Food Safety Task Force Plays an Important Role

With food safety on virtually everyone’s minds these days, the Food Safety Task Force at Grimmway Farms, Arvin, Calif., is given the serious charge of protecting the quality and integrity of the many millions of pounds of carrots that pass through the company’s processing plants each day. Grimmway products are distributed from New Hampshire to New Zealand—near worldwide.

The company, owned by the Grimm family, markets a variety of carrot products under the Grimmway brand: Baby Carrots, Carrot Chips, Carrot Dippers, Carrot Stixx™ Crinkle Cut Coins, Bunch Carrots, Cello Carrots, Shredded Carrots, Jumbo Carrots and Table Carrots.
Pat Kelly, director of quality assurance and food safety for the multi-million-dollar company, is proud of Grimmway’s high quality food safety program, but especially the way its Food Safety Task Force has stepped up to the plate.
Grimmway is the largest volume carrot producer in the world.

Food Safety Task Force
Numbering around 20 employees, Grimmway’s Food Safety Task Force includes representatives from production, distribution, maintenance, engineering, quality assurance and sanitation—all of those within the company with the resources to take action on food safety issues. They meet each Tuesday at 10 a.m. to prepare for all audits, develop and implement training programs, do root-cause analysis and receive HACCP training.

“We started out with a group of three or four people in our Food Safety Task Force,” Kelly points out. “In the beginning, most were involved in maintenance or the Quality Assurance Department. That has since expanded to around 20 people today, and there is virtually standing room only. Each meeting lasts about an hour.”

Much of the success attributed to the task force is the willingness of all members to work together in a team effort, Kelly says, rather than pitting one department against another. All seem to be on the same wave length, thanks to Cynthia Klein, quality assurance manager, and Eddie Rosson, operations manager.

“Often, when things are brought up during a meeting, someone from maintenance or another department will mention an issue that has not been considered,” he explains. “That adds a whole new perspective, and we end
up with a much better food safety program.”

Third-party Audit Preparations
One major role of the task force is to prepare for upcoming third-party audits. Most take place between February and August. The group reviews all questions on the checklists provided by the various auditing companies to make sure everything possible has been done to be fully prepared.

“Critical questions are asked,” Kelly informs. “Is this in place and, if not, how are we going to get it in place, who is going to do it and when is it going to be done before the audit?”

Grimmway deals with a large number of client-customers who have their own private lists of authorized third-party auditors. Because of that, the company deals with a large list of auditors, all with somewhat different approaches to food safety auditing.

“One may focus 90 percent of its audits on required paperwork, while another will emphasize sanitary issues,” he explains. “Many focus on both, but, without reviewing their respective checklists, it is difficult to adequately prepare.”

From the beginning, Kelly says, Grimmway’s managers have taken the position of looking at third-party auditors as friends, not foes. They are considered helpful resources in promoting a common goal: safe, wholesome food products.

“I have to give our third-party auditing firms a lot of credit because there is the tendency for most of us to get so busy with day-to-day activities that we can’t see the forest for the trees,” he says. “When auditors come in, especially if you have a good attitude toward them up front, they can help you organize a better food safety program. When they suggest that you take a look at a certain part of what you are doing, often times they’ll also suggest a possible solution based on other plants they’ve inspected and what the managers have been doing. They are not at liberty to give out names, but they can, and do, offer very helpful solutions. Third-party auditors can be a tremendous resource.”

In addition to preparing for compliance with all third-party auditing checklists, the Grimmway’s Food Safety Task Force regularly covers all aspects of the company’s food safety program. All representatives are HACCP trained. Food safety systems are reviewed almost weekly and comprehensively reviewed annually. The task force also schedules the weekly food safety plant inspections that are conducted by its respective members.

Also receiving regular attention at task force meetings is updating the process flow diagrams for the respective plant HACCP systems. The group sits down, reviews the process flow charts and makes sure everything is accurate. The task force is also capable of performing a hazard analysis.

Mock Recalls
An added successful part of Grimmway’s food safety readiness is its mock recall program. Several years ago, mock recalls could take many hours. Today, the time has been reduced to just minutes in most cases. Based on one of five different scenarios, the company conducts a mock product recall each day. One day, it may be an announcement that Farmer “X” called to inform the plant that he made a mistake and sprayed the wrong pesticide on a particular field. The product from that field is identified and quickly traced to wherever it was delivered.
Another scenario has a customer calling with a food safety issue with a particular product received. Hearing that, the staff immediately goes to work, identifying all customers who received product from that particular lot.

“Monday through Friday, we walk through these scenarios, and some may ask, ‘why?’” Kelly notes, responding that since everything is conducted electronically and involves reports from multiple departments, it is wise to make sure necessary information is in the system. It is important to verify that all reporting systems that are needed to do a recall are in place.

While product recalls have not been a problem at Grimmway, the company is prepared for immediate action, Kelly says. The system is in place and is tested five days a week.

“Basically, we have one person in charge of doing our mock recalls,” he explains. “She is our Good Agricultural Practices Administrator. She also coordinates the field audits with our growers and field managers as well as coordinating our Quarterly GAP third party audit. She documents everything on a daily basis.” Additional people are trained as backup.

With multiple plants, setting up the trace-back and trace-forward system was no small undertaking, according to the director of quality assurance and food safety. Carrots flow into each location a bit differently. Some arrive in tagged bins, some in trucks with paper work and some with a combination of different tagging systems. The system makes a complex effort look easy. A highly qualified IT department deserves 90 percent of the credit, Kelly says.

Microbiological Database
Grimmway’s food safety staff does all of its microbiological testing in house. The lab manager has a degree in food science. Laboratory personnel are tested several times during the year via the American Proficiency Institute (API). API sends samples with known levels of bacteria. “Our task,” Kelly explains, “is to consistently be within the variance experienced with approximately 60 other laboratories that have tested the same samples.”

“About four years ago, we developed a program (a Microsoft Access database) for the lab based on a hand-held PDA (Palm Pilot),” Kelly adds. “Essentially, everything is entered into the computer via the hand-held computer and is updated onto our network on a regular basis. The information coming out of the lab is as close to real time as you can get. Some of our tests require 24 hours, some 48 hours and others five days for the analysis. Here, all of the information is available the minute the results are entered into the system. When the plates are read in the lab, the information is available for reporting purposes at any manager’s desk.”

Kelly and colleagues also are developing an automated certificate of analysis system, thanks again to their IT department. This is in response to customers requesting that they be able to take advantage of the fact that Grimmway is microbiologically testing all of its finished products. Hopefully this will be a value-added addition.

The goal is to come up with a fully automated system so that as soon as an order is placed by the sales department and product is packed, the company will know exactly what lot numbers are being shipped for the particular order. The program will go into the database and extract the microbiological data that corresponds to the lot numbers for the product involved. A certificate of analysis for that shipment is then automatically generated which can be faxed or e-mailed. Other quality information will be available that can go with the truck.
Grimmway has and is aggressively pursuing food safety programs that offer opportunities for continuous improvement—programs such as the USDA’s Qualified through Verification (QTV) and the Food Marketing Institute’s Safe Quality Food (SQF).

For more information on Grimmway’s food safety program, contact Kelly by phone at (661) 845-6293 or by e-mail at [email protected].

© 2005 Columbia Publishing



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