Food Safety and Food Quality: Helping Processors Improve Food Safety Systems
When Stuart Fleming of Stuyver's Bakestudio learned there was a new government food safety program, he quickly looked into signing up. Fleming is the Quality Assurance Manager at Stuyver's, a Burnaby-based artisan bakery which supplies a variety of Canadian restaurant and grocery chains. He says getting back 90% of eligible costs through the Food Safety Implementation element of the Food Safety Initiative (FSI) made it easier to train staff, implement stronger procedures and buy a laptop for his quality control technician - all without cutting into the bakery's profitability.
 "We already had a good food safety program in place, but this support has allowed us to enhance it and fill in some of the gaps," says Fleming.
The Food Safety Initiative is part of the Agricultual Policy Framework, and is made up of two separate but complementary elements: Outreach and Implementation. Both elements focus on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP). GMPs cover the basic, common sense requirements of food safety, such as hand washing and chemical storage. HACCP is the internationally recognized system for proactively improving food safety from the beginning of the food chain to the end to prevent and control hazards, such as food-borne illness, at all stages of the production line.
Outreach workshops are coordinated by the BC Centre for Disease Control and regional Health Authorities to introduce provincially licensed processors to the theory of HACCP. Once processors complete the one-day outreach workshop, they can sign up for the Implementation element, which is delivered by the Small Scale Food Processors Association (SSFPA). The Implementation element funds food safety improvements, including hiring staff or a consultant to develop food safety plans and write policies and procedures. This helps processors increase their food safety expertise even if they don't have a dedicated quality assurance professional.
Phil Watney, Manager of FSI funding at the SSFPA, says the Implementation element has been a huge success. Almost 60 processors from across the province have signed up, and participants process everything from cakes, nutraceuticals and salads, to meat and dairy products.
"Participants are very interested in doing HACCP certifications, but just four of them have become fully certified at this point," says Watney. "HACCP is a long term investment - it takes 12 to 20 months to implement it from scratch." Most companies, like Stuyver's, are implementing GMPs because they address the fundamentals and are quicker to complete.
 Fleming appreciates the support. "I'm impressed that the government has taken a proactive approach to food safety by encouraging small and mid-sized businesses who have limited resources to get the ball rolling," he says. "I think it's the right approach."
Processors can easily get caught up in their regular day-to-day business, and the payoffs from food safety take time to materialize. Boosting food safety measures in their plant can become a real challenge because it requires not just money, but also the time and energy to develop and incorporate new tools into their business.
"A quality control program forces you to be organized," says Fleming. "We have tighter batch control and traceability now, which requires more paperwork than we used to do, but by analyzing our historical data we're achieving business efficiencies."
Most of all, Watney is pleased with the intangible benefits of the program. "Seeing people getting excited about training for food safety, their increased concern about the overall food safety chain and their level of pride in their standards and quality has been exciting. More people implementing food safety systems means a safer food chain overall."
Fleming agrees. "Participating in the FSI program has given me a boost by letting me use the tools I need to do my job as well as I know I can be doing it."
Contact:
To find a FSI Outreach workshop, please contact your regional Health Authority:
- Vancouver Coastal Health: Virginia Jorgensen/Barbara Peters, (604) 675-6912
- Fraser Health: FSI Consultant Team, Lisa Weih, (604) 514-6117
- Interior Health Authority: Jacqueline Bratt, (250) 862-7235
- Northern Health: Russell Seltenrich, (250) 638-2222
- Vancouver Island Health Authority: Keir Cordner, (250) 334-5457
- Abattoirs and dairy plant producers: Sion Shyng, BC Centre for Disease Control, (604) 660-0260.
For information about the FSI Implementation program, contact the Manager, FSI Implementation Funding, Small Scale Food Processor Association, 1-866-473-7372.
For more details and contact information on FSI initiatives.
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