Creating Harmonized Food Safety Processes Through Integration

The Food and Beverage industry is increasingly adapting the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) as its “stamp” of high quality and safety. In fact, many leading organizations today will only work with GFSI-compliant suppliers. The GFSI-benchmarked food safety schemes—SQF, BRC and IFS for example—coupled with regulatory oversight are driving organizations to seek methods of enhancing visibility into their quality and safety operations. An automated Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is one of these methods.

Challenges that arose from these point solutions include:

• Siloed Compliance Initiatives: These systems are not linked, so the organization is left with limited visibility and communication. Since these systems operate in their own information silo, data stored in one system remains in that system hindering the ability to cross-pollinate critical food safety data. Furthermore, there may be a double entry of data across these silos. An integrated system lets the user consolidate multiple requirements into a single source, resulting in enhanced visibility, improved communication and the elimination of duplicate data.
• Reporting Overlap: Much like double entry of data, siloed systems often overlap in their ability to report on critical safety data. This occurs because many similar issues are being reported for each system. Integration of the silos facilitates the consolidation of the data into one report, making it easier to review and trend on data.
• Employee Burden: Employees, the users of the system, could be looked at as the catalyst for integration. A multitude of systems often results in employees having to utilize and train on a number of systems just to complete their job tasks. By integrating into a single harmonized solution employees are able to save time and increase productivity by utilizing and training on a single system.