Food Safety. What is it good for?

Everything!

Food Safety is around everything we do. It has been for generations, just recent number of decades has become law. Now all that we used to do on a Farm operation or processing plant, is documented daily, inspected and assured in process. The problem I have is that everyone is doing their part, or at least trying to, while Governments that implement the laws are lacking behind.

Farms and processing facilities spend a lot of money achieving the HACCP, SQF certifications and others, and many follow the program to the dot as it pertains to their credibility and accountability, or at least, it should. Retailers that sell the product to the end Foodie also do their part in training of staff, flow organization, storing, etc. A successful Food Safety program is like a relay race, where a baton of safety is passed from the Picker to the Packer to the Driver to the Receiver and then end Foodie. The path of the baton never comes into question as each follows a set of rules to assure the product quality and safety is maintained. That is unless you are shipping across the US/Canada border these days.

Food Safety assures the Foodie their food is coming from a safe quality food environment, primarily resting them assured they will not get sick or die from consuming the product. CFIA in Canada and USDA in the US do a good job, however they are quite limited as there have been Governments through time, on both sides of the border, that have cut funding to these important programs. I remember a CFIA inspector once tell me that what used to be an office of ten inspectors was cut down to four, yet the number of facilities that required inspections grew by the week.

The Farmers and Retailers are doing their end, it is the Governments that are severely lacking and putting the programs into jeopardy. Food Safety Programs should not be a bargaining tool nor should it be part of an election agenda to win votes. It is a matter that harms or helps every individual, not just the ones voting the people into a majority. Food Safety is a net that catches all equally.

There are four core sectors that play a role in ones Food Safety program:

1. The Farm/Producer/Processor: Implementing a food safety program can save thousands of pounds of produced product from contamination, going to waste, from interruption of future production and so much more. A successfully designed program keeps everyone in line, to assure each sector of the process is following the rules and is making sure the one before and after is doing the same. The co-ordinator that is facilitating the program ties it all into place to assure there is always additional verification that the program is running smoothly and effectively finalizing any Corrective Action Reports (CARs) that may be in play. A successful program has a recall system in place that assures 100% of product can be traced back to the source. At one of the Mushroom Farms I implemented the program, I could trace back each box of Mushrooms all the way to the knife that cut it and the individual that had the honour of doing so. This assured that, no matter when, each box can be traced back to the source to assure product safety and quality and refrain from potential future mishaps. This was a great tool when I was in talks for major Sales accounts. Once, I picked up a random box off the shelf at one of the Sales accounts we had and on speakerphone called the farm and issued a recall on that one box. The people listening in were stunned at how clean our protocol was that I could name the individual that picked the product, when, where, who touched the box throughout the process, the driver that drove it, the name of the Receiver that accepted the shipment and the temperature at the time of the exchange, before it reached their shelf for me to pick it up. Imagine the priceless Marketing in that moment.

If you do not have any of the programs mentioned above, you may not get into some of the potential sales out there. In my opinion, these are the sales that you need to get in order to achieve a consistency of cash flow that your business requires to succeed. These are the retail giants that may pay for your product within a week or month or 60-90 days, depending what kind of product you are supplying. No matter what the terms, they are honoured and respected and primarily on time which allows your Operation to rely on. Then there are those that do not care what you do or how you do it. They are the ones that will fight you for ever cent and every dollar, not caring if your doors will be open tomorrow, some you may battle for months for payment. From personal experience, I have dealt with both, and I can assure you, you do not want the latter. Spend the money and get certified! Just make sure the people you are hiring to help you are not trying to certify your Produce farm with a program from a Poultry farm. Every program should be customized to the operation at hand as any individual that takes and reads your program from start to finish should understand your operation without ever setting foot on the premises. A good consultant will help you achieve your certificate within your current operating protocols and slowly shift you into what will be required to do in order to achieve successful certification.

2. Retailers/Wholesales: These are the guys that take over your product and either sell directly to the Foodie, or to a Chef or other Retailers. They take your Products and assure they are kept within your standards, to assure its quality, longevity and security. They spent the time and money to also get certified so that you can be rest assured your Product is in good hands. Farms job in this matter is to inspect their facilities from time to time to assure the product is continued within a safe food quality environment. I have had calls where Retailers would complain the quality of product to find the location they were keeping the product was not right. By doing further inspections of premises we found the perfect location for storage and from there on in, there was no more spoilage and product actually increased in longevity because we addressed the Corrective Action Report and finalized it to perfection, together, assuring a better product for the end Foodie.

3. The Third Party Certifiers: These are the local, national and global companies that you pay to get your farm inspected and certified once your program is in place and data has already been collected. Most certifying companies will not stop by until you have a minimum of three months of data collection to see if there are any concepts your program may be missing. They do the job for the Government to assure that you are meeting all the guidelines in place to assure your product is safe for consumption. I have dealt with a few companies but out of all of them, the one I turn to today is SGS as they are the ones that provide inspectors that do not cut any corners, inspectors that will hold you to the dot of the i's and the cross of the t's. They will assure that what you claim is real and they will hold you to it. And what I love most of my interaction with them, is their knowledge and their will to help you succeed by working with you as they understand that every Farm has its own battle and their aim is to draw a path that would make the whole experience that much more informative.

