Food Safety Auditing: An Industry in Transition

While existing food safety plans may encompass some of FSMA, they are not interchangeable as an FDA certification audit goes beyond the traditional food safety elements and focuses on compliance with specific regulations. “Food safety auditors are currently in a transition from these bigger, broader, every-question-you-can-think-of-food-safety-event type of audits such as GFSI,” says Wester, “to very specific FSMA audits that say, ‘Look at this cook step and this regulation. Are they doing it right?’ We are not accustomed to reporting that level of detail on a specific hazard or regulation.”

An Increasing Number of Audits

While FSMA is, at least for the time being, increasing the number of third-party audits, SGS’s Lott says she’s noticed another reason for the growing number of audits. “Walmart tells a supplier, ‘If you want to sell your product in our store, you have to be GFSI certified,’ a company gets that certification, then looks at all their raw material suppliers and says, ‘Why don’t we get all them GFSI certified as well?’” she says. This trickle-down effect has even reached packagers in a supply chain as their product includes a surface that has contact with food, she says, which buyers want to get GFSI certified as well.

In addition, the journey from farm to fork has become increasingly complex, says Stuart Kelly, head of Commercial at Lloyd’s Register. “Fifty years ago, the average supermarket stocked 200 items, 70 percent of which were processed within 100 miles,” he says. “Today, supermarkets stock around 39,000 items, and on average these items have travelled 1,500 miles before they’re consumed.” He adds that the more complex the supply chain, the higher the risk of foodborne illness hazards. “This complicates auditing but also makes it more important than ever to ensure safe, sustainable, and responsibly sourced food,” he says.

Personnel Challenge

As FDA increases regulatory inspections under FSMA and third-party auditors are beginning to issue FDA certifications, the food safety auditing industry is going to be under a lot of pressure. “This industry is going to grow tremendously,” says SGS’s Lott. “And auditors are an aging population. We need to focus on how we can get young people qualified faster to answer that demand.”

Lack of qualified auditors has always plagued the industry, even before FSMA and the recent uptick of audits. “Auditors are typically independent contractors who often do two or three audits a week, spending Monday to Friday on the road,” says Wester. “How does one maintain a life or a family—let alone write their audit reports—with that kind of schedule? We don’t have enough auditors, and the ones we do have burn out too quickly.”

What’s more, many job postings for auditors require so many years of auditing experience or specialized knowledge in a specific food sector or certification scheme that it filters out most new job seekers. “We need to work out entry-level positions for auditors,” says Wester, who helped start an association to represent those in the auditing industry. “Let them start at low-risk foods and then climb up to high-risk and reward them with pay increases.”

Meanwhile Martin Fowell, director of Auditing Operations at Mérieux NutriSciences, says that they have been working with the U.S. Department of Labor on an apprenticeship program to help alleviate some of the pressures they’re seeing on auditor capacity.

But it isn’t just auditor capacity that’s a challenge—it’s auditor competency as well. GFSI recently created “knowledge exams,” also known as GFSI Auditor Exams, to offer a consistent method to assess auditor knowledge across a range of relevant skills for all GFSI-recognized programs, as well as cover HACCP and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, and standard auditing skills such as sampling and evidence gathering.