Introduction to Food Safety Plans

When processing food and beverages, or anything related to food production, a company’s hygiene strategy directly affects production quality and profitability. Poorly cleaned equipment or unsafe conditions for food processing can lead to an inferior or potentially harmful product.

Appropriate cleaning is not only required and ethical but also makes business sense, as guaranteed product quality ensures consumer wellbeing and satisfaction. Packhouses, as suppliers of products for consumption (e.g., sorting of fresh produce), are subject to and must comply with regulations from organizations like the FDA, EFSA or NZFSA. These safety standards may differ from product to product and if not met, companies can be cited or even shut down, depending on the severity of the case.

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Packhouses must invest in tighter hygienic predictive strategies to meet regulatory standards and achieve greater efficiencies. The true return on investment (ROI) from a well-developed cleaning and sanitizing strategy comes from eliminating potential problems, rather than reacting to them. Unlike reactive strategies which only solve issues after they have occurred, hygienic predictive maintenance technology uses real-time information and evaluation to proactively improve equipment and facility hygiene.

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Based on our investigations, and understanding of the latest equipment trends in food industry, we are continuously developing new food safety solutions as part of our ‘Food Trust Program’.  Compac Food Trust takes into consideration the packhouse operations and food safety plan, as well as provide advice on how to optimize your facility’s cleaning procedures. Optimization of cleaning procedures can significantly reduce risks, costs to business and equipment downtime. 

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Food safety can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be.  Our first of a three-part whitepaper series answers the question ‘Why have a proactive food safety plan, and what to include?’.  Here you will learn: what are the key risks within the packhouse; what to include in a HACCP and FSMA compatible food safety plan; and what are the costs of possible produce contamination.  As always, please contact me with any questions or feedback you may have.