Pro Tip: Here are five tips to help avoid the most common challenges when pursuing a GFSI audit.

Food companies expanding their international reach or working with large retailers must be certified to a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked standard, a certification that has been recognized as a mark of the highest standards in food safety.

Going through the process is not complicated, but it will require commitment at all levels. Here are five tips to help you prepare for a GFSI audit:

  1. Invest in your internal audit plan: Conduct robust and truthful internal audits. Determine the frequency of such audits based on the results of your previous audit or the perceived risk. Train your employees so their reports contain evidence of compliance and details, such as the day on which records were reviewed.
  2. Conduct in-depth site inspections: Most non-conformances are based on site standards; these are easily noticed and rectified. Don’t wait for the auditor to visit to notice something that could have been fixed previously.
  3. Educate your employees: Make sure your personnel are trained in the “what and why” of their duties. Better results are obtained when people understand why things need to be done a certain way. A good example is making sure employees fully understand how the foreign body detection system works and why you have one on site. That will considerably improve the answer provided to the auditor.
  4. Know your products: Make sure you understand what keeps your product safe (pH, temperature control and water activity, for example) and how to protect it from intentional adulteration or substitution. Make sure this information is included in your food safety plan.
  5. Know your vendors: Understand and assess your suppliers. If suppliers are certified, does the scope on the certificate match the items that you are buying? If vendors are approved using a questionnaire, how is that assessed? Remember that their errors can turn into your food recall.

Siarl Siviyer Dixon is a certification manager at AIB International.