the sqf standard - plant pathologyplantpath.psu.edu/mushroom-industry-conference/52... · the sqf...

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Parker Associates, LLC

Food Safety Management Consulting

The SQF Standard:

Brought to You by Your Retail Customers

Alan Parker


June 15, 2010

Copyright 2010 Parker Associates, LLC

Our Standards of Conduct

1. Share everything.

2. Play fair.

3. Don't hit people.

4. Put things back where you found them.

5. Clean up your own mess.

6. Flush.

7. Take a nap every afternoon.

8. Don't take things that aren't yours.

9. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

10. Wash your hands before you eat.

11. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

12. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

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Our Food Safety Standards

• Public Sector Organizations– Food and Drug Administration enforces

Good Manufacturing Practices regulations (GMP’s)

– GMP’s essentially unchanged since early 1970’s

– Certain industry sectors have specific requirements

• Low Acid & Acidified Canned Foods

• Seafood Industry – mandatory HACCP

• Juice Industry – mandatory HACCP

• Meat & Poultry Industries – USDA has stringent requirements

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FDA Science Board: “The demands on the FDA have soared.”

• Extraordinary advances of scientific discoveries,

• Complexity of the new products and claims submitted to FDA for review and approval,

• Emergence of challenging safety problems,

• Globalization of the industries that FDA regulates.

FDA Has Been Overmatched

FDA Regulates Over 150,000 Food & Drug

Establishments Worldwide

Source: FDA 10/02/07

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FDA Inspectional Activity

• On average, FDA inspects less than a quarter of food facilities

each year, and the number of facilities inspected has declined

over time.

• Fifty-six percent of food facilities have gone 5 or more years

without an FDA inspection.

• The number of facilities that received OAI classifications has

declined over time.

• FDA took regulatory action against 46 percent of the facilities

with initial OAI classifications; for the remainder, FDA either

lowered the classification or took no regulatory action

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FY

No. Facilities

Subject to FDA

Inspection

No. Facilities

Inspected

Percentage of

Facilities Inspected

2004 59,305 17,032 29%

2005 61,930 15,773 25%

2006 62,929 14,547 23%

2007 65,520 14,339 22%

2008 67,819 14,966 22%

Source: OIG analysis of FDA data, 2009.

Food Facilities Inspected by FDA, 2004–2008

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During this 20 year period:

• FDA gained only 646 employees — an increase of 9

percent.

• The number of FDA employees in 2007 was roughly the

same number as 15 years earlier.

• FDA lost more than $300 million to inflation.

• The appropriated budget of all of FDA for 2007 was

approximately $1.6 billion.

• Food Safety programs represented only 36% of that

budget.

FDA Resources 1988 - 2007

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FDA Food Safety Funding

Since 2007

• $1.05 billion in 2010, an 18% increase over 2009;

• 30% increase forecast for 2011, to $1.37 billion;

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

• 75% of the increase to come from

industry as user fees

• Two points of comparison:

• FSIS (USDA) to receive less than

2 percent increase to $1.046

billion for 2011;

• HHS allocates $3 billion for

HIV/AIDS prevention and

treatment activities in 2010.

FDA Food Safety Budget (in millions)

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Into the Breach: Private Sector

Standards

• Over the past 20 years, grocery retailers have taken

the lead role in dictating food safety programs for

their suppliers.

– Multiple control programs: audits & standards

– Mandatory compliance from all suppliers

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Food Retailing Has Changed -

that was then...

• Retailers saw

themselves as

caretakers.

• Small number of

sku’s.

• Most foods were

dried or canned.

• Aside from issues of

negligence, there was

little need to focus on

the safety of foods.

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….and this is now

• 30,000 or more sku’s per store

• Take-out foods -appetizers, entrees, sides, and desserts;

• Foods often prepared in store;

• Foods sometimes consumed in the store;

• Many PHF’s on the menu.

Dramatic increase in

complexity of stores:

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Internal F/S Controls by Retailers

• Follow the U.S. Food Code, although regulated only at state and local level

• Training & exams (ServeSafe or the equivalent)

• Internal audits at store level

• Third party audits

• Computerized temperature control systems

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Assertive Supply Chain

Management

• Preferred supplier lists

• Laboratory testing for KPI’s

• 2nd party and/or 3rd party audits required

– Multiplicity of audits: time, expense, complexity for

suppliers

• Adoption of international standards

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Globalization of Retail Chains

• North American firms beginning to find international success

– WalMart & Sam’s Club - 3,242 stores in 13 countries

– Costco stores in Mexico, Asia, UK

• Numerous European chains now operating in U.S.

– Royal Ahold: Stop & Shop, Giant Food

– Delhaize: Food Lion, Hannaford Bros.

– Tesco: Fresh & Easy

– Aldi: German retailer

– Carrefour: in Canada and Mexico, U.S. next?

