Hello Work: Guide to Food Safety Management Systems

Lately, I’ve been very busy with work and my other careers. My weekly commitment on my blog posts has been affected and just to make up with it, I am gonna write something about my work.

I am currently a Quality Assurance Supervisor in a food manufacturing industry, at the same time working with Research and Development. Being in the Food Industry, there is only one focus: FOOD SAFETY.

Every Food Manufacturing Company should have a Food Safety Management System that adheres to national and global standards. A Food Safety Team should be organized by the Top Management to make sure that all systems are in place, documented and implemented.

As the team leader of our Food Safety team, it is my task to document and consider all aspects in the Food Safety Management Systems involving Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).

A hierarchy of documentations should be followed to come up with an organized system that will be clearly distributed, understood and implemented to all levels of the company.

The hierarchy of documentation is as follows:

Having based in the Philippines, the guide for Food Industries is the AO 153: Revised guidelines on current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) in Manufacturing, Packing, Repacking or Holding of Food.

This statutory requirement should then be translated to your own policies that are applicable to your company. (GMP Policies)

These policies cannot be implemented unless a clear and defined procedural plan is established that involves the control measure, objectives, monitoring procedures, corrective actions, records/documentations, and verification. (SSOP’s)

The plan should then be easily executed having step-by-step work instructions that present all the details needed to be done. The process owner should be the one who will make the detailed instructions and the responsible officer (Quality Assurance Representative) should assess the effectivity of the said process.

And lastly, to assure that workers are following the implemented programs, documentations are done which involve monitoring, checklists, verification forms and process audits. There should be a regular assessment of the current system and, as needed and recommended; revisions on the system should be done as appropriate.