Food safety audits: worthwhile, if done correctly

Posted: November 24th, 2011 - 12:34am by Doug Powell

Melvin N. Kramer, president, EHA Consulting Group, Inc., writes that over the past several years, and clearly over the past several weeks, there has been increased interest, criticism, and a general sense of a conundrum in reference to the reliability, reproducibility, validity, and general worthiness of a third-party audit.

Many people with varying interests have weighed in with a lot of facts, few figures, and a fair amount of speculation. We believe, and have even published, that the key to an appropriate assessment from a third-party audit starts with the qualification and experience of the auditor. As long as there are firms that are recruiting and sending out on third-party audits individuals with minimum credentials, such as the one we found on one company’s website, “high school diploma, or equivalent, plus ten (10) years food processing experience (food plant experience in a responsible food safety position),” then these audits are doomed to be a potentially harmful and indeed can be worthless.

However, if the third-party auditor is properly trained, schooled, and credentialed in food safety and microbiology (a bachelor’s degree, with a minimum of thirty credits in the biological/environmental sciences), then third-party audits can be an extraordinary good tool to be used by industry in assessing, to assure that the health and well-being of the consumer is not going to be compromised.

When conflicts of interest arise, anywhere, there is always cause for concern. Some of these conflicts of interest are present in the auditing firm, when companies sell laboratory services, pest control services, chemicals, or other services, and the third-party audit becomes a lost leader, just like a can of peas in a supermarket, selling for far under the fair market value.

In 2009, we posted a blog on our website, which is as true today as it was then, and we clearly welcome others to revisit it and continue this important dialog.

A good working definition of public health is preventative medicine in action.

 

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Categories: Food Safety Policy
Tags: audit, eha, food safety, standard

Comments

Randy Lyons says:

I love how this conversation appears to place the blame for the failings of third party audits to capture irresponsible behaviour (either intentional or due to lack of knowledge) of the business being audited. Please correct me if I am wrong, but are these farms, plants and distribution centres not audited by local/state/federal inspectors also? I agree that the third party auditor failed, but so did the local/state/federal inspectors and the business itself. In other words, the system failed. In my opinion, the system will continue to fail until we all understand and take responsibility for our own actions. I agree that the third party auditor should be properly educated, but the education level really had/has nothing to do with the failure because others, who are well educated and trained also failed to detect the problem issues. Auditing is not a science. It is a shot in the dark. No auditor spends enough time in a business to accurately evaluate the business practices. There is a lot of faith that the documents provided to the auditor are accurate and true and that the employees are working in the same manner they would when the auditor is not around. Any business can fool any auditor. When there is a failure with the audit system, it is as much if not more the fault of the business and that is where we need to start. If the business does not look at the audit has a way to help protect the business and the customer, the system will fail. There have been several articles about whether businesses should be given advance notice of an audit/inspection because everyone knows that there are businesses out there that will hide known problems.

Posted on November 24th, 2011 - 10:41am

Anonymous says:

the farms are not inspected for microbial food safety by any government authority; neither are packing sheds

Posted on November 24th, 2011 - 4:40pm

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