Presentation from the NSF - The Public Health and Safety Organization

1. April 23, 2012
Global Best Practice in Cold Chain
Management
Food Safety and Supply Forum

2. INTRODUCTION

3. NSF International - The Public Health and Safety Company
NSF International is an independent, non-governmental public
health and safety organization, based in Ann Arbor, US.
Our core mission is to protect and improve human health.
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4. NSF International Commitment to Food Safety
• Working to promote food safety since 1944
• Developed over 70 public health standards (food equipment,
bottled water, plumbing)
• With over 700 auditors globally, a leading provider of food safety
audits to the food industry.
• The global leader in providing certification to GFSI benchmarked
schemes.
• Steadfast ties with industry associations and Government
agencies.
• A Collaborating Center for the World Health Organization.
• Service provider to over 12,000 companies in 100+ countries

5. Food Safety Solutions Across the Supply Chain
• Food Safety Certification – SQF, BRC, Global-GAP, IFS, FSSC 22000
• Food Safety & Quality Auditing: NSF Cook & Thurber
• Education and Training – SQF & BRC Training Center
• Product Specification, Testing, and Development.
• Strategic, Tactical, & Technical consulting services
• Food Equipment Certification
• Beverage Certification
• Regulatory Acceptance Assistance
• Retail/Food Service auditing and quality programs
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6. COLD CHAIN

7. A Little Cold Chain History

8. Reefers

9. Increasing Importance…

10. Cold Chain Success
• Different products require different temperature level
maintenance to ensure their integrity throughout the
travel process:
– ‘Banana’ (13 °C),
– ‘Chill’ (2 °C),
– ‘Pharma’ (2-8°C)
– ‘Frozen’ (-18 °C) and
– ‘Deep frozen’ (-29 °C).
• Staying within temperature is vital to the integrity of a
shipment along the supply chain and for perishables it
enables an optimal shelf life.
• Any divergence can result in irrevocable and expensive
damage; a product can simply lose any market or useful
value.

11. Many Links…
• Shipment Preparation
• Transit Route
• Modal Choice
• Customs
• The Last Mile

12. The Cold Chain

13. Integrated Cold Chain Strategies
• At a high level, three major areas provide an overview of
the tactics or operating structure required in most cold
chains
– Planning and Risk Assessment
– Policies and Processes
– Management Practices
• Planning and Risk Assessment addresses the overall
structure under which the cold chain operates - in this
area that overall performance expectations and
objectives for cold chain functionality must be
developed.

14. Risk Assessment
• A risk assessment of the cold chain process is essential
– to ensure that a clear understanding of the performance of the
integrated, end-to-end cold chain is obtained
– to identify the highest risk areas of the cold chain so that
management plans and controls may be implemented to mitigate
these risks e.g. the points of product handoffs or transfers
• This may include ports, transfer facilities, distribution centres
and customer deliveries
• Once risks are identified, the plan for addressing these risks
and for general cold chain performance should be developed
– handling policies, exception protocols, critical control points and
work flow
• An overall management plan should be included as part of the
process as well

15. Policies and Processes
• Should address both the product(s) requirements as well as the
handling for the products throughout the cold chain.
• Product requirements
– temperature thresholds, stability, humidity, packaging, etc.
– acceptable ranges for these requirements should also be
addressed.
• Handling requirements
– receiving practices, product put-away, storage, picking, loading,
transit and delivery
• The documentation of these cold chain operating procedures
provides the cold chain operator the “how-to’s” of proper cold
chain handling for its product(s) and operating environment.

16. Management Practices

17. Factors
Controllable:
• Packaging
• Routes
• Carriers
• Transport
• Delivery time?
Uncontrollable:
• Weather
• Handling
• Cargo placement
• Delays

18. Other Thoughts
• Better monitoring
– Real-time
– Accuracy
– Reporting
• Source loading
• Load balancing
• Environmental conditions and recognition

19. INNOVATION

20. Definition of Innovation
Oxford Dictionary
Innovation:
Make changes in something established, especially by introducing
new methods, ideas, or products

21. A wide range of events drive change in
consumer products industries
• Anthrax attacks
• Lead in Toys
• Contaminated Toothpaste
• Melamine in Foods
• Heparin Contamination
• Food-borne Illnesses
• Product Recalls
• Malicious contamination
• Industry failures
• Government/regulatory failures
Driving Innovation in Food Safety

