Food safety is a concept where the food does not cause any harm to an individual when it is prepared and consumed according to the intended purpose. The global markets and the consumers we see every day in the newspaper, print, media as well as the internet have many issues related to food product recalls. That’s why a food safety management system is important to manage and organize activity. In this article, we are going to provide you with step-by-step ways to conduct a food safety audit in 2024.
What are Food Safety Audits and Why are they Essential?
A food safety audit is a systematic, independent, and documented activity in which objective evidence is gathered and assessed to determine if a food safety system is appropriate and effective. Audit helps determine if hazards are properly identified and controlled or eliminated. It’s a procedure to verify the goal of ensuring safe and suitable food for human consumption by collecting viable evidence.
It is a procedure to verify our goal that permits timely correction and taking proper suitable sustainable corrective action for potential problems identified. Thereby building confidence in the system or the process looks as if you are doing an audit of your system, you get confidence in facing any visitors or vendors showing the system to any customers for that matter.
Food safety audits focus on the key areas of your operations like your food storage, processing preparations, and goods manufacturing processes. What are all the good practices, which systems do you want to improve and where does your business stand? All of these will be focused on during an audit. Food safety software and audits serve the purpose of assessing compliance with regulatory requirements and food safety standards.
What are the Types of Conducting Food Safety Audits?
Auditing skills play a pivotal role in food safety leadership by ensuring that your operation meets and exceeds food safety standards. There are multiple ways of conducting food safety compliance software. The following is a brief about the types of three different types of audits in 2024:
Internal Auditing
In this, you do your own systems audit so the basic objective of your internal audit is to check where you stand in terms of your improvement and how you can improve your system. That’s a major objective and the scope of an internal audit or a first-party audit.
Supplier-Buyer Auditing
An audit by an organization on its supplier, customers, or subcontractors is being performed. So the major objective is whether you want to go ahead with the supplier or you want to onboard the supplier or you get confidence to get the product.
Certification Auditing
This audit is carried out by an external independent auditing agency to certify again certain standards. Third-party audits are prescriptive, benchmarked, rededicated, and professionally executed worldwide to ensure a safer food supply. To keep our manufacturing plants continuously improving and aware of the new regulations or topics that are important for food safety. These audit schemes are evolving and improving all the time.
Audits create a better food-safe environment for manufacturing. Irrespective of the type of audit you receive, whether it is an internal audit, supplier-buyer (second-party audit), or certification audit (third-party audit), all food safety audits are designed to be on buyer’s independent assessments of food safety and quality systems.
What is the Role of Food Safety Audit in 2024?
Food safety audits play a crucial role in ensuring the integrity of the food supply chain, verifying food quality, and safeguarding public health. These audits provide a systematic and independent assessment of food processing facilities, evaluating their adherence to established food safety standards, regulations, and best practices in 2024. All schemes for food safety processes must be established, compliant, and monitored. The role of handling management is divided into three ways so that there is no compromise in speed and quality.
- Procurement, Planning, and Logistics Manufacturing:
This includes engineering and quality improvement, which have been considered under the food safety management process. - Realization Processes:
This is a step-by-step approach to food safety for prerequisite programs. - Supporting Processes:
These are the core of any business standing in front. It supports functions that include HR, finance & control, legal, information technology, communication, and security. These approving areas for food industry requirements are part of a robust food safety management system.
Hence, food safety audits are an organized way to evaluate the level of the food management system that protects public health. The role of food safety audits in the food industry is held in various sectors. By conducting regular audits, organizations can stick to their commitment and provide quality and safety.
Steps to Conduct a Food Safety Audit
Compliance with food safety standards is critical to producing safe foods and protecting consumers and your business. An effective way to ensure a food business meets food safety standards is by conducting food safety audits. Food safety audits provide insights about the organization’s safety culture and practices, which also help to identify areas of improvement.
Whether the audit is internal or external, the typical process for a food safety audit will have specific steps to ensure consistency:
1. Planning and Preparation
This includes where an auditor identifies the areas that need to be evaluated during the audit. The auditor or the audit team prepares the audit plan, which includes the scope and complexity of the audit.
2. Execution
Execution is when the auditor conducts the audit according to the plan. It is the verification of the food safety practices of the processes, operations, and documentation. In this type, the information is collected, pictures can be taken, employees are interviewed for some testing that can be performed, the confirmability of the food system is verified against specific criteria, and the findings are recorded.
3. Preventive & Corrective Actions
In this step, the auditing team evaluates the preparation of an organization to address the gap and has its true proper preventive and corrective actions.
4. Verification
The food safety audit does not end until after the preventive and corrective actions are implemented. In this step, the auditor asks how well corrective preventive actions have been working and if they are meeting the requirements or not. This is commonly conducted by reviewing records and verifying the results after applying those actions.
5. Audit Evaluation
The evaluation of the progress ensures that objectives are being met and improvements are on track as needed. The assessment is a continual feedback and improvement.
Outro
Food safety audits are essential to the success of your business. Food safety audits help assess the conditions of the facility, processes, and distribution. Audits engage management and employees to build a food safety culture, continue improvement, and ensure compliance with regulatory and industry requirements.
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