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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 Visitor and Contractor Management within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
It is of paramount importance to food safety that visitors and contractors behave and conform appropriately when visiting any food business. Any visitors and contractors on the premises and their actions are the responsibility of the food business management.
Visitors and contractors entering a food manufacturing, processing or handling area should, where appropriate, wear protective clothing and adhere to the other personal hygiene provisions in this section. A policy to this effect should be documented, and a copy provided to each contractor and visitor before entering the site.
It is generally considered standard practice for visitors and contractors to be signed into a food business and identified by an appropriate badge. Visitors may also be required to review documented materials relating to food safety and workplace health and safety before admission to critical areas of operation. Depending on the purpose of the visit, visitors, contractors and internal staff not attired appropriately may be required to wear a hygienic outer covering such as a fresh lab coat or full uniform while visiting food production areas. Food businesses may maintain a log to record information regarding the visitors, contractors with all important details including contact information.
Visitors and contractors should be accompanied by an authorized staff member at all times unless they have conducted appropriate induction training and have passed established medical and security screening protocols.
As elements of established site security protocols, employees of the business should be encouraged through specified training to challenge anyone seen within operational areas of the site if they are not appropriately identified or accompanied by an authorized person.
For higher-risk or larger food businesses, it is common for a Visitor and Contractor induction process to be developed, documented, and implemented to ensure the ongoing compliance of Visitors and Contractors to the food business. This is particularly important where, for example, maintenance contractors are used “long term” and are permitted to work unaccompanied within operational areas of the food business. In this context, it is important to consider that Visitors and Contractors, though they are expected to comply with the standard policies and procedures, may not totally appreciate their legal responsibilities in meeting such requirements.
In instances where, for example, maintenance contractors are used “long term”, it is also common for re-induction to be scheduled, conducted, and recorded to ensure ongoing compliance with the nominated Visitor and Contractor requirements.
It is also common for labor hire companies to conduct relevant training and induction processes on behalf of the company to which they will provide temporary staff. In this case, it is important that a food business using labor supplied through a company responsible for relevant and induction training to verify the outcomes of such activities. This is commonly considered as an element of the approved supplier of service provider programs for labor hire company service providers.
When evaluating the potential food security exposure of any food business, the Senior Management should consider a large variety of people who may potentially execute an attack from both inside and outside the business operation. Potential attacks may include both opportunistic attacks by single individuals and planned attacks by organized groups. The following listing provides some examples of people who may be motivated to adulterate food products from both internal and external sources:
Internal Sources:
External Sources:
Additional threats are often identified through “Internal” sources as perpetrators often have access to food business procedures and protocols that may make their goals more readily achievable. Food businesses should liaise with relevant regulatory authorities regarding potential local threats to their operation.
Procedures and schedules for Training, Competency, and Resources Requirements must be developed, documented, and implemented to ensure personnel, visitors and contractors have the skills and knowledge necessary to maintain required food safety, food quality, and regulatory standards. Training, Competency, and Resources Requirements must be reviewed and verified on an ongoing basis to ensure ongoing positive outcomes.
Personnel engaged in food operations that come directly or indirectly into contact with food should be trained or instructed in food hygiene to a level appropriate to the operations they are to perform. Training is fundamentally important to any food hygiene system. Inadequate hygiene training, and/or instruction and supervision of all people involved in food-related activities pose a potential threat to the safety of food and its suitability for consumption. All personnel should be aware of their role and responsibility in protecting food from contamination or deterioration. Food handlers should have the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them to handle food hygienically. Those who handle strong cleaning chemicals or other potentially hazardous chemicals should be instructed in safe handling techniques.
The nomination of training as a component of a Food Safety Program is to assess the skills and knowledge of participating personnel roles in Food Safety activities. It is not generally the intention of this inclusion to require mandatory training, as it is generally recognized that skills and knowledge may be gained in different ways. Depending on the location and type of business activities, you may be required to display details of officially recognized training pertaining to specified roles within the Food Safety Program. Persons managing or participating in food handling and/or processing operations must possess skills and knowledge in relation to the scope of their workplace activities.
The skill and knowledge requirements for each staff member should correspond directly with the scope of work activities. The skills and knowledge required by a chef are different from those required by a cleaner. Skill and knowledge-based training may be considered in numerous forms, and it must involve food hygiene as well as general food safety concepts.
Food handlers involved in any stage of food production should receive sufficient training in hygienic food handling practices and personal hygiene. Some of the most successful approaches to obtaining task-related skills and knowledge include:
It is the responsibility of management to ensure that all employees are fully aware of food safety and food hygiene practices that are important to their job in the food business.
All staff involved with the handling of food must be trained to recognize and practice good manufacturing practices and safe working procedures at all times. It is generally considered best practice to ensure all new employees complete relevant induction training before actually starting within their new position. As a base level requirement, food and personal hygiene training should be addressed for all relevant staff during the induction process. Supervisory staff may be required to undertake specific and more comprehensive food safety training in the related areas.
Induction training commonly includes the following subjects:
It is also important to consider that Visitors and Contractors may also require induction training commensurate with their interactions within any food business.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Visitor and Contractor Management Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Visitor and Contractor Management Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management within 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 Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management 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 be applicable to Visitor and Contractor Management:
You may wish to visit the Visitor and Contractor Management Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Visitor and Contractor Management 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 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 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 Visitor and Contractor Management related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Visitor and Contractor Management 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 be applicable to the validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Visitor and Contractor Management:
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 Visitor and Contractor Management must be ongoing, including regular scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Visitor and Contractor Management should have knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Visitor and Contractor Management should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Visitor and Contractor Management 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 Visitor and Contractor Management 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.