How to maximise food safety and reduce risks

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Oct 31, 2007

From ground beef to spinach, we have seen the huge downside of supply chain safety and quality failures: a new webcast discusses how Statistical Process Control can maximise food safety

Food processors are faced with the continuing challenges of maximising food safety while reducing production costs by improving throughput, product yields, and process efficiencies.

One effective strategy is to improve the performance of the supply chain.

Jeff Cawley and Dr John Surak presented the symposium, "Guarantee your success, don't just document failure".

This presented advice on how to use SPC to manage your supply chain to maximise food safety, quality and profit, while reducing risk at the March 2007 Food Safety Summit in Washington DC.

Many customers now mandate their suppliers implement Statistical Process Control (SPC) programmes.

These programs provide the results of improved food quality and safety while decreasing purchasing costs.

Suppliers and customers will not see the financial benefits from SPC implementation, if the suppliers feel that all they are required to do is to ship control charts and histograms with the raw product.

However, all members of the supply chain can receive large financial and risk reduction benefits if the suppliers actively embrace SPC.

The presentation examined how simple SPC tools provide the means to develop a detailed understanding of process performance.

Case studies demonstrated the role of SPC and Process Capability Analysis to select and certify vendors, monitor lot acceptance and improve food safety performance.

The webcast and slides are available via the news section of the website.