Da Vinci Foods achieves SQF Certification
Big congratulations to our valued customer, Da Vinci Foods, which successfully achieved certification to the SQF Code Version 7, Level 3 with only two minors recorded! The result represents a tremendous achievement for the guys at Da Vinci Foods. We are delighted at the role played by our software solution in achieving this result.
It will come as no surprise to anyone responsible for food safety that the certification audit represents one of the most stressful events in the calendar year and even with significant effort and attention the outcome can be uncertain. This is due to the changing landscape of food safety management within a food processing plant. The days of minimum regulatory compliance have long passed to be replaced by a more complex compliance framework including legal, regulatory, commercial and global standards. The food safety system must now meet the needs of various and sometimes disparate stakeholders. For example Da Vinci Foods (like many food plants in Australia) need to meet the needs of Coles Stores, IGA (Independent Grocers of Australia), Food Standards Code Australia & NZ (FSANZ), SQF and Food Act Vic 1984. While they all require a food business to have in place a food safety system they can vary in their focus, purpose and methodology. Da Vinci Foods also set for itself internal objectives regarding the amount of paperwork, access to information, ensuring currency of documents, control of monitoring activities and reporting.
We can see that the modern food safety management system is more than simply a system of generating and collecting records. It is now a core management process required to support internal management functions, support strategic business objectives, meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate a company’s commitment to its customers.
Today, a food safety system is complex in nature – which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is when our efforts to meet these requirements result in a system which is complicated that our difficulties emerge. Our brains can easily cope with complex systems once they are structured and logical. When poorly designed and complicated they become impossible to manage and non-conformances become inherent in their operation. It was with this insight that Da Vinci Foods selected Safefood 360 as their platform to implement, record and manage their food safety system. Working with the guys we were able to put in place a robust and sophisticated system capable of addressing both their internal and external needs without the intrinsically complicated solution typical with traditional manual paper systems. In the process we were able to streamline the system making it easy to maintain – a core requirement for Da Vinci Foods management. The solution also provided constant monitoring in real time and allowed more time for management to manage their business.
For me it was a pleasure to work with the guys at Da Vinci Foods; provide them with a product that meets industry requirements, is easy to use and leaves them with a tool to continually improve their system. In short we were able to work together to make something that is normally complicated – robust and simple to use.
Leonardo Da Vinci, the great renaissance artist and inventor once said;
When it came to designing Safefood 360 we had this as a guiding principle. Simple, intuitive but ultimately a sophisticated tool for meeting the often complex needs of a food safety system.
Once again congrats to the guys at Da Vinci Foods – well done! We look forward to our continued partnership and to introducing you to our exciting new product developments in the coming months.
