Food Safety Task Force Plays an Important Role
Fresh Cut
February 2005
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 pkelly@grimmway.com.
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