When it comes to food safety, I’m sure you are compliant. You pass your audits with flying colors. But if your documentation is still on paper, your days are numbered. If you are reading this, you are likely subject to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Section 204.
I wrote about the impact of FSMA rule 204 on our industry in my newsletter about a year ago, and I’m reminded of this because the company I covered in my newsletter, Provision Analytics, just won the AgSharks Audience Choice award at Western Growers Conference in Hawaii this past November, and some in the industry that I know are already signing up with them as a digital solution. So I wanted to let you know.
If you are thinking “we are fine” because you have a FSQA process, think about how well that process works when under stress and how quickly your org can act. If you have to go flipping through binders, OK yes it can be done, but your team members will be taken off their regular duties and you’ll get behind. Because, the latest rule for high risk foods under the Food Traceability List (FTL) now requires additional record keeping and 24 hour turn around.
What kind of additional record keeping will you need?
At key points throughout the supply chain, including at harvesting, initial packing, receiving, processing and shipping, records containing key data elements about foods on the FTL will be required. At the farm level, for example, a farm map showing the area where the food is grown or raised, including geographic coordinates, will be required. ~Frank Yiannas, the FDA's deputy commissioner for food policy and response.
Sounds like a lot.
Digitizing all the paperwork is the solution. You will be required to submit your documents to the FDA digitally anyway, so might as well ditch the scanner now. Food safety software has been prohibitively expensive and hard to use. If you’ve explored solutions like IFooDS and Safety Chain, you know they cater to larger entities.
Provision is a software platform to digitize all paperwork and workflows associated with food safety, regulatory and compliance paperwork, for farms, packers, processors and storage entities in nuts, nut butters, fresh produce and beyond.
Provision is an FSQA tool that digitizes everything from SOPs to deviations to records and can be configured to align with all 36 GFSI food safety schemes.
