Food Quality Magazine July 2016 | Page 27

ISSUE 03 | JULY 2016
Food Quality Magazine

Senior Management Responsibility in the IFS Food Standard

Miroslav Šuška , QUALIFOOD s . r . o .
This article is part of book IFS Food - How to Succesfully Pass the Audit ( see advert on previous page ) andspecifies requirements of IFS Food standard version 6 , with comments on their applicability and selected typical non-conformities and deviations found by real audits performed in the recent years across Europe . The wording of the nonconformities and deviations found , have been adapted to ensure anonymity of the organisations , their employees , suppliers and customers .
4.1 Senior Management Responsibility
4.1.1 Corporate Policy / Corporate Principles
The approach of senior management is key for activities of every organisation . Senior management must define the basic principles and values of the organisation and motivate the employees in an appropriate manner to observe them . This concerns not only the quality and food safety management systems but also all other activities of the organisation .
The authors of standards such as IFS are aware of this and in Part 1 Senior Management Responsibility define the basic rules observed by the management of every organisation .
Senior management expresses these principles and values in the corporate policy . The policy may be called either „ Quality Policy “, or „ Quality and Food Safety Policy “, or simply „ Policy of XY Company “. The text of the standard shows , it includes not only requirements for quality and food safety but also a number of other areas such as environmental responsibility , sustainability ( related to the environment , in some cases even to use of natural resources - for example in the area of fishing ), ethics and responsibility towards employees .
IFS standard is used worldwide , i . e . also in regions where child work , slave work , unequal treatment of ethnic groups , unlawful hunting or fishing are issues . Including requirements for ethics and sustainability is therefore a reaction to implementation of these areas in policies of internationally operated retailers and food manufacturers who are introducing these principles across their supply chain . In addition , some of them require specific certification from their suppliers according to the standards for social accountability , most often according to the Sedex ( Supplier Ethical Data Exchange ) SMETA standard .
Under European conditions the area of ethical approach to employees is usually regulated by the Labour Code . The part concerning ethics and responsibility towards employees may be moderated in the policy in accordance with the relevant legislation , or ethic code of the organisation , if it exists . It is further recommended to focus on continuous development of employees .
Part of the policy concerning the environment and sustainability largely depends on the nature of business activity of the organisation . If the organisation consumes large amounts of energy , generates large volumes of waste etc . then to focus on optimisation of energy consumption and waste generation . Possibly including the options of reusing waste , sorting and finding its suitable use . Fish processors may prefer suppliers meeting sustainability requirements by fishing in areas where permitted , in a permitted manner , or who are directly certified according to the certification scheme MSC ( Marine Stewardship Council ) focused on sustainable fishing .
The policy should be documented , signed by the senior management of the organisation ( sometimes the signatures of the senior management are replaced by the signature of the quality manager only , which does not leave the right impression to the employees about intentions of the company management ) and communicated to the personnel . This is mostly implemented in the form of a training ( including orientation training for new employees ) and displaying the policy in a suitable place accessible to all employees ( entrance to the plant , rest room , canteen etc .).
Develop the policy into corresponding objectives further defined for each individual department of the organisation . This does not mean a single objective for each department , but objectives that are specific and have departments or persons responsible for their completion . The most frequent drawbacks include unclear objectives , such as „ Improvement of hygiene in production “. This does not specify whether the objective concerns construction activities , change of the sanitation plan , or other measures and whether the responsible department should be the technical department , the production department or the quality department . Another frequent issue is measurability of the objectives . For example the above example of the insufficiently specific objective is not measurable . To ensure measurability , be clear whether at the end of the given period for which the objective has been defined the objective is fully or partially met or not met at all . A measurable version of the abovementioned sample objective would be for example : „ Improvement of production environment by repair of floor in production hall A by 30 September 2013 “.
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