Effective Audits Not Just for the Big Boys

For restaurants, look at your local health department inspection form. Look at the FDA Food Code and state food codes. Use a HACCP plan to find the critical areas you need to keep track of. Determine if you want to collect this information yourself or have someone else do it, and how often. Determine the outcome of the auditing process and who will receive the information. If you are a small company like ours, it will probably be the quality assurance or food-safety person or team. Determine the value of paper reports versus having your collected data instantly accessible and ready for analysis.

Ultimately, large and small food-service companies should realize these benefits from auditing systems:

• Increased awareness of sanitation and food safety;
• Assurance that a HACCP plan is effective;
• Ability to show due diligence in the case of suspected quality or safety incidents;
• Acquisition of hard evidence to change policies or procedures when necessary;
• In some health jurisdictions, a lesser license fee for having a self-inspection program; and
• Having a great training tool for staff.

How does adding technology to manage your auditing and reporting make a difference? In a nutshell, it makes all intended benefits of your audits a reality. Instant access to real-time data, the ability to generate trend reports on the fly and the ability to monitor corrective actions to completion are critical for effective auditing.

The right technology facilitates the productivity of departments managing quality assurance and food safety even if there are staffing constraints. The ability to double productivity while making work easier and being more results-oriented cannot be ignored.

How do you know how your company is doing in relation to federal, state, industry and corporate standards if there are no data that can be easily analyzed? Be proactive. If you are not pursuing the latest advancement for auditing food safety, you cannot be doing your job effectively.

Debe Nagy-Nero, registered dietitian, is the director of quality assurance, nutrition and safety for The Holland Inc. The Holland Inc. operates Burgerville and Beaches’ concepts in the Pacific Northwest. Contact Debe by calling 360-694-1521 or e-mailing [email protected]. For information about Steton’s software, contact Mark Beatty at 435.627.5094 or [email protected].