The Role of Audits and Global Food Safety Trends and Gaps

The global food and beverage industry has undergone tremendous change in the last decade, especially in the area of food safety. There are a number of factors driving this trend, including the growth of a discerning middle class in developing markets; increasingly aging and health-conscious populations; limited food resources influenced by international trade agreements and trade barriers; social media and the ease in which news travels; changing food safety regulations for local and export markets; the acceptance of the GFSI certification schemes; and supply chain management and increased demands on traceability.

Exporters to the U.S. will need to adhere to strict new food safety requirements. Customers are requiring that suppliers be certified to a GFSI-recognized scheme. There are also more formal and robust supply chain management programs which are incorporating legal requirements like FSMA, GFSI certification, and end-to-end traceability. Food safety failures are creating trends of their own in Asia. According to Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea, 35% of food safety issues were a result of basic hygiene infringements and raw material shelf-life.

Over the past 10 years in Australia, there have been more than 580 product recalls. In 2014, the top two causes of food recalls were microbial contamination (32.4%) and undeclared allergens (30.5%). There are two levels of cost related to food product recalls: the direct cost of product loss and recall and the indirect cost due to brand damage, lost contracts, and lost sales.

In India, food products adulterated with different types of additives that may cause health risks is a great concern. Menthol found to be adulterated with additives that remain undetected is prevalent. Widespread use of banned dyes in spices is quite common across India.

Food safety incidents in China are common in the news. Recent stories have included mixing expired meat with usable product; adding melamine to baby food; contaminating bean sprouts with antibiotics, plant hormones, and sodium nitrite; recycling cooking oil; and the most recent incident of Hepatitis A infections in Australia being linked to berries imported from China.

Food safety is not only about recalls, it is also about the legislated requirements and moral obligation that companies have to manufacture safe food. Compliance to standards and minimizing risks to food products make good commercial sense as well as good economic realities for governments. However, it is important that the whole structure of food safety not be an excessive burden on business, as this will affect compliance and lead to the need for increased enforcement. Pressure for compliance to food safety is impacting the global food industry from all directions including local and export legislation, customer requirements, and industry standards and expectations. But compliance is not cheap. While GFSI promotes the “once certified, accepted everywhere” approach, this is unfortunately not what happens in practice. Each stakeholder has its own requirements, and all these requirements come at a cost. It is not only the inspection or audit cost, but also the preparation cost and business impact.

Gaining customer approval and securing new business or maintaining existing business can be very stressful on an organization. The smaller the company, the fewer the resources and, in some cases, the more that is at stake to the business. Some companies are doing all they can to reduce costs and fast track the certification process, in some cases to the detriment of food safety. The pressure to pass a certification audit is sometimes so high that a facility will shop around for auditors and certification bodies that offer guaranteed successful outcomes. During audits, some facilities are even fabricating or falsifying records. Others revert to in-house trainers who are not qualified or experienced in key subject matter. Scaled-back budgets have led to scaled-back cleaning regimes which are resulting in SOP failures.

Food safety is clearly a means of doing business, but food safety and economic gain should mutually benefit. A happy medium exists and the challenge is for food manufacturers to find it.

The author is General Manager – Asia Pacific, AIB International.