Food Quality & Safety

1. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 1/6
Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety
August 15, 2010 • By Nikki Willett
The food processing industry has done an incredible job of building new industrial
automation systems to improve overall production processes, reduce time and cost of
production, and increase overall throughput, product yields, and e ciency. In the past
18 months, however, the industry has seen an unprecedented number of supply chain
safety and quality failures.
In 2008, annual nationwide estimates held steady at 87 million cases of food-related
illnesses, with 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These statistics have fueled a reduction in overall
consumer con dence and increased scrutiny by Senate committees and a number of
domestic and international government agencies and groups.
Food processing companies also face the continuing challenge of maximizing food
safety while complying with a growing number of regulations: ISO 22000, FDA 21 CFR
Part 110, the FDA Bioterrorism Act of 2002, hazard analysis and critical control points
(HACCP), safe quality foods (SQF), and others. Timely information about supplier
controls and the production process is needed to adequately analyze and detect
problematic processing trends and take immediate corrective action when needed.
Because the food processing industry is dependent on extended supply chains with
multiple vendors, several variables can have a negative impact on the process, including
increasing prices, diverse standards among suppliers, geographic distance, and tight
timelines. Even though risk and quality management are critical, most organizations still
use a paper-based approach for their food safety and quality management system.
They generate and track myriad paper-based documents within a process that leads to
resource overload, untimely data, and ine ciencies. The long-term e ects of such a
system range from enormous costs for failures due to recalls and suspensions to loss
of retail and consumer con dence.
The food industry must improve its safety record to maintain the good faith of
consumers. Yet even with more focus on quality, problems continue, including:
contamination of raw materials prior to or during processing;
unclean equipment and lack of preventive maintenance;
insu cient employee training; and

2. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 2/6
incorrect labeling or packaging.
Fragmented Processes and Systemic Problems
These problems persist for several reasons: Processes are fragmented and
disconnected, procedures may not be well documented, the required steps in the
process are not always completed, and employees don’t know or understand their
responsibility or authority. Points of potential noncompliance are often not identi ed,
and suppliers are not closely monitored or compelled to enforce their own quality
process improvements. Companies may neglect to do a comprehensive review of the
processes and procedures within their food safety and quality systems. Their focus is
on the food product rather than on e orts to resolve systemic issues. If a problem
occurs, these companies react quickly to nd a solution but neglect to identify the root
cause of the problem.
These operational de ciencies are key contributors to recent events. Last spring,
headlines about food contamination focused the spotlight on weaknesses within supply
chain management and the food processing industry itself.
“We recognize that we have reached a plateau in the prevention of foodborne disease,”
said Robert Tauxe, MD, MPH, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne,
Bacterial, and Mycotic Diseases. During a brie ng in April, Dr. Tauxe called for new
farm-to-fork e orts to evaluate food safety, including improved methods to quickly
trace the source of contaminated produce.
Several months later, too many food processing companies are not yet following and
enforcing standard and consistent procedures, and they have not implemented
organization-wide trending data to predict quality and safety across all food products
and processes. Without good reporting and trending capabilities, top management at
these companies cannot make accurate assessments about the issues, risks, and costs
facing the organization.
Good quality planning, independent 3rd party gap-assessment audits, and automated
systems can address these de ciencies. The same principles of industrial automation
should be applied to best practices in quality and safety management automation with
a system-wide program that trains employees, implements well-documented standard
operating procedures (SOPs), and properly utilizes technology to put global practices
and procedures in place.

3. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 3/6
click for large version
Table 1. Applying Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Points (HACCP) to Process
Automation
Many companies within the pharmaceutical industry, which parallels the food
processing industry in several ways, have recognized the bene ts of an integrated and
automated quality and safety platform.
Steps in the Process
Planning and Documentation: The
foundation of a successful quality and
safety management system is adequate
planning and setup. De ne code rules
and ownership, and determine the
rules and the variances to those rules.
Determine the processes and the
owners of those processes. Decide how
severity levels for issues will be de ned,
as well as who will enter the
information.
The new system must be scalable,
simple, risk-based, and easily integrated
throughout the organization. Ensure
that su cient mechanisms are in place so that all steps are completed for each event.
Determine the right people to involve in the quality and safety process and when to
involve them. Determine how procedure revisions will be handled and how these rules
and procedures should be enforced on a global level.
With good documentation standards and practices, fully automated document
management and SOP training, and an e ective enforcement system, companies can
demonstrate a commitment to food and consumer safety that will be an asset in any
future liability litigation.
Error Tracking: Many companies lack connected data sources, while others cross-
reference by hand any errors, deviations, and events across les, dates, lots, and other
criteria, a time-consuming process that often misses impacts and trends. It is an
ine cient approach that allows for repeated mistakes.
The rst step should be to identify, collect, and record information that can occur
anywhere throughout the process, including potential problems in the supply chain,
nal processing, labeling, distribution life cycle, and any potential for customer

4. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 4/6
complaints. Being able to identify the root cause of a problem and focus on prevention
and corrective actions are key. The more information there is available, the faster the
response to a problem will be. Tracking problems allows companies to develop best
practices and verify e ectiveness.
Without an integrated system, identifying root causes is little more than guesswork.
Assumptions are made based on rumor and conjecture, not on accurate and reliable
data. Islands of information created by multiple data streams lead to inconsistencies
and waste. Genuine measuring tools enable managers to determine precisely where,
when, and why mistakes are occurring.
Auditing: Food processing companies need to have transparency about their supplier
performance across the entire organization and all products to ensure consistency,
quality control, and compliance. This means that organizations need to start focusing
on global audit programs and planning. With paper-based solutions, the approach to
global planning becomes more resource and time intensive.
Ensuring the rollout of a good audit program requires appropriate schedules for pre-
quali cation as well as for ongoing performance. But with suppliers all over the world,
limited resources for internal auditors or costly third-party auditors, and limited
availability of supplier teams, both initial and follow-up scheduling can be a nightmare.
Follow-up audits may not happen.
Automated central systems for supplier audits can provide a complete closed-loop
mechanism with checklists, schedules, ndings, actions, and follow-up, helping
standardize and streamline audit processes and cycles and ensuring that the
management and quality team are more productive and e cient. These systems mean
no document overload, as well as simpli ed and consistent reporting with complete
traceability.
Trending, Analysis, and Risk Management: Collected data should be used to help a
company detect minor problems before they become major ones, by applying risk
management techniques throughout the food safety and quality program, with
assessment of failures considered part of the overall product processing and packaging
cycle.
Many companies continue to place risk techniques at the front or back part of the
process, so that each department must individually track, trend, or analyze data.
Progressive companies, however, are proactive rather than reactive. They implement
and integrate risk techniques as part of the overall process so that the focus is on

5. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 5/6
click for large version
identifying and establishing priorities
about potential problems. Management
becomes more aware of critical
problems, and each department
identi es key areas that can improve
e cacy and food safety.
Trending is key within an organization,
helping to monitor the overall health of
a company’s safety and quality systems.
Measurement, data analysis tools, and
processes should be implemented at
di erent levels of the organization, with
linkages between processes and safety
and quality systems, and across multiple locations. Data should be con gured so that
problems related to suppliers, processes, or the quality system can be identi ed and
acted upon quickly. Leverage as much information as possible to draw targets and
assess e ectiveness. Harmonization of sources, failures, and their root causes is
essential to drawing meaningful conclusions.
HACCP and Process Automation
Re-engineering processes allows a company to get rid of all the waste and ine ciency
in its systems. Automated, simple, and intuitive procedures and robust process
architecture can result in quick navigation with a focus on problem solving rather than
navigating the maze of paper. With automated work ow (business rules engine),
noti cations, and record tracking, companies can eliminate lengthy manual steps,
streamline collaboration across the food value chain, and re ne their HACCP approach
to reduce risk and improve overall food safety. There are numerous examples of how
companies can take many of the key information system components from
International Standards Organization 22000 and see key results for HACCP from their
process automation (see Table 1).
In summary, an automated food safety management system has several bene ts:
It achieves consistent yield and uniformity from product to product and batch to
batch;
It increases traceability, data accessibility, transparency, and reporting accuracy;
It reduces supply chain risk and improves safety and quality;
It reduces the necessity of multiple audits;

6. 4/19/2016 Automated HACCP Can Improve Safety ­ Food Quality & Safety
http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated­haccp­can­improve­safety/?singlepage=1&theme=print­friendly 6/6
It improves cycle time for key processes: SOP approvals, changes, corrective
actions;
It reduces overhead, waste, and costs;
It ensures the food safety process is validated, veri ed, implemented, monitored,
and managed;
It increases trust along the entire production process for complete sustainability;
and
It increases awareness across the enterprise.
A great recipe is no longer enough. Today’s business climate requires continuous
process improvement and implementation of an automated and integrated safety and
quality system. A constant ow of information across the value chain can reduce the
time required to diagnose and resolve problems, can prevent supplier failures, and will
allow a company to meet consumer expectations. A well-designed and implemented
safety and quality management system can reduce risk and improve performance and
pro tability. ■
Willett is vice president of marketing and regulatory aᴀ洅airs at Pilgrim Software Inc. Reach her
at willettn@pilgrimsoftware.com or (813) 915-1663.
Food Quality & Safety - http://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/automated-
haccp-can-improve-safety/