Food Safety Team has responsibilities to ensure quality and standardized products in the food industry. Their responsibilities range from keeping Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) in place thus reducing hazards and validating the objectives of Food Safety.
A Food Safety Team (FST) and its responsibilities are an essential part of a Standard Certified Food industry. So they play a role in molding ISO 22000 or any GFSI standards like BRC- Food Safety Management Systems. As mentioned, FST frames the quality and hygiene standards of food.
The objective of the Food Safety Team
The objective of the Food Safety Team is to establish and maintain a food safety team in their industry for development, implementation, monitoring, updating, and discussing FSMS issues and continual improvement of FSMS.
FST formation is an important step in ISO 22000:2018. Namely the very first step in food safety management system formation.
This is where food processing lines are designed based on the objectives of food safety. Also, FST focuses on local body regulations for food safety.
Responsibilities - Explained
Namely, FST is teamwork. As mentioned it consists of members from various departments in a food processing line. Therefore major leads ranging from Human resources up to production supervisors are chosen to be in FST.
Their experience and education, in terms of food safety knowledge, are important. If they don’t have enough experience in the field of food safety, the higher management in the food industry recommends food safety training. This training can be very basic to advanced depending upon the job role they have in the industry.
As well the General Manager is responsible to ensure competent FST is formed and maintained. FSTM is responsible to participate in Food safety meetings and discuss and ensure continual improvement of the system.
Primarily the FTL (Food Safety Team Lead ) is responsible to maintain the team and report to General Manager. Afterwards Team Lead communicates the meeting outcomes to relevant parties and employees. Also responsible for ensuring food safety meetings are carried out at planned intervals.
All employees are responsible to communicate with FLT or FSTM about their food safety concerns and cooperate with FST.
Food safety complaints are managed and resolved by an efficient FST. So rectification involves technical and practical application.
FST
A FOOD SAFETY TEAM manages the day-to-day activity of the Food Safety Management system which the Team leader has to report to the GM.
Duties of FST
- ISO 22000 implementation team member and plays an important role in the FSMS team
- Formulating and updating the food safety manual.
- Implementation of sanitary and hygiene conditions during the production and packing of food products.
- Overall responsibility for initiating corrective action in the event of product non-conformance.
- Checking daily reports for further improvement and taking corrective action if necessary.
- Responsible for implementing & updating FSMS.
- Then and by coordination with third parties like labs, certification, regulatory authorities, etc.
- Responsible for internal verification of day-to-day activities. Food safety officers take charge of the production line.
- Responsible for product quality & safety and for maintaining hygiene conditions. Receiving raw materials till finished goods are in the hands of Food safety team members.
- During operation, they maintain a hygienic atmosphere in the food industry.
- Subsequently, FST conducts internal auditing and invites third-party audits.
- As well as they coordinate production lines with the food safety department.
- Responding to authority inspections and further rectifying non-conformances.
- Lastly, FST is the front liner to handle food safety complaints.
Author: Meera Jacob
A Food Safety Officer and Food Technologist in nature. Auditing and observing food safety systems is a prior interest. Writing and describing my experience is another passion. The food Industry is a diverse area with food safety as its prime focus to flourish. And that makes me more enthusiastic to work on various Non-Conformances and Risk Analysis. Happy Food Safetying to all Food Safety Professionals !!!
