Food factory sanitation requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. And more than a few helping hands from outside your building.
Working with a food safety company is easy to start, and hard to get out of when the relationship isn’t working. It requires the QA manager to understand what a food sanitation partner should bring to the table, followed by making noise to the decision makers at corporate.
While we can’t help you get heard by the powers-that-be, we can share the six common signs it’s time for you to seek a new sanitation partner:
A Quality Control Manager can’t be everywhere at once -- that’s why you contracted with a third party in the first place. You may not be getting the full support you need if your food sanitation partner shows these warning signs:
Some food processors look at training as an expense, and not as an opportunity. Your food sanitation provider should never subscribe to the idea that doing the absolute minimum will help your long-term budget.
When your partner has no input on your training programs, it’s a big red flag. Not only should your partner encourage thorough training, it should also provide that training for everyone.
Virtually every employee has their hands on the food safety process at some point -- whether literally or otherwise. It’s a given that your food plant sanitation company will train production workers and sanitation crews. But is your partner ignoring:
A poor weld by the maintenance team could have food safety repercussions. The head honchos need training on what to keep an eye out for on the factory floor -- before little issues become big ones (see below). And your sales team can bring peace of mind to customers if it’s knowledgeable about the steps your company takes to guarantee safe products.
If your sanitation/chemicals company isn’t a fixture in your collaborative process, you’ve got a problem. Your partner should:
Beyond being a communicator and a culture-changer, your food processing sanitation company should provide several deliverables:
Food safety training programs require repetition and creativity in delivering the message to all members of your team -- from big-picture concepts all the way down to proper use of dryers and fryers. If your provider is doing the bare minimum, so are your food “safety” measures.
For any food plant sanitation solution to be effective, it must address everything from the front door to the back door. Sadly, this isn’t always the case.
Meeting Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) requirements involves developing a strong internal audit program. Any food plant sanitation company you contract with should employ highly trained auditors who bring a thorough plan to you.
From Day 1, your partner should have begun the search for deficiencies in your unique food safety process. Has your food sanitation company done:
Internal food safety audits fail when they obsess over that first bullet, checking for only general Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) and hygiene compliance. Fruitful internal audits are a thorough review of all programs.
Your partner should consistently audit you as part of a yearly program -- proactive, not reactive, is the mantra here. Its recommendations should attack specific GFSI or HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) audit requirements. Food safety sanitation audits should look different from company to company -- is your partner tailoring its internal audit to your specific situation?
To stave off issues with your GFSI or FDA audit, your partner better dig deep into:
The Safe Food Alliance refers to this as a “validation” approach vs. a “verification” approach.
“Verifying” an operation usually looks like this:
This bare-bones approach does indeed confirm that your crew is following operations as directed -- for that day, at least.
Actually validating a food plant sanitation and hygiene program leads to a more useful audit. That way, your auditor isn’t just asking, “Are we doing it?”, but also, “Is it working?” A better audit step-by-step might look like this:
SSOPs and your overall HACCP plan tend to age like milk. Claiming a “continuous improvement” mindset is great, but if it doesn’t result in action, there’s no point.
Continuous improvement needs sound data and analysis from internal audits and other process checks. If your food factory sanitation supplier doesn’t take a rigorous approach to analyzing and measuring success, you won’t get the data necessary to achieve that success.
Is your food sanitation partner staying dormant while your competitors are enjoying these new innovations and efficiencies in their facilities?
All of these correlate to time and cost savings.
Take the cleaning-out-of-place and cabinet washing systems, for example. Automating and improving the parts, piping, and hosing sanitation is a huge time saver vs. asking your employees to manually clean them. In general, a sanitation partner should advise any plant willing to invest in automation to also invest in new production equipment to match it. Trying to automate a relic is a pain, and in the long term it’s more efficient to buy new equipment.
Avoid food sanitation chemical companies that don’t check in regularly or closely monitor a facility’s cleaning supply stock. Their neglect can leave you hanging.
At the very least, you should receive:
Your food safety partner needs to speak up on any out-of-the-ordinary findings. If it records a higher chemical use one month, and doesn’t bother to tell you, then what value is that partner providing?
Food plant QA Managers are so busy that even the best might miss the release of a new regulation. Your food safety company should have a pulse on every new rule and reg that comes out.
An efficient and reliable food sanitation company independently reviews the ever-changing governmental and GFSI regulations. Then it promptly brings those changes to you on service calls, interpreting their impact on your business.
At least some of your partner’s technical specialists should own certification in at least one of:
There are lots of nagging, little signs you may pick up on when assessing the value of your food safety company. Some of them indicate a larger, more serious problem:
In finding a new partner, what should a QA Manager look for? The short answer would be, “the opposite of everything above.” The long answer would require another 2,000 words, so for now we’ll boil it down to some key points:
In the end, when investing in plant sanitation for food processing, you expect time and money back in return. We’ve seen food manufacturers save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each year through improvements in automation. We’ve seen another manufacturer undergo productivity changes that reduced labor time by 20 minutes per day -- which adds up over a year!
In other words, the little things matter.
Your food safety program needs outside help -- and a no-stone-unturned approach.
Consider switching your food factory cleaning services if you’re seeing symptoms of a sour relationship. To recap, these include deficiencies in:
Fighting for these changes can be hard, so it’s important to arm yourself with knowledge and proof. To learn more about choosing the right food plant sanitation training and related services, click below: