Personnel Training – Mercenary or MOM

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.

Fatal Indifference

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix  Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & HealthProtection. He is also the Director of Technical Services at Amiri Food Industry Support Services (AFISS) and the Canada/U.S representative for the World Food Safety Organisation.

Global Food Safety – Recognized Need for Technical Assistance and Support for Small Businesses

For Discussion:

The Global Markets Capacity Building Programme (GMCBP) under the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) scheme began in 2008. The project was said to have been initiated ". . .  after output from the annual GFSI stakeholder meeting clearly identified the need for technical assistance and support for small and/or less developed businesses in the development of their food safety management systems.”

A key question was already asked in the FAQs provided on the GFSI website (mygfsi.com).

Question:

 Who is the programme aimed at?
Answer:

“The programme is aimed at small and/or less developed businesses that because of their size, lack of technical expertise, economic resources or the nature of their work encounter difficulties in implementing HACCP in their food business. When referring to a ‘less developed business’ we refer to the status of the food safety management system and NOT to the number of staff or volume of production.”
This answer presents some debilitating realities facing SMEs in this statement: “because of their size, lack of technical expertise, economic resources or the nature of their work encounter difficulties in implementing HACCP in their food business.”

Questions for discussion:

1. How does the GMCBP help less developed businesses or cash strapped small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?

2. What are some suggestions for SMEs to follow in overcoming the debilitating realities identified  in the FAQ answer to “who is the programme is aimed at”?

3. The stated aim of the GMCBP mentions the “need for technical assistance and support”. What is the nature of the assistance and/or support that is to be expected by the SMEs or less developed businesses? How is this assistance and/or support to be delivered, by whom, when, etc.?
It was also explained in another FAQ answer that the ‘Global Markets Capacity Building Programme’ is “. . . a tool for small and/or less developed businesses to continuously improve their food safety programmes to achieve product safety requirements in a phased approach and ultimately gain certification against one of the GFSI recognized schemes.”

4. Do and must all roads lead to ultimate certification?
Although a process of assessment and ultimate certification appears to be inextricably tied to the GMCBP program, I would suggest the answer to be “NO” for this question. The GMCBP tool is very useful for developing food safety management systems but it can and may be used without necessarily proceeding to certification. What do you think?

List of related documents that are available for download from GFSI:
http://www.mygfsi.com/structure-and-governance/gfsi-technical-committee/gfsi-global-markets-working-group/65.html
The Protocol Flowchart:
http://www.mygfsi.com/gfsifiles/GFSI_Global_Markets_Protocol_Flowchart.pdf

GCSE-Food & Health Protection also has its version of a: Proposed Project to ProvideTechnical and Financial Assistance to Small Companies

Are You Preparing for an Audit?

Although some have become mere theatrics, food safety audits can be put to good use if conducted in an effective manner with more serious intents than for superficial certifications. 

Some Important Rules for Ensuring a Successful and Effective Audit:

1. Be prepared for the audit by documenting, practicing and having the proof (i.e. records) for everything you do 

2. Avoid the “Buried Log Syndrome” – records must be readily available 

3. Do not argue about anything that you cannot factually substantiate 

4. Precisely respond to the auditor’s questions by providing the evidence and facts that substantiate the effectiveness of your system and programs 

5. Do not deliberately or otherwise try to overwhelm the auditor with excessive volunteered information about how well things are being managed where the auditor has not asked for that information 

6. Do not hijack the audit time through the excessive discussion of speculative solutions for identified deficiencies 

7. Do not insist on the history of past performance as evidence of compliance where issues are actually found during the audit 

8. Avoid the excessive discussion of future compliance plans that are not documented or verifiable 

9. Do not pile up unorganized documents for the auditors to search through when they ask for documented procedures and records 

10. Do not stack pallets in front of doors to prevent the auditors from seeing all areas applicable to the audit

11. Do not make funny gestures behind the auditor to get your co-workers to hide things

12. Avoid mid-audit development of missing system management documents 

13. Do not attempt to rail-road and/or stir the auditor away from areas with non-conformance issues 

14. Do not discuss company politics, personal issues or other clients

 Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Friends or Foes - What is True of Food and Health Industry Stakeholders Today?

What are the friendship dynamics?

With the players in the food and health industry sectors grouped into producers, processors, delivering channels, technical facilitators, regulators  and consumers, an inevitable fact emerges: These groups need to be friends in order to ensure the collective good. As can be expected, certain things are positively and negatively affecting the friendship dynamics among these groups.

Offer of help wins friends but punitive scrutiny loses them. 

Your Observation:  

How do you see the friendliness among these groups? What are the kinds of things that may be positively or negatively affecting the friendship dynamics? In thinking about this, you may consider the common objectives. You may also consider the main power brokers and how they are influencing the dynamics. Other considerations may include the part played by profit-making or political interests, professional aspirations, public education, management, control and enforcement strategies, or any other influencing factor that comes to mind. For example, are published outbreaks bringing these groups together as friends? Do money-making and/or political aspirations help or hinder the friendship? Is rampant distrust dividing and conquering the industry? Is simply agreeing to cooperate enough, especially where there are divergent interests?

What about new global developments and challenges, how are these affecting the friendship? Please provide comments below:

When pleasing the health inspector may not be sufficient:

Like passing food safety audits, passing health inspections does not necessarily provide a safeguard against, indifference, carelessness, or inconsistent adherence to good food handling practices by each employee. Evidently, this California Deli has been inspected and allowed to operate in the past.

Artificially setting things up to pass inspections or audits can backfire at times. The "pass" may lull people into sleep (apathy, laziness, lack of commitment, etc). Passed inspections or audits can cause employees to let the guards down until the likes of Norovirus sneaks up to devastate the operation.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/02/norovirus-
temporarily-closes-california-deli

Can anything be worse? Yes. Having a careless attitude that leads to the failing of inspections or audits is worse. Apart from the penalties (enforced or otherwise) that are associated with failing inspections and audits, operations that fail audits in spite of all that is currently known about effective food safety practices have hidden demons to deal with. Ignoring these demons is suicidal. 

Restaurants and other food service operations take note!

Norovirus is not a new pathogen. It has been around and known for several years now. This article http://www.pritzkerlaw.com/norwalk-virus/index.htm#discovery reports that “Norovirus, formerly known as Norwalk Virus, was discovered and named after a gastrointestinal illness outbreak in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1972.  Like all other viruses (and unlike bacteria) Norovirus is extremely small and invades the cells of the human body to replicate itself using the cell's own material.”

Whereas paper-based and mere "compliance-focused" HACCP systems may not address the problems with the likes of Norovirus, properly implemented hazard analysis, pre-requisite and HACCP programs should adequately prevent or at least reduce incidence of related outbreaks even if the specific microorganisms are not mentioned by name.

What the Public is Told By and About the Food Industry

More than 260,433 people have reportedly viewed this YouTube Video. Do you have any comments about it? 

Food Safety Culture and the Belief Factor

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

                    

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & HealthProtection. He is also the Director of Technical Services at Amiri Food Industry Support Services (AFISS) and the Canada/U.S representative for the World Food Safety Organisation.