GFSI Approved Schemes Strengthen Safety Initiatives – ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

An FSSC 22000 audit can take four to five days, and involves a document review, followed by a facility evaluation. What’s different about this audit is that there is no grading or scoring. The auditor provides a recommendation to the certification body, and then the certification body, in collaboration with the auditor, makes the final decision.

Auditees have up to 180 days to close out non-conformances.

Preparing For a GFSI Certification

The first step towards getting a GFSI-certification is to obtain a copy of the relevant GFSI standard or scheme, and then sign up with a certification body. The company that is getting certified must establish a Food Safety Team. Their role is to conduct self-assessments, and identify gaps in the food safety system that are inconsistent with the chosen GFSI scheme.

The next step is to schedule an optional pre-certification audit. This audit simulates the official GFSI audit, and helps a company get a fair idea about their existing level of conformance with the chosen GFSI standard.

After a company has completed these steps, they can schedule a full certification audit with the chosen certification body. During the audit, the company’s documented system is evaluated against set standards. Employees are interviewed, and records are examined. If any non-conformance is observed, remedial action is implemented. This is followed by a technical review where an authorized certification manager decides whether or not to issue a certificate.

Issuance of a certificate does not spell the end of the process. Re-certification audits have to be scheduled at defined intervals.

How Can Technology Help

Technology can help companies simplify food safety management and compliance with GFSI-approved standards through a streamlined, automated, and integrated approach. Advanced technology systems with sophisticated architecture can support the end-to-end process of planning and implementing GFSI food safety schemes.

Here are a few key areas where technology helps:
Compliance: Integrated technology systems enable companies to centrally manage multiple GFSI standards and requirements. They also facilitate a systematic and collaborative approach to the process of creating, reviewing, communicating, and updating GFSI compliance policies. Central data repositories make it easy to store, update, access, and even map together related food safety records and GFSI standards.

Hazard Analysis and Risk Management: Risk assessment tools such as risk heat maps, risk calculators, and scorecards help in identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing food quality and safety risks — including the risks in the supply chain. The latest risk management systems also feature tools to conduct a hazard analysis, and proactively address areas of concern before they spiral into major issues. Companies can leverage these tools to conduct quantitative and qualitative hazard/risk assessments, and also determine the impact, likelihood, severity, and frequency of hazards/risks. Based on this risk data, companies can implement measures and controls to mitigate the risks, and enhance compliance with the GFSI standards.

Preventive Controls Management: After food safety risks have been identified and assessed, technology systems can facilitate the process of creating and managing appropriate controls, including process controls, food allergen controls, and sanitation controls. Many systems feature mechanisms to assess and score controls, as well as define and monitor critical control points and thresholds.

Audit management: Companies can use audit management systems to automate and enable a variety of audits, including food quality and safety audits, as well as supplier audits, surveys, and certifications—all of which help in preparing for a GFSI audit. Integrated audit management systems provide the ability to centrally manage audit resources, schedules, and checklists. Advanced offline audit systems enable audit data collection even in remote locations which have no access to the Internet—auditors can still gather their data electronically, and later synchronize it with the central database.