Food Safety Management Systems – How do you start?

Setting up a food safety management system seems like a mammoth task so how do you go about it and where do you start?

The answer is simply really, start with the fundamentals and develop your system from there. What are the fundamentals?

Well start by demonstrating your commitment to food safety by developing, implementing and maintaining a food safety and quality policy. Back this up with food safety and quality objectives.
Bear in mind these objectives should be realistic and measureable. Regularly monitor and review your objectives. Communicate you policies and objectives.

Next appoint a HACCP team including a HACCP Team leader. Make sure your HACCP team is mutli-disciplined and has the knowledge, training and experience to perform your HACCP study.
Support your HACCP team in developing your HACCP system. Provide outside resource if necessary. Your HACCP study is fundamental to your business so ensure it is comprehensive and adequate.
Your HACCP study will generate the core of your food safety management system. The HACCP team will identify fundamental good manufacturing procedures which need to be in place in order to provide the basic hygienic conditions for food handling.
The HACCP team will then conduct a hazard analysis to decide which hazards need to be assessed. Hazard assessment will identify those hazards that need to be controlled and this in turn will generate procedures and records for corrections, corrective actions and monitoring activities.

These procedures and records will form the basis of your food safety management system. Remember that you will need to communicate with and train your staff. This is fundamental to achieving food safety. Develop a training matrix and start with those people whose responsibilities and activities can affect food safety. Your procedures should include a hygiene policy, which should be briefed to all staff on induction.

In addition to the procedures and records generated by the HACCP study you should consider the procedures and records required to facilitate food safety. Such examples include internal auditing crisis management, complaint handling and product recall.
Once you have developed your system you should the set about monitoring, review and improvement.

So what should be included in your food safety management system?

Here is a template from one of my food safety manuals:

QM 001 – Food Safety Quality Management System
QM 002 – FSQM Manual Summary
QM 003 – Document Control
QM 004 – Customer, Statutory and Regulatory Conformance
QM 005 – Record Control
QM 006 – Management Commitment
QM 007 – Quality and Food Safety Policy
QM 007 – Quality and Food Safety Objectives
QM 008 – Responsibility, Authority and Communication
QM 009 – Management Review
QM 010 – Resources and Training
QM 011 – Infrastructure and Work Environment
QM 012 – Product Realization and Contract Review
QM 013 – Design and Development
QM 014 – Purchasing, Orders and Verification of Purchased Materials
QM 015 – Prerequisite Programmes
QM 016 – Identification and Traceability
QM 017 – Customer Property
QM 018 – Planning Product Realisation and Contract Review
QM 019 – Calibration
QM 020 – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points System
QM 021 – Verification, Validation and Improvement
QM 022 – Customer Satisfaction
QM 023 – Internal Audit
QM 024 – Monitoring and Measuring QMS, Analysis of Data
QM 025 – Control of Non-Conforming Product
QM 026 – Corrective Action and Preventive Action
QM 027 – Crisis Management
QM 028 – Product Recall

Most of these are applicable to all food businesses in order to achieve food safety. Procedures like customer satisfaction may not be essential to food safety but it sure is fundamental to your business.