Food safety is a major concern for businesses in all corners of the food industry. According to estimates by the Center for Disease Control, “each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases.”
Any time there’s a foodborne disease outbreak, every business involved in the chain from material supplier, to processor, to retailer has to undergo a thorough inspection of their operations and risks losing significant business.
To prevent PR nightmares, businesses in the food industry frequently turn to 3rd party certification programs to prove that their ingredients, processes, and products are all handled safely. Yet, foodborne illnesses from mishandled food product still persist.
The Trouble with 3rd-Party Certifications
As noted on the Global Food Safety Initiative’s website:
In recent years third party food safety audits have come under critical scrutiny from the mainstream media. Sites with supposedly excellent ratings by these independent auditors have been linked to outbreaks associated with serious illness and death, and have been closed down by regulators. In most reported cases, these instances were one-to-one arrangements between suppliers and independent non-accredited audit agencies, without any oversight or recognition. – GFSI
The issue here is that the so-called “auditors” weren’t operating under a recognized, verified, and accredited system for auditing food safety. This means that, at the very least, there was no reliable, exhaustive framework in place for identifying potential foodborne illness risks.This defeats the goal of using third-party certifications: to prevent dangerous foodstuffs from reaching consumers.To help enable this goal, companies in the food industry need to use third-party certifications that have achieved proper accreditation under the guidelines of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Benefits of Using FSMA Accredited 3rd-Party Certifications
The biggest benefit of using an FSMA accredited 3rd-party certification is that the auditor performing the certification will provide an objective and thorough assessment of a food maker’s facilities and processes.
Objectivity and thoroughness in the assessment gives businesses the info they need to make meaningful safety improvements to prevent foodborne illnesses from spreading. This means safer products, fewer outbreaks that lead to bad press, and less capital lost to legal fees, compensation claims, and reduced productivity in light of a food safety incident.
For food manufacturers and distributors to build their reputations and grow their business, they need to have access to reliable, trusted data that shows their products are safe for consumption. Using third-party certification bodies that have been accredited under the FSMA’s guidelines is one way to do this.
Another way to demonstrate food safety is to use advanced, traceable food safety inspection equipment such as x-ray machines to verify and record the status of every food product that passes through your facility.
By using x-ray inspection alongside specialized data collection/logging software, food manufacturers can enhance their food safety documentation, which can help with surprise food safety inspections.
