Why is it necessary to monitor your food safety program?

• To meet legal food safety requirements
  
  
• Identify & correct non-compliance
  Correct non-compliances during the year rather than all at once during the annual re-certification process. A continuous monitoring procedure decrease the chances of discovering major areas of non- compliance during the re-certification process thus decreasing the overall time and cost and increasing the likelihood of re-certification
  
  
• Critical to maintaining HACCP, or GMP certification
  
  
• A continuous monitoring procedure is a critical part of maintaining HACCP, ISO or GMP Certification
  It is not sufficient for a food provider to obtain certification or keep policies, practices and procedures on site. Food provider must also have and follow a procedure for continuously monitoring whether or not the facility operates according to the policies, practices and procedures specified in the program.
  
  
• Creating a due diligence defense
  A continuous monitoring procedure demonstrates that a food provider takes all reasonable steps to ensure that its food safety assurance policies, practices and procedures are consistently applied in its food production facility.
  
  
• Facilitates future certification
  Re-certification is less likely to reveal major or ongoing areas of non- compliance. Correcting many or major non-compliances all at once during the re-certification process is more disruptive to operations, requires a greater investment of time and resources, delays re-certification and jeopardizes the facility’s rating.
  
  
• Used as an education tool for employees
  Continuous monitoring sets an example for personnel by demonstration that it is important to the food provider that the facility operates according to the food safety assurance program. It reinforces knowledge of the food safety program by personnel and reminds personnel that they are responsible for knowing, understanding and applying the policies, practices and procedures related to their job description. Reminds personnel that management is watching thus deterring non-compliance
  
  
• To meet Customer expectations of good quality safe foods