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Grocery Trade Associations

• North American grocery retailers belong to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI)

• European grocery retailers founded the Global Food Safety Initiative(GFSI) in 2001

– CIES was former name of the European grocery trade association

– Now merged and part of Consumer Goods Forum

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/47/Food_Marketing_Institute_logo.png/200px-Food_Marketing_Institute_logo.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Marketing_Institute&h=100&w=200&sz=7&hl=en&start=6&usg=__pYhJSp-IKhSP_Rv_V9oaQmj0HBc=&tbnid=cgbRrgohYrXKPM:&tbnh=52&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfmi%2Blogo%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.restaurant.org/images/events/GFSI-logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.restaurant.org/events/foodsafety/&h=149&w=90&sz=8&hl=en&start=2&usg=__aZtOLYQwd8RrepvewujQzOL9x38=&tbnid=GkhOFvFoarDOhM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=57&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgfsi%2Blogo%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

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GFSI Approved Standards

• Different standards are benchmarked for equivalence

in food safety requirements

– British Retail Consortium Standard (BRC)

– German/French Standard (IFS)

– Dutch HACCP Standard

– Safe Quality Food Standard (SQF) from Australia

– ISO 22000 Standard approved with modifications in 2009

• WalMart letter to suppliers requires compliance with

any of the GFSI approved standards.

Produce Trade Association

Announces Benchmarking

Project for Audits

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History of the SQF Standard

• Developed in western Australia in late 1990’s

• Very effective tool for Australian retailers

• Received GFSI approval in 2005

• The standard was purchased in its entirety by FMI

and brought to the U.S., also in 2005.

• Under pressure from FMI board, major US retailers

began adopting SQF in 2007.

• WM letter to suppliers written in Jan 2008.

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Major US Firms Adopting SQF

• WalMart

• US Foodservice

• Stop & Shop

• Giant

• Price Chopper

• Lund’s & Byerly’s

• HEB

• Food Lion

• Hannaford Bros.

• Under review and

consideration at many other

firms:

– Kroger

– Wegman’s

– Harris Teeter

– Costco

– Sysco

– Yum Brands

– McDonalds

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Not Just Another Audit

• Unites Food Safety and Food Quality under one

integrated standard.

• For retailers it offers several additional differentiating

features:

– Versatile

– Rigorous Generates confidence in suppliers

– Robust

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SQF is Versatile…

• Two SQF standards are applied

to food suppliers:

– SQF 1000 Standard: For Primary

Producers (farming and ranching

operations)

– SQF 2000 Standard: For food

processors

• 34 Food Sector Categories

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Three Levels of Implementation

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Food Safety

Fundamentals

Food Safety

Management

Integrated Quality

Management

Food Quality

Plan

HACCP Plan

Prerequisite

Programs

Most retailers are asking suppliers for SQF Certification at Level

2 as an initial requirement.

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SQF 2000 is Rigorous at All

Three Levels

• Prerequisite Programs required are extensive:

GMP’s

Food Defense Protocol

Allergen Management

Traceability and Recall

Supplier Approval Program

Waste Management Plan

Crisis Management Plan

• SQF promotes a systems approach

• Auditors are SME’s in the commodity being audited

– May challenge logic used in HACCP Plan

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SQF is Rigorous at All Levels

• Documentation requirements are very extensive:

Written policies and procedures

Document control program required

Written specifications for ingredients, packaging, finished

products and for contract services

Register of training programs

• Physical site requirements are stringent, but not

significantly different from other standards.

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SQF is Robust

• SQFI closely regulates

processes

• Potential Conflict of

Interest is regulated

• Changes managed

carefully thru Technical

Advisory Committees

• Industry input is solicited

• Well-developed

database of certified

suppliers

SQFILicenses

Accreditation

Bodies

Licenses

Certification

Bodies

Registers

Auditors

Registers

Consultants

Licenses

Training

Centers

www.sqfi.com

SQF Website is Very Informative

Step by Step Instructions for Suppliers

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Managing the Certification Process

Train key staff in

Implementing SQF Systems

Public classes

Private, on-site training

Designate an SQF PractitionerPersonal responsibility for SQF System

Prior HACCP training

Perform a Gap AssessmentPractitioner, Consultant, or CB leads

Close any gaps identified

Schedule Certification AuditAllow for possible delays in availability

Perform required corrective actions

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Certification Bodies

CB’s Based in the U.S.• AIB International

• National Sanitation Foundation (NSF)

• Silliker Certification Services

• Steritech Group

CB’s Based Outside U.S.

• Bureau Veritas (France)

• Det Norske Veritas (Norway)

• Societé General du

Surveillance (SGS)

• TUV SUV America

See the SQFI website for a complete listing of CB’s

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About the Audit

• Audit generally 2 –3 days in length– Day 1: Document Review

– Day 2: Site Assessment using checklist

• Multi-level scoring of audit– Each non-conformance is classified as Minor, Major, or Critical

– Each has a specified point score

– Numerical and letter grade assigned

• Grade C or better receives certification

• Grades A or B are audited annually

• Grade C requires a 6-month re-audit

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Non-Conformances

• Non-conformances are rated Minor, Major or Critical

• Non-conformances within a System Element:

5 or More Major Non-

Minors Conformance

3 or More Critical Non-

Majors Conformance

Audit failure

15 or More Critical Non-

Minors Conformance

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To Summarize …

• SQF is a stringent standard – initial compliance costs

are high.

• Broad goal of the SQF program is uniformity of

standards at a reduced cost to suppliers.

• ―Once audited, universally accepted‖

• Accepted by retailers, foodservice firms, even

regulatory agencies

– FDA recognition of 3rd party audits is under discussion

• Pay back for initial investment should come quickly.

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Thanks for your attention!

Alan Parker


Annapolis, MD

410-349-8708

[email protected]

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