Food safety certification has become a prominent feature of most businesses’ food safety management programmes across the world. It supports the global trade of safe food as the certificate provides universal assurance that an independently audited food safety management system is in operation in the food business. Therefore, the integrity of the certificate is critical. The recent launch of BRCGS Directory Pro strengthens certification assurance throughout the global supply chain and offers features to enhance supplier management through effective certification tracking. This highlights the importance of this element in the industry.
So, it is a good time to revisit voluntary third-party assurance (vTPA) programmes in food safety management, the benefits for global trade and the importance of programme and certificate integrity.
The background
Voluntary third-party assurance (vTPA) programmes for food safety management emerged from the explosion of individual retailer standards in the 1980’s and 90’s, which focused on a quality systems based approach to food safety management. These standards had a profound and positive effect on food safety, driving a preventive and systematic approach but their popularity created an audit burden on the manufacturing industry with multiple audits to different retailer standards. This provided the impetus to develop a common standard that could incorporate all key elements of these retail specifier standards and meet their baseline requirements through a single audit. The first common food safety standard developed for this purpose was the ‘The Technical Standard and Protocol for Companies Supplying Retailer Branded Food Products’ published in 1998, that became the BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety, which is now in its 9th issue (BRCGS Food Safety Standard Issue 9).
The BRCGS Food Safety Standard was the first to be recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) in 2000. The underlying principle of GFSI recognition is to allow users and specifiers of third-party food safety management certification programmes to operate to the principle of “once certified, recognised everywhere”. This provides assurance that the food safety management system operating in a certificated site meets a common standard anywhere in the world.
The Standard, audit and accreditation
The food safety management standard, in this example, BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety, Issue 9, is owned by a Certification Programme Owner (CPO) or Scheme Owner (SO). CPOs develop the standard and specify the content in clauses and requirements. They also specify the criteria for achieving certification, that may be graded to reflect different levels of attainment, and the associated audit requirements. Certification is awarded by a certification body following their third-party audit of a business, which is conducted by an approved auditor. The certification body must be accredited to an international standard such as ISO 17065 by a national accreditation body that, in turn, is audited by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). The certification body is responsible for the competence of the auditor; they are required to meet specified qualifications such as Lead Auditor and to have defined levels of experience relevant to the sectors being audited. The certification body is also responsible for monitoring the ongoing performance and competence of auditors; this includes audit report reviews and witnessed audits. The CPO may also have specific auditor qualification and training requirements that specifically relate to their standard, together with continuous professional development requirements and minimum audit numbers.
Programme integrity and certificate validity
Tens of thousands of certificates are issued against food safety management standards across the globe every year and such certification has grown to become a universal requirement to trade in the food supply chain. Specifiers and buyers of food want to procure food from businesses that can demonstrate they meet fundamental food safety requirements. Certification provides assurance that this is being conducted in a structured and systematic way that the purchasing business can rely upon. The integrity of the entire process from the requirements of the standard through to independent audit and issuance of a valid certificate is fundamental in providing confidence to every actor in the food supply chain. Consequently, CPOs have extensive in-house integrity programmes that provide further assurance of certification, in addition to the formal processes operated by GFSI and accreditation bodies. This includes regular review of certification body performance including office visits, shadow audits and complaints investigation.
An increasing concern amongst food safety professionals who use certification as part of their food safety management processes is the circulation of fake certificates. With so many certificates issued each year, and businesses often receiving electronic certificates as email attachments, the potential for the receipt of fake certificates is evident. Most CPOs have a Directory where the certification status of a business can be independently verified on a site-by-site basis. In addition, it is possible for sites to authorise access for their customers to an audit report. It is essential that businesses routinely monitor suppliers’ site to ensure ongoing compliance to certification requirements, and this can necessitate a high amount of resource, especially for those businesses with large numbers of suppliers. The recent development of an enhanced supplier management platform by BRCGS, Directory Pro, is a major step forward in preventing certificate fraud. It allows a user to track the live certification status of their entire BRCGS supplier network and download PDF certificates. All certification data is authentic as it is uploaded directly by approved certification bodies. For the first time, a specifier can monitor the status of every BRCGS certificated site in their portfolio. This should go a long way to prevent the circulation of fraudulent certificates as the specifier can now access the certificate PDF themselves. For those of you familiar with managing a complex supply base, you will also appreciate the resource benefits of having automatic, live updates on the certification status of your entire BRCGS supply base.
Benefits of voluntary third-party certification
The biggest benefit of vTPA programmes in food safety management is that they provide easy access to a structured and systematic approach to food safety management based on hazard analysis, a firm foundation for this essential component in the supply of safe food. All programmes are built on the fundamental foundations of the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene and provide a mechanism to implement this effectively and allow for ongoing monitoring of compliance. Indeed, arguably one of the most important aspects of such programmes is the provision for continuous improvement, as independent audit is invaluable in offering a view of an organisation’s compliance that may not be immediately evident to those operating within it. Inevitably, due to its use in global trade as an indicator of food safety conformance, the overall result or score has become the focus of the audit output, rather than the rich insight that can be drawn from the findings. In addition to the obvious benefits in food safety management, when used in this more holistic way, businesses with food safety management certification have been shown to improve underlying systems and processes that in turn lead to improvements in efficiencies and greater productivity (Birkbeck University).
Certification programmes are increasingly attracting interest from Regulators who see the benefit in the insight that such large amounts of data on food safety compliance in their regions can provide. They also see the potential for using the certification status to support improved use of their limited resources for official inspection. Codex recently developed and issued an internal guidance document on vTPA that provides the mechanism by which Regulators can use these programmes as part of their regulatory frameworks.
Drawing this article to a close, the importance of vTPA food safety management certification programmes in food safety is only increasing as many businesses look to this independent certification as a key component of their supplier assurance process. The role of every player in food safety management certification is absolutely critical from the CPO, the certification body, the accreditation body to the auditor. Certification programmes have supported the entire food supply chain to continuously raise the bar in food safety management over the last 30 years, and their continued success will be dependent on the ongoing value they provide to the supply chain. Although most businesses tend to focus on the content of such programmes i.e. the clauses and requirements, it is arguably more important for their long-term sustainability that the audit and integrity are given more prominence. This is what drives confidence and will foster continued engagement and improvement. Promotion of the use of data and insight from certification audits, rather than a focus on a score alone, is key to creating a culture of continuous improvement in food safety management at food business operations.
I hope that this has given you some useful insight on voluntary third-party assurance and recent developments and look out for the next article from BRCGS.
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AuthorAlec Kyriakides Independent Food Safety Consultant
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