22. Private Standards and GFSI Early Drivers
• Food-borne illness
• Product withdrawals
• Legal action
• Damage to brands and reputations
• Damage to shareholder/stakeholder
• Damage to consumer confidence
• Audit costs

23. The Global Food Safety Initiative
GFSI Mission
“Continuous improvement in food safety management systems … to deliver
safe food to consumers worldwide”
GFSI Objectives
• Reduce food safety risks
• Manage cost
• Develop competencies and capacity building
• Knowledge exchange and networking

24. Standards Currently Benchmarked by GFSI

25. Requirement or Acceptance

26. Drivers Linked to GFSI & Innovation
• Improved quality
• Creation of new markets – increase in private label products
• Extension of the product range
• Reduced labor costs
• Improved production processes
• Reduced materials
• Reduced environmental damage
• Replacement of products/services
• Reduced energy consumption
• Brand differentiation standards
• Demonstrate conformance to new regulations or new standards
- Food Safety Modernization Act

27. Innovation and GFSI
Two main types of innovation:
• Radical Innovation
• Incremental Innovation
Sometimes referred to as Disruptive Innovations!!
Giving rise to subsets within those groups and the food industry as -
• Process Innovation
• Supply-chain Innovation
• Service Innovation
GFSI creates an environment for innovation via challenges to meet the
standards requirements and new food safety expectations

28. Innovation and GFSI
GFSI creates an environment for innovation via challenges to meet the
requirements and new safety expectations with two key elements:
• Management commitment
“senior management shall demonstrate they are fully committed to the
implementation of the requirements of the Global Standard for Food
Safety”
BRC Global Standard for Food Safety – North American Version
• Continuous improvement
Food Safety and Quality Policy “shall include the commitment for
review and continuous improvement”
BRC Global Standard for Food Safety – North American Version

29. 1st Phase Innovation Legacy
• Delivered a “once certified, accepted everywhere, concept”
• “Ticket to trade”
• “Passport to trade” internationally
• Reduced duplication of audits
• Better legal & business metric for success
• Raised the baseline for supply
• Reduced recall/withdrawal costs
• Improved product quality
• Frees up technical teams to focus on key challenges and their own
innovation

30. What Next and Why?
Two emerging and important developments in the food supply and
ancillary industries.
GFSI and certification standards and principles being extended to
storage and logistics suppliers and packaging suppliers.
• Both are key partners to a processor and their products and provide an
integral part of the product
• Both are “given” trust items within a product as received by the
consumer
• Both can “make or break” a product

31. Storage and Logistics
Storage and Logistics Suppliers
• Key partner to processors
• Integral part of the product life-cycle
• Represent potential risk safety/integrity and quality of the product
• Associated with recalls and withdrawals
• Ensure Commercial Value for Money – maximize product life
• Defined by specification

32. Packaging
Packaging Suppliers
• Provides a protective barrier & maintains optimum quality
• Interacts with product – may be used to enhance the product
• Take in many industries and forms of packaging
• Source of inherent potential risks – chemical/microbiological/physical
• Delivers key messages – storage, use, trust marks, allergens
• Creates expectations for consumers
• Direct and indirect use by consumers
• Input to storage and logistics management

33. Why not?
Why won’t you cascade certification to theses groups to ensure
regulatory and commercial compliance?
• Will you be assured of a safe and legal, quality product?
• Will you be assured of the product as specified?
• Will the product be commercially what you are paying for?
• Is this a way of controlling/mitigating risks
• Could it drive innovation in your supply-chain?
Zero risk does not exist but certification provides one method to
manage risks
Perfect people, perfect machines, perfect environment, perfect
partners...not just yet!

34. Certification Logistics and Packaging
Utilize the existing food safety certification standards to manage the
supply chain
Utilize the emerging logistics and packaging certification standards to
manage the packaging supply chain
Yes, there challenges and potential burdens but focus on the risk
reduction, the potential benefits and the opportunity to create innovation
in the process
Is failure the challenge?
Is it an option?
“If you find it difficult to accept failure, then you simply won’t get any
innovation because employees will be too frightened”
– Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco)

35. Food Safety Certification Drives Innovation
• The focus GFSI puts on continuous improvement creates a
very good environment for innovation.
• Certification to GFSI benchmarked standards has driven
companies and individual facility’s to innovate in order to
comply with the requirements of these standards.
• “Management Commitment”: Perhaps the most important new
requirement that companies face through certification.
• Having Senior Management committed and involved in food
safety can truly foster innovation.

36. Finally…
"Innovation is a risky business, but not innovating is even riskier"
- Anonymous

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