prove that a portion of that batch had been tested and turned out to be safe. It is impossible to guarantee 100% product safety without a HACCP program and hygienic manufacturing environment. We could assist in monitoring their suppliers that they had been using over time, and assist in approving new ones.
  • Sanitation, housekeeping and maintenance are now recognized as allied functions that compromise product safety, if not properly managed. We could help them determine how effective these programs and reduce cost in managing them.
This is a non-exclusive list of what we can offer: We do not like to offer generic solutions, since every business operation is unique.
 
Please feel free to respond to the email ([email protected]">[email protected]) and tell us how we could assist, and if you feel that there are other members of your network that may require our tailored services, kindly forward the email to them and we would be glad to help. You could find more details about our services for the packaging industry at http://fssc.biz/index.php?p=1_12">http://fssc.biz/index.php?p=1_12.
 
 
Best regards,
 
Food Safety Solutions Canada
Mississauga, ON, Canada.
Visit us at http://www.fssc.biz/">www.fssc.biz

 

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