Taking Food Safety Very Seriously with FSIS | Prep4Audit

Food safety is certainly the most important concern as of now. The continuous contamination in food has affected its quality in a very high scale. This shouldn’t continue for long and there’s an urgent need to look into the matter concerning food; food being the basic necessity of all living part of the ecosystem.

What’s needed the most during such a situation is somebody who understands that the food landscape is constantly changing and there’s a need for them to get involved in managing the changes related to the areas of food processing and food distribution. Everything needs to be taken care of right from domestic products, imports, exports, conducting risk assessments, educating the public about the importance of food safety. This is what brought USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

Food safety audits become the next big thing and are required for companies set up in the field of food manufacturing and processing industry. Generally such examinations need to be carried out by a third part of an independent instructor. An examination of this nature is completely voluntary and basically depends on the judgment of a company’s owner or manufacturer in many cases. 

FSIS or better called Food Safety and Inspection Service ensures that a nation’s meat, poultry and egg supply is wholesome, safe and accurately labeled. They are trying to protect public health and prevent foodborne illness.  The department of FSIS checks that the products imported from other countries must be produced by a system that is equivalent to the one that is employed by the United Sates.

Prep4Audit and the Tool:

Prep4Audit offers inexpensive compliance assessment tools for the key industry checklists, guidelines and standards. Their tools include a compliance assessment worksheet in Excel and a requirements checklist in word. 

The FSIS tool at Prep4Audit covers the following three points:

1. Food safety guidelines for the transportation and distribution of meat, poultry and eggs
2. Food security guidelines for the transportation and distribution of meat, poultry and eggs
3. Food industry supply chain security

But the most important thing other than these three is that the toolkit is available at a cost of $34.99.

The Final Word:

Safety and Inspection Service ensures that a nation’s meat, poultry and egg supply is wholesome, safe and accurately labeled. They are trying to protect public health and prevent foodborne illness. Using this tool will prevent contamination of meat, poultry, and egg products during loading and unloading, transportation, and in-transit storage. 

C-TPAT: Because Quality Makes A Difference!!!

Even though the origins of C-TPAT date back to a decade or so, there still continues to be a lack of understanding regarding the concept of the tool and how it benefits and adds up to some organizational value.

Understanding the Tool:

“The U.S Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism initiative (C-TPAT) is a voluntary U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that has been designed to improve and uplift the border security while also accelerating the processing of import shipments. 

Prep4audit had designed a C-TPAT toolkit to help you improve your level of compliance with Customs and Border Protection. The toolkit includes a Compliance Assessment Worksheet (Excel) and Requirement Statements (Word). The toolkit is designed C-TPAT minimum security criteria are fundamentally designed to institute effective security practices designed to optimize supply chain performance to mitigate the risk of loss, theft, and contraband smuggling that could potentially introduce dangerous elements into the global supply chain.

Understanding what to do with it:

The audit suppliers for conformance to the C-TPAT requirements, as part of your preparation process to register in the program or general risk management. Many companies require their suppliers to comply even though they don’t officially register in the program since a C-TPAT audit will provide information that is useful in managing the security of your production, products and tooling at the supplier factory.

Top Benefits:

  

 The C-TPAT importers are 4 to 6 times less likely to incur a security of compliance examination. Partners in the program receive a fast lane access that save their time crossing the border.

• Involvement in the program reinforces an organization’s brand, mission and values. Marketability thus becomes an important benefit.   
• C-TPAT created this benefit “as a means to alleviate the additional cost of multiple container shipments being held for only one line item with storage costs collected on all containers.”

The C-TPAT toolkit is available at $29.99 per business unit for an unlimited use license. Not for resale by purchaser; which is a very small amount compared to the services that it provides.

Audit Preparation Use of ISO As your Tools

When an organization starts preparing their audits, a question that is most likely to strike each one’s mind is “Why are we actually bothering ourselves to do this?” The answer to which is given here-

You are performing the audits for reasons that could be compliance, finance, or may be because a procedure tells you that you must. All of these are super good reasons, though you should develop an understanding that preparing audits is a business tool that improves the quality system.

Discussing closely an important tool that can be made use of when your auditors ask you for complete, perfect tools and we call this tool the  International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for Quality, Food Safety, Risk Management and Supply Chain Security. ISO as a Compliance Assessment Tools will give you a food for thought, compelling you to think that audits are an essential part of your business, whatever kind it is and they are not something to resent or neglect.

Prep4Audit, the company provides ISO as a tool for you to efficiently create and compile your audits. They provide this inexpensive tool for key industry checklists, guidelines and standards. 

ISO costs just $49.99 per business unit for an unlimited use license.  Isn’t this just a small amount when you consider your issue of preparing smart audit?

Talking typically, International Organization for Standardization is of two types- internal and external. But before we discuss about the two categories, it is important to know the basic purpose of audits and an ISO certification – It is to improve the business through standardization and in a controlled manner. There are different methods that a business may have to conduct audits. It is evident that businesses usually hire sources like consultants or other media so as to show them the correct way through the complicated ISO audit processes.

Internal and External Audits with ISO

The true purpose of an internal audit is to prepare for an external audit. The on-site auditors conduct internal ISO audits, whereas an independent company is responsible to conduct an external audit. The vendors or the customers of the organization perform audits which are usually called supplier audits. Here, it is also important to note that most of the companies prefer to do business with companies that have ISO certification, and when auditing their vendors and customers, they are assured that the company upholds its standards. It is the internal audit in the company that is responsible for highlighting the problems that may endanger the ISO certification and registration.

International Organization for Standardization is an association on the global level, and a company needs to perform all its audits regardless of the location. It is the ISO organization that certifies the auditors who perform audits in companies in various countries. The organization may and may not certify the auditors in specific fields, such as in Quality, Food Safety, Risk Management and Supply Chain Security.