4. The Government. Within this bracket there are two sectors, A. the Government at the time of power making the rules, and; B. the valued Inspectors that go around and hold your certificate and operations to the magnifying glass all while following the guidelines of the law.

For the sake of this article, I will begin with B., the Inspector. They come to any place on their list of the day to inspect assurance. They knock on your door, and no matter what you may be doing, no matter what process you may be in the middle of, your establishment must be inspected. Some Inspectors will just have an observatory look around, some will go through your documentation and others may take some product for further inspection. Each was always welcomed where I was the HACCP/Organics Coordinator. I loved those surprising knocks on the door as they made us accountable. We got a chance to prove our credibility and showcase that what we preach we do in our day to day operations, no matter the day, no matter the operations, we walked the talk. I am sad that many Farms that I know do not feel this way. They find it intrusive and a bit predatory. They may not understand that it is a privilege we have to feed people, and that one mistake, could result in someones illness or God forbid, death. I argue this fact always, and most of the time tend to be the black sheep within the conversation as I love the due diligence and appreciate the level of importance it puts on the Farmer. The Inspectors as individuals are mostly great people. They too, will work with you. You just have to be vocal as communication is the key. Sometimes you just do not know as laws tend to change depending which way the wind blows. Most of those Inspectors were Farmers themselves at one point, so they do understand. Do not let fear of the badge guide your interaction. Be friendly and open, that is, if you do not have anything to hide.

A. The Government. Ah, the Government. These are the guys that rotate in the decision chair. Every few years, new rules, new adjustments to gain additional votes into power. New members promising the world to Farmers and changes in rules, all while not taking into regard the Population that eats the food. So if a politician promises a de-regulation of any pesticide or rodenticide or any other rule, the vast population is not taken into regard as this Farm employs hundreds of people and their vote is more important. Such a wrong concept of our political sphere, but it is a reality in any Western country it seems as the news tend to report.

What I personally have issues with is the lack of funding and the constant interruption of funding into these programs. They have written and implemented laws, which Farmers spend money to keep up with, then those laws and the people who are supposed to initialize and supervise them, are being cut off at the knees by whoever is in charge that year. Some Farmers cannot afford these programs, so when something like this occurs, it is beyond disrespectful and shameful, that deserves a public shaming of those in charge at the time.

With this article I am going to make a claim that some may not like. But this is the truth. A fact that many know, but few will speak of.

Any food truck, refrigerated or other, carrying food, that crosses the US and Canadian border today and gets inspected within its facilities is breaking a number of different protocols known to a Food Safety Coordinator. I have had multiple conversations and at times, arguments, with border guards and inspectors (whose fault it is not as they're just following the rules) about this issue as they used to open my truck doors to inspect the product while birds were flying inside their facilities. Facilities which inspect refrigerated shipments, but do not have a segregated refrigerated area to upkeep the cold chain flow. Some will use a canine dog that will climb a skid, taken through to sniff the variety of different packaged product for drugs. I would have pictures but cell phones are not allowed within the facilities. While that may be a quick solution, it is anything but a solution. Allowing a dog to climb ready to eat, or produce packed skids, is a food safety violation. What we would fail at the farm in flying colours, the Government Inspectors at the border crossings do regularly, so your Farm may be certified, and you may be shipping to a certified warehouse and/or a certified retail store, but in that flow chart, the Government is breaking your flow and your product is no longer continuing a safe protocol. Your product can no longer be classified as safe as your chain was broken by those that implemented the laws in the first place. I wrote a few letters to the Supervisors of these facilities, but I have yet to hear back from them, all while, thousands of pounds of product is shipped back and forth, daily, feeding the populations, all while breaking the rules that would shut your facility down if they caught you breaking them at your premises.

Last week I was passing through one of the borders and I asked kiddingly, "Hello Sir, are your facilities HACCP certified yet, to which the border person said, what is that?", yet there was a truck full of fresh foods, opened, the reefer not running as it should, into a facility that was comfortably twenty degrees over its allowed limits. What a tragedy within such a beautiful program that adds so much goodness to the already quality products we produce. That refrigerated product being inspected lost at least a day or two shelf-life in the process and it was not even hot outside. Imagine when it is forty degrees plus.

So with this claim of my truth, I urge you the next time a politician knocks on your Farm door, ask them, what will they do about the inspection facilities your trucks visit regularly when crossing the border. Because if they are failing to follow the law, why should you?

There are multiple sides to this story and the conversation of food safety is stapled for conversations to come, so my thoughts on the matter will definitely evolve.

My name is Denis Vidmar and I believe that every facility of honour should have a food safety program in place to mirror its strength. Accountability is everything in food, and since we are proud to feed people, we might as well be proud of the procedures in place that make it all happen. Any Sales and Marketing person should utilize their Food Safety in their sales technique. It is a powerful tool, that many have the utmost respect for. Learn to utilize it and Have yourself a great day!

#fungisaysso #foodismedicine #foodsafety #HACCP