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This information can be used to develop food safety and quality programs that meet the requirements of modern Regulatory, Customer and Industry Standards:
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Contract Review within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
Contract review is a systemic requirement that promotes and nurtures supplier and customer relationships. For legal reasons, and for the transparency of customer expectations, contracts should be developed, documented, implemented, and reviewed on an ongoing basis between suppliers and customers. Contract review processes are often closely linked to customer focus-related systemic elements.
It is also important to consider that Contract Review requirements may not just apply to customers; they can be reversed and applied with similar methods for suppliers of materials or services.
The following process outlines a common logical sequence of steps within a Contract Review Process based upon a scenario in which a new or pre-existing customer relationship includes Contract Review elements:
It is important within any Customer Review activity to ensure the requirements and expectations of any prospective or existing customer are fully understood. This element of the Contract Review process requires clear and open communication channels between the food business and their customer.
Customer requirements and expectations commonly include provisions for:
Once your food business clearly and fully understands customer requirements and expectations, a defined and documented contract for a current or proposed product or service will generally be formatted. This format must be inclusive of ‘understood’ and ‘accepted’ customer requirements and expectations, which are presented in alignment with the services or products to be supplied through the contract. It is important to consider that a documented contract format is legally binding, so it is not uncommon for qualified legal representatives to be involved in the process.
Once the documented contract is available for review, it is generally reviewed by all associated parties. This review is conducted to ensure both the customer requirements and expectations are declared, and that your business is capable of supplying the proposed products or services to the required standards.
It is important at this step to ensure that differences between the customer requirements and expectations are resolved with a mutually agreeable acknowledgment from all involved parties. Where issues are identified, the contract format should be re-worked and re-validated to ensure appropriate outcomes.
Once the Contract Review step is completed and all parties are comfortable with the content and implementation of the ‘contract’, it is commonly signed by an authorized representative of all involved parties. It is once again important to consider that all documented contract formats are legally binding, so it is not uncommon for qualified legal representatives to be involved in the process.
It is generally accepted that the full content of ‘contracts’ are confidential, so they are commonly retained securely for legal compliance. In this context, it is always important to ensure that relevant team members have access to ‘contract’ information relevant to their positional roles. The management review process is commonly used as a tool to ensure key team members are aware of relevant ‘contract’ content.
The frequency at which a Contract Review activity is scheduled and conducted is commonly dictated by the timeframes nominated within the contract itself. Food businesses commonly have contracts linked to the supply of products which may be seasonal or through a ‘tender’ arrangement.
In most cases, it is recommended that contracts are reviewed at a schedule that allows for a new or renewal contract to be signed before any supply of products or services is included in such contracts, unless such arrangements are within a defined and agreed ‘trial’ period. This provides the strongest legal protection for all parties involved with the supply of products or services.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Development requirements in relation to their items.
Document: A document provides guidance and/or direction for performing work, making decisions, or rendering judgments that affect the safety or quality of the products or services that customers receive.
Documented policies, procedures, work instructions, and schedules form the basis of any food safety and quality management system. The following documentation formats may be considered to ensure ongoing compliance with specified requirements for Contract Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Contract Review Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Contract Review documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Implementation: Implementation is the application of documented food safety and quality system elements into the actual business operation.
The implementation of Contract Review within any food business requires genuine commitment from senior management, staff, and visitors to ensure the nominated goals of implementation are achievable on an ongoing basis. It is a step that requires significant planning and consideration of general and specific food business circumstances to ensure that the outcomes of the Contract Review do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Contract Review must include a clear definition of responsibilities and authorities for all levels of participation by senior management, staff, and visitors to the site.
When implementing a Contract Review within the food safety and quality system, you may wish to consider the following requirements before completion:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Implementation requirements in relation to their items.
Monitoring: Monitoring is the act of reviewing and confirming measurable parameters of a defined process or product status.
Monitoring requirements within food industry sectors are generally identified against limits of acceptability defined within HACCP plans, implementation procedures, and work instructions. Monitoring usually includes some element of record-keeping, which may be maintained manually or through digital systems. It is important to consider that advancements in technology have spawned many systems and processes which are self-monitored and or self-adjusted when variances are identified. Regardless of the system used; the goal of any monitoring activity is to provide sufficient evidence that any limit of acceptability has been met.
Traditional Contract Review monitoring requirements include manual recording and the application of corrective actions when the results of monitoring are found to be outside acceptable limits. Corrective Actions should also generally be strongly linked to the monitoring process where applied to ensure full traceability of the applied actions.
Common monitoring activities and record formats may apply to Contract Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Monitoring requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Contract Review Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Contract Review documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Corrective Action: Corrective action is mandatory action to be taken when a deviation to the Quality System occurs, particularly in relation to a Critical Control Point.
Preventative Action: At any step in the process where a hazard has been identified, preventative action must be put into place to prevent re-occurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action are implemented to ensure that any identified non-conformance issues are documented, investigated, and rectified within appropriate time frames. Corrective action is any action applied to regain control over a product, process, policy, or procedure that has been identified as being non-conforming or outside nominated limits of acceptability. Preventative action is any action applied to prevent any identified non-conformance from reoccurring.
The outcomes of corrective and preventative actions should result in regained process control after effective application. Specified corrective actions are commonly linked to the HACCP Plans and the food business certification process.
Below are Corrective Action and Preventative Action examples which may be associated with Contract Review related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Corrective Action requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Corrective Action and Preventative Action section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Verification: The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Verification is the detailed review of all food safety and quality system elements to confirm that they are effectively developed, documented, implemented, monitored, and reviewed. All food safety and quality system elements, including documented policies, procedures, training, HACCP plans, and their operational applications must be verified on an ongoing scheduled basis. The verification process commonly includes a defined schedule for which verification activities are required, how often they are conducted, who is responsible, and detailed documented procedures for each nominated verification activity.
The general goal of an established verification process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
The following examples of verification activities may be applicable to Contract Review: – Review of the Contract Review policy;
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Verification requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Verification Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Validation: The process of gathering evidence to provide a scientific basis for the documented act of demonstrating that a procedure, process, and activity will consistently lead to the expected results. It often includes the qualification of systems and equipment.
Validation is the provision of evidence to support the limits of control or acceptability for food safety or quality parameters nominated within systemic elements. Limits of control or acceptability are commonly included within documented food safety and quality systems elements such as procedures, HACCP plans, and specifications.
Common sources of validation include regulatory and legislative standards, finished product specifications and customer requirements, industry codes of practice and guidelines, verified and validated research, historical product, and process control outcomes, and analytical testing.
The general goal of an established validation process is to ensure any inappropriate limits of control or acceptability are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the validation process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
Validation activities are commonly defined within the verification schedules and procedures of established food safety and quality management systems.
The following examples may apply to validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Contract Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Validation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Validation Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Skills and Knowledge: Skills and knowledge are attributes of human interactions commonly linked to competency within any specific job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Contract Review must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Contract Review should have knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Contract Review should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Contract Review should have access to resources including:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Contract Review Training, Competency, and Resources requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Training, Competency, and Resources section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
haccp.com was created to support food businesses and food industry professionals in achieving and maintaining the stringent requirements of food industry compliance.