Auditing is not inspection

Louise Manning

How long have we been carrying out audits in the

food supply chain?

What have these audits delivered to the wider food

industry?

Does implementing an audit programme

guarantee food safety?

Are we using our resources effectively?

Have we gone down the wrong path?

Is there another way we could go?

Safer food?

What comparisons should we draw?

If we say food is safer do we assess this using qualitative or quantitative methods?

Do we consider both the acute and chronic impacts of food consumption?

Safer food?Food borne illnessFood poisoning

Food adulteration

Obesity and chronic health issues

Food contamination

Safer food?

Do we mean there are less types of food hazards causing problems?

Do we mean that the hazards that arise are less severe than they used to be?

Do we mean there is less risk because of all the measures we adopt in the food supply chain?

Risk to who or what?

Consumer

Supply chain customer

Brand value

National food supply

Cost of chronic health issues

Risk characterisation

Qualitative

Semi-quantitative

Quantitative

How to we measure risk?

Is risk characterisedby science or perception?

Risk assessment

Yes/No decision tree

Probability

Fuzzy logicHow do we determine what is an acceptable

level of risk?

Is risk assessment always black and white or shades of

grey?Can the degree of risk change at different stages in the supply chain?

Can we reduce the likelihood of human error to an acceptable level?

What if?

The role of the inspectorWhat is inspection?

What are the outputs of inspection?

InspectingDo you have this procedure in the file?

Do you have a clean and tidy premises on the day I come to look at you?

Is all your paperwork up to date in the file?

Have you filled in all the boxes on your forms?

Have you colour coded high and low risk areas on your site map?

Checklist myopiaIf it isn't on the checklist why should I assess it?

I just have to tick the boxes and then I'm done!

Am I designing this form for the business or the auditor?

How come I had 100% on an audit last week and now you tell me I have a problem?

Are private standards more about safe and efficient supply chains, gaining

marketing advantage or protecting brand value?

Does the nature and design of private market standards drive inspection rather than

audits?

Criteria led (yes/no)

Paper evidence model (due diligence)

Based on semi-quantitative risk assessment (matrices and decision trees)

What should the role of self-certification be in the audit process?

The role of the auditorWhat is an audit?

Is it easier to say what an audit isn’t?

Auditing the HACCP plan

I don't have any CCPs so you can stop auditing that section of the standard now

I control all food safety hazards to an acceptable level

My preventive (control) measures will never fail well that’s what my answers to the HACCP decision tree say

Risk Management and the role of auditing

Auditing is not inspection

Louise Manning