Third-party audits are becoming a common way for brands to ensure safe food production and gain access to new markets; however, they require meticulous planning and preparation.
During SFA’s recent Regulatory Update webinar, “How to Survive a Third-Party Audit,” Dave Seddon, food safety expert and co-founder of third-party auditing service FoodReady, and Amanda Kinchla, associate extension professor at The University of Massachusetts’s Department of Food Science, spoke about essential aspects of a third-party audit and how a specialty food business can best prepare for success.
Both speakers are affiliated with the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety, one of the four USDA-funded centers that provide technical assistance and educational programming for businesses affected by the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Auditing is “a systematic approach for evaluating information and also making sure you are in compliance with your written rules and standards that you have created for your company,” said Seddon, adding that a third-party audit is essentially a system wherein evidence is evaluated to determine whether a brand is fulfilling the standards set forth by a certifying body or an independent third-party food business.
When conducting a food safety audit, as in many different types of audits, verification and recordkeeping are critical, Seddon said. This means that every data point has been confirmed and collected for proof. These two aspects will demonstrate that the proper safety precautions are actually occurring in a business. They are considered at every step: including at hazard analysis critical control points, a way to detect critical problem areas, when instituting preventive controls, steps that are taken to reduce or eliminate hazards, benchmarking and evaluating correct parameters and values, monitoring every product creation and dissemination area, and when ensuring corrective actions are taking place if/when something goes awry.
Seddon also shared that calibration is important, as is showing an ongoing process of calibrating various tools like thermometers and scales.
He also explained that, when implementing safety programs like pest control, allergen control, and food fraud prevention, simply having defenses in place is not enough, there must be a written documented description of what is being done.
“One thing we often hear about with auditors and inspectors is: if it wasn’t written down it never happened,” shared Kinchla. “And, in an audit, it is even more rigorous with how literal things have to be written down and demonstrated with records.”
Kinchla also shared various online tools that she and her team have created to help make the process easier, including the Processors’ Food Safety Toolkit, which collects resources to help small processors comply with various programs like Preventative Controls for Human Food and Good Manufacturing Processes.
To learn more about what you can do to prepare for a third-party audit, watch the webinar on demand in the SFA Learning Center.
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