This caused me to reflect on the challenges we find during the summer period getting raw material specifications or supplier self audits completed by suppliers. Typically we find that technical teams are stretched, more than usual, due to various team members being on holiday.

On the same vein I then remembered by many years in chilled foods manufacture when the summer months were hell for refrigeration systems which sometimes struggled, thus increasing the risk of issues.

Allied to all of the above businesses often had senior operational management on holiday.

Does all of this mean that summer holidays are a time of increased risk to food safety?

Whilst this is an interesting statistic it must be clearly recognised that FSSC 22000 is a GFSI  benchmarked standard along with several other standards such as the BRC.

On a daily basis we encounter food safety professionals who are confused about the plethora of different food safety standards and how this affects their supplier auditing and supplier risk assessment processes.

Within the QADEX supplier compliance management system we have a fast track process for all suppliers that have achieved a food safety standard, this works well and rewards the sites that have achieved certification, regardless of the food safety standard. Whether the supplier is operating against a GFSI benchmarked standard or a retailer standard the site is likely to have a credible food safety system in place. Therefore there is ample space in the marketplace for various standards whether GFSI benchmarked or not, surely this is the result of an open marketplace.

And for the sites who complain to our support team about the amount of information that they are being asked to provide there is a simple response, become certified against a food safety standard.

But, what we all need to pay more attention to is the large number of sites that are not working to a food safety standard or the agents/traders/distributors of foodstuffs who do not have robust supplier auditing processes in place within their supply chains and still adopt a trading mentality without sufficient investment in supplier assurance and technical capability.

Apparently traders purchased the contaminated products from the 2008 incident, which should have been disposed of, with the intention of processing the stock and selling it on.

Here at QADEX we have a major bee in our bonnet about the damage that unscrupulous or indifferent traders cause to the food supply chain and the resultant increased burden that falls on quality traders and food processors.

There must be a solution out there to identify, and then name the traders in the supply chain who do not meet minimum criteria to be participants within the food supply chain. These small minority are having an undue adverse impact on the vast majority of responsible food business operators.

At QADEX we consistently get pushback from some packaging suppliers who resist providing extensive information on supplier self audit questionnaires and on raw material specifications. Whilst there are some very good packaging suppliers there are many who are not really conversant with the potential risks of packaging and taint. Hopefully this incident will make a few more packaging suppliers stop and think that maybe they need to look at food safety in a more detail.

The moral here is that all packaging suppliers should be included in any supplier compliance management initiatives, although context is king, we advise to have a more detailed level of surveilance for contact packaging suppliers than for non contact packaging suppliers.

We define third world suppliers broadly in line with the oxford english dictionary definition as being suppliers from countries such as africa, asia and latin america collectively, especially when viewed as underdeveloped. One general exception being that we sometimes see suppliers from third world countries who are better than suppliers here in the UK.

We define international standards very loosely in this paper as being “a standard that is deemed acceptable for the food business operator who is using the ingredient based on a thorough risk assessment of the ingredient and its intended usage” This definition may be challenged by many purists who would argue in favour of one of the many various food safety schemes. Our reason for adopting this definition is pragmatic, if an ingredient is low risk then many of the current accredited food safety systems could be seen as too onerous for suppliers in the third world. A series of small achievable steps from where a supplier is today towards a fully accredited food safety certification may be more pragmatic than requiring suppliers to make a big leap.

So how do you move suppliers from where they are today into a process of continual improvement?

We recommend a number of steps.

• Make your supplier audit questionnaires and product specifications requirements context specific.
• Know what is in the raw material and understand the supply chain behind the raw material.
• Understand fully what activities occur at suppliers sites.
• Collect supplier self audit questionnaires.
• Review and risk assess the responses.
• Seek clarification where required.
• Audit the supplier.
• Provide training and guidance to assist suppliers address non-conformances.

While outlining best practice we recognise there are some barriers to best practice, these barriers and how to overcome them will be discussed.

Finally we discuss how you can help suppliers to develop their systems to meet international standards.

Steps recommended to develop your third world supply systems to international standards

Make supplier audit questionnaires and product specifications requirements context specific

If sourcing different types of ingredients such as meat, dairy and dry ingredients, it is recommended to deploy supplier audit questionnaires and specifications that are specific to the type of ingredients being supplied. This allows more detailed information to be gathered relating to the ingredient type and engenders greater co-operation when suppliers recognise you are asking for information that is relevant.

Know what is in the raw material and understand the supply chain behind the raw material

If you do not know what is in the raw material and understand the supply chain for that raw material from farm to fork you may be unable to “risk assess” that supply chain.

