ACHIEVING SQF2000 LEVEL 3 FOOD SAFETY FOOD QUALITY CERTIFICATION

摘要

The safety of our food supply has become national and international news in the recent years as a result of the severe health consequences that can occur when food safety is compromised. Product recalls associated with peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), and eggs have all been front page news stories. Not only has this lead to the demise of multi-million dollar companies and lack of confidence in oversight / auditing agencies, it has also driven our government to overhaul the US food safety system (Food Safety Modernization Act). American Sugar Refining, Inc. (ASR) and its related companies have always considered food safety to be its top priority and had previously implemented a robust ISO 9002 based quality management system. ASR Senior management more recently made the decision to pursue food safety certification under the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and choose SQF2000 as the standard to be audited against. One of the key factors in the decision to use SQF2000 was the opportunity to certify both the food safety and food quality of our products - SQF2000 Level 3. This paper describes the two year process undertaken by ASR to achieve SQF2000 Level 3 certification at five refineries. The scope of this initiative included facility assessment, training, procedure development, and the adoption of the SQF2000 thought process within our daily business activities.