Food processing companies all over the world continue to improve their overall sanitary performance and produce safe foods, labeled properly and in compliance with all regulatory standards; however, all one has to do is read the daily food industry news updates and it is evident that there is still lots of room for improvement. Recall after recall, there are indications that employee hygiene and good manufacturing practices are not being followed and companies are not leveraging their most powerful tools, their employees, to control the process and prevent these events.
Food-processing companies invest hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars to build food-processing plants and install the very best processing equipment they can buy. These investments are only the beginning. The next step is to staff the facility with qualified employees, followed by the development of a process control system that outlines the procedures required to produce safe food products. No matter what the food product, companies should have well-written, defined procedures for everything the plant can do to consistently and safely manufacture products that are sold at retail and commercial food businesses. Once those procedures are in place, the employees must be trained on the role they play to operate and monitor the entire process and produce safe foods free of bacterial contamination.