For example: Whilst travelling between factories in a third world country (in my air conditioned car, due to 45 degree C temperatures outside) I repeatedly noticed open topped milk tankers bouncing along the rough roads with milk spilling out the top and no apparent refrigeration, these tankers frequently stopped at the roadside and collected milk from open churns. The local farmers and tanker drivers had improvised a creative, but not food safe, method of ensuring the milk passed dairy intake checks. This practice highlighted a food safety risk that would have been overlooked through the usual supplier auditing process.

Understand fully what activities happen at supplier sites.

A detailed understanding of all processing activities which happen at the supplying site, throughout the year may highlight risks that would not ordinarily be considered. This is particularly the case where a site is processing seasonal lines, do a detailed evaluation of what the site is doing out of season, it can be quite revealing.

Collect supplier self audit questionnaires.

Having implemented the above steps you are now in a position to get supplier self audit questionnaires completed by your suppliers with an awareness of the type of issues that you need to be aware of. We recommend using Yes/No questions to ascertain key compliance information followed by qualifying questions to support the Yes/No questions. This ensures clear unambiguous responses to important questions with additional information to support the review process.

Review and risk assess the responses.

Ensure that all questionnaires are reviewed in detail and an objective scoring system used to define the outcome of the review process. Scoring may be weighted to give greater importance to specific areas of concern or importance.

Seek clarification where required.

If answers are ambiguous or do not give the information required, it is reasonable to assume that the supplier may have worded their response to cover something up. Seek clarification. If in doubt or even if you have a gut feeling then request further information.

Audit the supplier

As the market leader in of solutions for supplier compliance management we recognise that supplier self audits are not ideal.

Our recommendation is to find a way of gaining access to a recent audit report from the site if you cannot audit the site yourself, or contract the work to a competent auditor. Another option is to share the audit costs with another business also sourcing from the supplier.

An audit shared is an audit cost reduced!

Provide training and guidance to assist suppliers address non-conformances.

This is where a real difference can be made to developing third world supply systems to international standards and continually improving your supply chain.

When sourcing from 3^rd world suppliers and following the steps outlined in this paper there are likely to be a substantial number of non-conformances. The easy option would be not to approve the supplier but this may have commercial implications. An alternative route is to provide a range of training and guidance to help your suppliers improve their systems.

This can be as simple as providing detailed guidance to suppliers showing them practical ways to improve, arranging in country training for groups of suppliers, delivering eLearning solutions using the internet, or using webinar based training that enables interactive training remotely for large numbers of suppliers.

With extensive training expertise we would be delighted to guide you through selecting which methodology is best for your business and supply chain.

Barriers to the above best practice and how to overcome them

Agents and traders

Agents and traders may be spot buying ingredients or have many suppliers of ingredients which they may not have audited. Agents and traders have a role to play in many supply chains. We encounter many responsible agents and traders who have good supplier approval and management systems in place, we also encounter those that do not recognise that they have a responsibility to approve their suppliers and provide appropriate technical support to their customers. These agents and traders are a major obstacle to assured supply chains and need to be pressurised to either improve or leave the food supply chain.

Supplier refusal

All too often suppliers try to avoid providing information and give various excuses including;

1. We’re too busy
2. You do not buy enough from us to justify the time
3. We’re too big
4. Lack of resources

It can be difficult to navigate these issues whilst avoiding confrontation with un-cooperative suppliers.

Supplier refusal can be reduced by using web-based databases, which aggregate requirements ensuring suppliers only have to provide the information once into a database, and with appropriate approvals the information can be accessed by multiple customers.

Lack of resource at suppliers

Suppliers need to ensure that they have sufficient resources relative to industry requirements and web-based databases can reduce the time taken to provide this information. It is recommended that purchasing departments consider a potential new suppliers technical resources and capability at the start of commercial discussions. It is often too late once a suppliers ingredients have been incorporated into products.

Have something to hide

In this instance the supplier knows that they are not compliant and want to avoid you becoming aware of this. This will manifest itself in one of two ways. Firstly suppliers will refuse using one of the excuses provided above or suppliers will avoid refusing but give different excuses each time you chase looking for the information.

You need to be persistent and implement a planned de-list program. In our experience a credible threat of being de-listed motivates suppliers to provide information. It is important to follow though with de-lists where it is clear that suppliers are not prepared to provide the information required.

