During our Food Hygiene and Sanitation Updates for Key GFSI-Benchmarked Schemes webinar, our resident experts shared how to maximize food safety through compliance with the hygiene and sanitation requirements of the most popular GFSI-benchmarked certification schemes.
Deb Smith, Vikan’s Global Hygiene Specialist, and Amit M. Kheradia, Remco’s Environmental Health and Sanitation Manager answered questions both during and after the online webinar. Below are seven Q&As that we think you might find interesting. Some questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.
1. Do all GFSI-benchmarked global food safety standards cover all the food sectors from farm to fork?
No, not all. Some standards only cover a specific area of the food industry. For example, Global G.A.P only covers good agricultural practices. However, popular food safety standards for BRCGS, SQF, and FSSC 22000 have been designed to cover a wide range of food industry sectors. The link here provides a list of GFSI-benchmarked standards and the industry scopes they cover: GFSI-Recognised-CPOs-20240705 (mygfsi.com).
2. Does certifying against GFSI-benchmarking standards mean your company is following the food safety regulations?
Global food safety standards that have been benchmarked to GFSI requirements are carefully developed with CODEX principles or international food safety standard requirements in mind. However, it is the onus of the certified company or company getting certified to comply with and stay updated on changes in regulations in their own home country and state and the destination countries and states where their products are being marketed. For instance, allergen regulations will differ by country – the US has 9, Canada has about 13, the EU has 14, and so on.
On another related note, according to the US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations, a more detailed food safety plan would be required by a qualified site that is over and above the conventional HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plan. Therefore, the global standard clauses have been carefully worded regarding matters of regulatory compliance, which is mandatory.
3. How critical are hygiene and sanitation controls for a company? Can a non-compliance make them fail an audit?
It depends. A non-compliance that represents an immediate risk to food safety and that requires urgent corrective action is critical. As such, these severe violations can result in a failed facility audit.
Based on the severity of the threat to food safety and quality, non-conformances may also be rated as major or minor. An example of a major non-conformance would be if a pest control program was found inadequate, even if there were no signs of pest ingress. By contrast, a minor non-conformity would not present a significant risk to consumer health, product recall, or production shutdown, etc.
When a non-conformance happens, companies should perform a root cause analysis and perform a corrective action. In many cases, they should also set up preventive actions for the future. Certifying bodies provide a timeline for sites to close the non-conformances but companies should work to resolve the issues as soon as they can to avoid any operational and market disruptions and provide food safety assurance to their stakeholders, including their customers.
4. GFSI schemes’ increased requirements on hygienic design are welcome. I am curious to find out how auditors are being trained to address these new requirements and what criteria they will need to use in their audits?
This is something EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering Design Group) and 3-A SSI are working on in conjunction with GFSI, local regulators, and audit bodies. Presently, there appears to be very little knowledge or experience of the method of hygienic design within these organizations. However, in the future, EHEDG and 3-A hope to support auditors by offering hygienic design training and/or access to their members’ experience.
5. What are some of the ways of improving food safety and hygiene culture in food manufacturing?
There will always be some sort of food safety culture at a site, but there’s always room for improvement, whether that culture is strong or not. Again, it is about coming back to those basic GFSI requirements, i.e.,
- Having that senior management commitment to support employees who own the programs on food safety, sanitation, and hygiene
- Motivating employees to consistently do the right things through innovative education, training, refresher training, and mentoring
- allowing open employee feedback in meetings – and making those frontline workers part of the food safety team so that making decisions is an ongoing company-wide process rather than a one-time event, and,
- Tracking those key performance indicators (KPIs), or measures of whether the culture is consistently succeeding or failing. If the culture is failing, find the root cause of WHY and produce corrective and preventive action plans to mitigate the issues. If it is succeeding, consider how to sustain and further improve the food safety culture, and the associated site goals and objectives.
For more information, our webinar archive has a useful presentation on: “Food Safety Culture and Color-Coding: How to exceed compliance and simplify complexity.”
6. Which is the best GFSI-benchmarked program to be certified against?
Which scheme you choose may depend on the sector of the food industry you work in, e.g., Global GAP is for the fresh produce sector, and Global Seafood Alliance is for the seafood sector. It may also depend on which region of the world you produce and sell your products in, what your retail customers’ demands are, and the availability of certifying bodies for the chosen audit standard. You will need to consider all these things, and more, to make the right decision.
Here are some tips on ensuring that the right GFSI-benchmarked standard is selected for your food site:
- Not all GFSI-benchmarked schemes are created equally: Know your sector and your GFSI industry scope, and then find out what certification standards are available for your site.
- Ask your customers: For example, what certifications does a food retailer or customer want from a food manufacturer or vendor?
- Research the certification options: Find out which certification works for your company in terms of certification body selection, availability, costs, ease of implementation, and so on.
- Make the decision to get GFSI-benchmarked standard certified: Make it a company-wide decision. Set timelines and milestones for implementation as a team.
- Keep abreast of relevant changes in the standard through reliable information: When the system is up and running, do not stop there. Look at it as a continuous process of developing, reviewing, maintaining, and improving your food safety management system, rather than a one-time event!
7. Do Remco and Vikan offer any GFSI-based certification training or audit services?
We do not offer any GFSI-based training or formal auditing services. However, we do support the food industry with the services below.
- We offer free food safety and hygiene-related information, including our thought leadership webinars, blogs, publications, and presentations at international food safety events like the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).
- We also offer complimentary services like our guidance tool, food-grade documentation, site surveys, tool selection and management programs, etc.
These are all aimed at helping sites meet or exceed the high food safety and hygiene expectations required by the GFSI-benchmarked programs and food safety regulations.
Disclaimer: The responses given to these selected questions are the professional opinions of the industry experts involved and are not necessarily endorsements of any of the products and services mentioned. Companies should conduct their own site-specific risk assessments and develop their own hazard controls as part of their food safety plan.
For more information and support, please feel free to contact:
