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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 Management Review within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
The management team of any food business should take responsibility for the review of the implemented food safety and quality systems. The management review process should be undertaken at regularly scheduled intervals at least annually and should include systemic elements such as internal and external audits, previous management review meeting outcomes, customer focus, customer complaints, incidents, corrective actions, non-conformance, process performance, process deviation, HACCP system review, scientific or industry updates relevant to the scope of the business operation, resource requirements, allergens, and commercial issues. The Management Review processes within leading food
businesses are strongly linked to the Continuous Improvement Process.
As a component of the verification and continuous improvement requirements for a quality management system, the Senior Management of food businesses should complete a review of the food safety and quality management system, including activities such as internal audits, corrective actions, customer complaints, verification activities, policy objectives, and risk management.
The goals of the Management Review activities should meet the following requirements:
Management Review Meetings are designed to ensure that all quality-related functions are reviewed at the highest possible level so that all levels of management affecting quality are made aware of changes, updates, revisions, verification activities, and policies. This review should be undertaken at a schedule that reflects the risk level of the business. Management review activities should be conducted at least annually, but are commonly conducted either 3 monthly or 6 monthly, dependent on risk. Records of the reviews should be available; these commonly take the form of Management Review Meeting Minutes.
The content of such Management Review meeting minutes should contain an accurate account of the management review, including where
applicable:
Continuous improvement is all about developing and maintaining systems through which the business can always improve. The term continuous improvement refers to an ongoing need to improve the effectiveness of a management system. The effectiveness of any food safety or food quality system can be continually improved through the use of communications, management reviews, internal audits, corrective actions, system updates, verification, and validation activities.
Continuous Improvement is more of a philosophy than a process or system. It requires everyone in the food business, from senior management through to operational team members to adopt a mindset of continuously looking for ways to improve processes and systems by making them efficient and effective. In most contemporary food businesses, continuous improvement usually takes the form of process improvement activities or projects. A process improvement activity or project is a planned and structured activity to improve a process so that one or more of its outcomes are replaced by a more efficient or effective outcome.
Continuous Improvement relies on the following attributes to ensure success in the intended scope and purpose of the application:
The benefits of continuous improvement include market leadership through managing and applying a commitment to continually improving business performance, ability to ensure customer requirements are met, and customer expectations are exceeded through flexibility and quick reaction to customer demand, consistency in the business approach to improving operational capabilities, increased participation from people through training in the tools and methods of continual improvement, the ability to measure continuous improvement through the establishment of goals and targets, and through the acknowledgment of improvement activities.
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Internal Auditing within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
Internal audits are scheduled, conducted, and recorded to ensure a food business has the stimulus to maintain its food safety and quality programs. Internal audits should be scheduled to include all elements of the food safety and quality systems and should be conducted by competent internal auditors at a frequency relevant to the risk of the processes and products involved. Outcomes of the internal auditing process should be communicated to senior management and should include a formalized corrective action process for any identified non-conformance.
The Internal Auditing processes within leading food businesses are strongly linked to the Continuous Improvement Process.
Quality Management systems are much more than a mechanism to meet customer expectations; they are a component of what is now considered Best Practice for any food business. ISO is the international organization responsible for formatting, reviewing, and maintaining industry quality standards, including some related to food safety and quality. The organization is usually referred to simply as ISO. It is a common misconception that ISO is an acronym for International Standards Organization. ISO originates from the Greek word isos, meaning equal. The organization’s English name is International Organization for standardization, while the French name is Organization Internationale de normalization. These
initials would result in different acronyms in different languages; IOS in English and French OIN. The founders of the organization, therefore,
chose ISO as the universal short form of its name, which in itself reflects the aim of the organization; to equalize or standardize across cultures.
The Quality Management Systems processes within leading food businesses are strongly linked to the Continuous Improvement Process.
Quality Management Systems are based on the following principles, which are the foundation of the ISO Quality standards:
Risk Management principles can be applied throughout all sectors of all food industries and throughout all business systems, including food safety, food quality, workplace health and safety, finance, and operational management.
Risks are an unavoidable component of any business operation; Risk-taking is essential to progression and success, and failure is often a key part of learning. Although some risks are inevitable, this does not mean that attempting to recognize and manage risk will harm opportunities for creativity. It is important to keep in mind that risks are generally known by management, but are often poorly communicated. Usually, communicating risks down the chain of command is easy, but communicating risks up the chain of command is difficult. The risk management process is ongoing, and requires constant analysis, as agenda elements need to be decided, implemented, and managed.
Risk management processes are best managed by multidisciplinary teams. When risk management teams use proactive risk management, the
continuous assessment creates data and information that can then be used for decision-making in all phases of the scope of the risk management
activity. The team must ensure that risks are identified, managed, and resolved in a manner that is facilitative of continuous improvement for the
business involved.
Contemporary risk management processes are inclusive of the following 5 elements:
Risk identification is the first step in the proactive risk management process. Risks must be identified before they can be managed. Risk identification provides the risk management team with opportunities, stimuli, and information that allow them to surface major risks before they have an impact upon the business. This risk identification step involves adequate and appropriate communication between team members and stakeholders to be successful. It is a powerful way to expose assumptions and differing viewpoints between all parties involved in the risk
management process.
Risk analysis is the conversion of risk data into risk decision-making information. Thorough risk analysis ensures that the risk management team
is managing appropriate risks. During this step the risk management can use a system that identifies the following:
Risk action planning is the third step in the risk management process; it turns risk information into decisions and actions. Planning involves developing actions to address individual risks, prioritizing risk actions, and creating an integrated risk management plan, which may contain the following:
Risk tracking is the fourth step in the risk management process. This step is where the risk management team monitors the status of risks and the actions it has taken to observe and control them. Risk tracking is essential to effective risk action plan implementation. This means defining the risk measures and triggering events needed to ensure that the planned risk actions are working. Tracking is the observation function of the risk action plan. Risk reviews are a recommended item to include in each program review.
Risk control is the final step in the proactive risk management process before proceeding back onto the risk analysis step. After the risk management team has chosen the risk measures and the triggering events, there is nothing defined about the risk management process; it simply becomes a component of the business management process. Risk control is intended to manage the risk action plans, correct for variations from the risk action plans, respond to triggering events, and improve the general risk management process.
When facilitating any type of Management Review Activity, it is important to ensure that Food Compliance Culture is considered as an improvement opportunity! This is important because Management Review Activities are a top-level review of the Food Safety and Quality Program, and identified program deficiencies often point towards an opportunity to improve the implementation and management of a strong Food Compliance Culture.
Outcomes of Management Review Activities can be used to improve Food Compliance Culture outcomes by:
As with many different contemporary business management systems, the promotion of independence of Management Review Participants can provide significantly enhanced outcomes.
What does this mean? It can be as simple as ensuring Management Review Participants are not solely responsible for reviewing elements of the Food Safety and Quality Program for which they hold ultimate responsibility!
The Independence of Management Review Participants can be supported by:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management 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 Management Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management Review Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Management Review Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Management 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 Management 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 the outcomes of Management Review do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Management 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 Management 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 Management 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 Management 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 Management Commitment:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management Review Monitoring requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Management Review Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Management 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 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 reoccurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action is 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 Management Review related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management 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 apply to Management Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management 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 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.
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 the validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Management Review:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Management 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 specified job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Management Review must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Management Review should have knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Management Review should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Management 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 Management 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.