Conclusion

By following the steps recommended to develop your third world supply systems to international standards and addressing the barriers to best practice you will deliver a supply chain which is less likely to present food safety risks to your business.

You will have de-listed some suppliers where the risk was deemed to be too high. As other food businesses implement the same strategy these risky suppliers will be forced to improve or leave the food supply chain.

By partnering with third world suppliers your business will have a strategic advantage, greater supply chain visibility and make a lasting improvement to the food safety systems in these countries. This will have many beneficial implications for the suppliers and the communities which they operate in.

By linking into your businesses corporate social responsibility systems, your food safety initiatives can contribute in a very positive way to the communities and countries that your ingredients are sourced from.

Safer ingredients and more prosperous communities in the third world are a win win for all participants.

These events will be organised in small groups and focus on the following areas

• User updates to showcase many of the new features added during the recent QADEX 3.1 update
• An overview of best practice and how to get more from your QADEX implementation
• Future developments and  user input into the QADEX development road map

The user forum is also an ideal opportunity to network and share ideas.

If we have not already spoken to you about the user forum please contact your relevant QADEX contact and request a place.

Themes to be covered during the forum will include how to improve supplier compliance management, supplier auditing and control of ingredient specifications using QADEX 3.1

As food makers and food buyers achieve control and improve food safety criteria they find themselves at risk from products, ingredients and materials from around the world.

How can you be sure of the quality and safety of these supplies? How sure are you of the food safety systems being applied?

Speakers presented their knowledge on the consequences of things going wrong and on the challenges and solutions for food chain safety.

QADEX provided an informative and thought provoking presentation on the lessons than can be applied to securing safe food supplies which encompassed, supplier auditing, supplier compliance management (SCM) along with a discussion of the importance of linking raw material specifications to finished product specifications.

The release of QADEX 3.1 brings a whole host of new features including:

• Supplier relationship management
• Automatic risk assessment and scoring of suppliers based on audit results
• Enhanced document archiving
• Enhanced user interfaces

There have also been a number of exciting changes which are tailored to the requirements of large multi-site food groups which are too good to put out in the public domain. But can be seen by contacting us for a demo.

Using QADEX 3.1 supplier auditing and specification management has moved to a whole new level.

Not resting on their laurels the development team are now working on QADEX 3.2 and QADEX 4.1, but more about that later.

Some people are forecasting that food safety and food security are starting to merge, this presents the perfect storm for those responsible for supply chain assurance in that there are already serious pressures and requirements on food safety professionals which they are struggling to meet. It seems that the pace of development of requirements on the food industry is getting faster with every year that passes. In fact it could be argued that the change in requirements is faster than industries ability to keep up. Can you imagine supplier auditing and raw material specifications having to take account of water conservation?

Some of the statistics reported make startling reading. The reported embedded water in the following products, per Kg, were:

Tea – 30 litres

Apples – 70 litres

Coffee – 140 litres

Beer – 150 litres

Bread – 440 litres

Chicken – 683 litres

Sugar – 1500 litres

Cheese – 2500 litres

Rice – 3400 litres

Beef – 3875 litres

But a pair of jeans had 10,850 litres so I guess jeans are off the menu!

Thinking about the amout of water that is in our food supply chain is probably something that we are going to have to think about some more, but it is one of these issues where something needs to be done but the logistical and political challenge required is hugh, not to mind the data gathering and assessment challenges.

This issue is going to increase in importance but some serious consideration, and support, needs to be given to allow industry to respond. Is it sufficient for government and regulators to stand back and leave this to industry, I would contend not, but them what would the likely outcome be if government and regulators became involved, a real catch 22!

And how do you compare information, ie compare apples to apples

We even had a very interesting presentation prepared on the subject of “Managing Supply Chain Assurance in Global Supply Chains” which may now have to be kept on ice, or worse still delivered over a live video link, and you thought live video links were only for absent oscar winners!

So we shall wait and see, who knows, the ash may have all blown away and air traffic returned to normal by Tuesday morning, and pigs might fly. Who knows some of the boffins at the VIV Europe exhibition may have used genetic engineering to develop a flying pig?

Our presentation covers the following subjects:

• Best practice overview
• Barriers to best practice
• Good practice
• Where we are now in relation to supplier auditing
• Where we are now in relation to raw material specifications
• Challenges
• Some scary stories
• How to address the challenges.
• Dealing with agents, traders and importers, some of whom can best be described as cowboys!
• The role that electronic systems can play
• How to choose a system

If anyone wishes to receive a copy of this presentation please email support@qadex.com or phone 0845 3024780 and request a copy.