SafetyChain Blog

Managing a supplier management program can be challenging in any food company. For Beaver Street Fisheries, a 60-year-old company with more than 400 suppliers in 40 countries, supplier management was especially cumbersome. Since many of their suppliers were located outside the U.S., managing vendor activities with varying requirements for both domestic and international regulatory agencies was becoming impossible with traditional systems. For this reason, they sought out a technology solution that would help them streamline their supplier management activities while allowing them to continue their commitment to safety, quality, and compliance. Here, we’ll explore their key challenges and how SafetyChain ultimately helped solve them.

On July 24, 2019, the FDA announced the user fee for the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP). Participation in this program may be an attractive option for U.S.-based food companies who wish to expedite the import process for human and animal foods. The user fee for the program is $16,681, which will support program benefits from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020. Here, we will explore what participation in the program entails.

Check Out Our Favorite Articles on Food Quality and Safety from August 2019!

Each month, we follow the latest trends and news in food safety and quality to bring you insights and updates from thought leaders in the food and beverage industry. Here's a roundup of some of our favorite articles and blog posts from around the web in August 2019.

Achieving audit-readiness and regulatory compliance are two of the most complex challenges the food industry faces. For Sokol and Company, a food products supplier with a vast product line, keeping up with new FSMA regulations and preparing for audits was daunting, and introduced a need for a new food safety management solution.

Sprout growers face a number of unique food safety challenges. The potential for contamination arises at various points through growing and handling processes, making risk mitigation an important priority for this particular industry. Yet, many of the risk management strategies can benefit other niches in the produce sector as well. Thus, developing a comprehensive understanding of FSMA’s Produce Safety Rule is essential not only for sprout growers, but for agricultural operations as a whole. Here, we’ll look at some of the challenges and best practices for sprout growers, with the understanding that many of these factors also apply to farms in general.  

While all produce operations are subject to a broad range of food safety challenges, sprout farms have very specific and heightened risks. Seed contamination can take place on the farm itself, while germination conditions are also ideal for pathogen development. Contamination can also occur during production, and in recent years, sprouts have been linked to a number of pathogen outbreaks, including salmonella and listeria.

Photo © 2019 Death Wish Coffee

The process of migrating from paper-based record keeping to data capture on tablets and electronic information storage does not have to be difficult for food and beverage companies. Here’s a story about a coffee manufacturer that showed us all how it’s done, and, in the process, put up some very impressive audit scores.

Check Out Our Favorite Articles on Food Quality and Safety from July 2019!

Each month, we follow the latest trends and news in food safety and quality to bring you insights and updates from thought leaders in the food and beverage industry. Here's a roundup of some of our favorite articles and blog posts from around the web in July 2019.

With SafetyChain LINK Auditor View, now it’s easy for food companies to build better relationships with their auditors.

Emerging Technology Helps Food Audits Run Smoother

Face it: food safety audits can be stressful, taking weeks if not months of preparation time.  When the time comes, the more organized, prepared, and transparent a food manufacturer can be, the faster and easier the audit becomes for both the company and the auditor. As a result, both can focus more time and energy on finding productive ways to improve processes rather than plowing through piles of paper. 

Now, SafetyChain LINK Auditor View makes it easy for food companies to share all records and information required within the purview of an audit, without overwhelming their auditors with unnecessary or extraneous information.

The month of June, 2019 was busy for the FDA, as many implementation dates for requirements have come and passed or are soon approaching. As such, the FDA has issued a number of guidance documents and made a few other key developments to prepare the industry for FSMA-related changes. Below are a few of the most noteworthy updates from last month.