Why Food Safety Automation?

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Why do Food Processors Need an Automated Solution for Food Safety Compliance?

Increasingly, major food retailers are requiring that their suppliers be certified under one of the recognized food safety programs to demonstrate that they have the highest quality standards in place. There is also heightened awareness of food safety issues among the general public. And lawmakers are involved - Title III of the Bioterrorism Act has been on the books since 2002, and the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed by the President in January, 2011.

The Cost of a Food Safety Program is Substantial

Unfortunately, there are significant costs associated with food safety certification and on-going costs associated with periodic compliance audits. By far the largest of these costs is labor. Collecting and analyzing food safety data requires people.

Food Processors have many choices as to the food safety certification program they adopt - BRC, SQF2000, ISO22000 or FSSC22000 - but they all involve people manually recording information in paper records, people analyzing the recorded data, and people following up on reported problems. Basically - added manpower.

Manually Collected Data is Unreliable

This manual process is prone to human error. Ensuring that the data is collected accurately and in keeping with the assigned schedule is almost impossible. But the cost of relying on inaccurate data is high - possible product recalls and the associated damage to your Brand Name.

The reliability of food safety data can also be affected by intentional choices made by plant employees. The creation of fake data by a plant employee is called many things —“pencil whipping”, “extrasensory inspections”, “lick 'em and stick 'em,” or “whiff-n-poof “(whiff, blow on it, and poof, you’re done). Although amusing expressions, they describe the alarming, and potentially dangerous, alternatives to doing the right job, the right way.

Pencil whipping (faking paperwork) occurs for a variety of reasons, from employees taking short cuts, to their choosing not to record out-of-spec data. Whenever record keeping is done manually, the reliability of the data is ... well ... not very reliable.

It may be debated whether the falsification of food safety records can be viewed by the federal government as a violation of Food Safety Laws. What is discussed on the FDA’s website has to do with knowledge and intent behind the falsification of records, and it makes interesting reading.

Supervisors and managers should be aware that whether or not they, personally, are performing the data collection, they are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the data collected by their employees. Should a problem at your food plant reveal a violation of Food Safety laws, it’s safe to assume that more than one person would be called upon to answer for it.

SQF-Sentinel Provides an Answer

There is a solution to “”pencil whipping” - the paperless Food Safety Management System called SQF-Sentinel from Focus Works. It eliminates pencil whipping, ensures the timely collection of reliable food safety data, and reduces the manpower required for record keeping.

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