dividuals in charge of food safety. Managing risk is part of managing the business.1 These individuals are therefore responsible
for seeing that best practices are both successfully implemented
and achieved.
Certification
All Fieldale Farms’ processing facilities are USDA-inspected
facilities. In addition to meeting the USDA performance standards to ensure safe and wholesome products, the company is
committed to continuous improvement to meet their customers’ specifications and exceed their expectations. To do this,
the company has all its processing plants Safe Quality Food
(SQF) certified. More retailers and foodservice operators are requiring their suppliers and distributors to have certifications to
demonstrate their compliance with food safety regulations at all
stages of the supply chain in both domestic and global markets.
SQF, British Retail Consortium (BRC) or Food Safety System
Certification (FSSC) 22000 are all recognized by the Global
Food Safety Initiative.
2
SQF is a comprehensive quality management and food
safety certification system for food processors, wholesalers and
distributors. The BRC Global Standard for Food Safety is designed for companies supplying retailer-branded food products.
BRC is a Hazard Anaylsis and Critical Control Points
(HACCP)-based system and requires senior management commitment and continual improvement. FSSC 22000 is a complete food safety certification system for the food
manufacturing industry that is based on ISO 22000, PAS 220
and ISO 22003.3
Cold-chain Management
Additionally, the company works continuously with its customers to execute an effective cold-chain management program. An effective partnership between supplier and customer
is vital for program success. Regardless of the level of integrity
of finished products leaving a manufacturing facility, failure to
store at the warehouse or transport on trucks within the correct
temperature range will compromise both safety and quality especially if the product is refrigerated or frozen.
4 Investment in
temperature recorders that monitor the shipping condition of
products in transit is becoming a common partnership practice
for customers. Currently, Fieldale Farms randomly monitors
the shipping temperatures of products in transit to our customers. Our cold-chain management program promotes customer satisfaction by ensuring that products are shipped at the
proper temperature; ensuring that monitors are retrieved so that
recorded data are reviewed in a timely manner to facilitate
prompt action and corrective measures; ensuring effective temperature record keeping and documentation; and mitigating
food safety risks. By integrating monitoring and tracking with
an emphasis on driving meaningful and measurable process improvements, the right product can be in the right place at the
right time under the right conditions. An example of Fieldale
Farms’ program/process flow chart can be seen in Figure 1.
Product Evaluation
Another practice implemented for best practices is the evaluation of customer products. Every Friday, Fieldale personnel
from upper management, the quality and food safety team,
production from all processing plants, sales and marketing and
R&D gather and evaluate products produced during the week
prior to shipping to customers. This is in addition to the online evaluation performed during the actual processing of the
product. Products are randomly selected and evaluated for
physical and sensory attributes. Proper packaging and labeling
are also verified. Product evaluation session schedules are rotated weekly to allow night shift quality control and production
personnel to participate in the evaluation sessions. The quality
and food safety team believes that when both day and night
shift personnel are involved in the evaluation process, opportunities for improvement can be better identified and addressed.
Such an evaluation allows the company to be familiar with
customer product specifications and expectations, identify op-
portunities for improvement and
demonstrate team efforts to con-
sistently uphold quality and de-
liver safe products to customers.
Label Auditing
In the first 6 months of 2011,
there were 27 recalls nationwide
for undeclared ingredients; 20
were the results of undeclared allergens. In the preceding 2 years
combined, FSIS issued recalls for
32 undeclared allergens. Mislabeling for one of the eight main allergens (i.e., wheat, Crustacean
shellfish, eggs, fish, peanuts, milk,
tree nuts and soybeans) typically
results in a Class 1 recall because
of the associated public health
risk.
5
