Avoiding Contamination And Minimizing Food Safety Risk In A Global Supply Chain

By Sam Lewis

It’s no secret that the food industry’s supply chain has expanded to the global level and continues to grow. With that expansion comes confusion and ambiguity regarding how to minimize your risks while continuing to maintain your bottom line. Here, Karen Mills, Director of Quality for High Liner Foods, answers my questions about the food industry’s global supply chain, food safety legislation affecting operations within it, and best practices food manufacturers can adopt to produce safe products while remaining competitive as the food industry’s supply chain continues to grow.

Food Online: How is FSMA affecting the global supply chain? What influence are FSMA’s rules having on it?

Mills: From what we can see, FSMA is working to bring decades of food safety policies and existing systems to a higher level of integrity and robustness globally. We know that the American and Canadian governments are working together to bring both countries’ systems closer in alignment and consistency. With that, the requirements for the global supply chain also fall within those mandates. Food safety must be built into the processes at the supplier level, not inspected in after. We see FSMA and Safe Foods for Canadians hopefully pushing those elements so that they are well established at the origin of product and the strength is already there from inception.

Food Online: What prevention and inspection practices can food manufacturers implement to help minimize risk in their supply chains?

Mills: Many larger and well-established manufacturers have preexisting, robust food safety and quality management systems already. The continuing evolution of food safety needs and programs sees those manufacturers striving for continuous improvement and consistency both for customer assurance needs, as well as brand integrity. Building strength in all programs from suppliers, all the way through to the state of finished goods is an ongoing mandate. Having quality built into  and owned by ALL areas of a business — having it become part of the culture and language — is where we will all see the benefit of full engagement and full ownership. From there, it is less about the specific inspection practices and programs and more about proactive engagement within the existing systems. Risk is minimized by the ownership of the quality and food safety mandates from all areas at all times.

Food Online: Should food manufacturers prepare for food’s global supply chain to become even more interconnected? What can they do adapt to it and embrace it?

Mills: The food industry should fully embrace having the global food supply chain becoming more interconnected. Many food manufacturers currently have internal systems that have the ability to connect directly to ingredient and/or material suppliers for ongoing business relationships, such as updating audits, corrective actions, COA sharing etc. Having the supply chain accessible, and yet interconnected, would allow for potentially more standardized processes, more consistent correspondence, same-time sharing of information, ongoing improvement projects, etc. Based on the experiences of High Liner Foods, it would be strongly recommended that manufacturers build robust and connected relationships with all suppliers within their business base.

About Karen Mills
Karen Mills is Director of Quality Assurance for High Liner Foods Inc. (Canada) and operates out of High Liner's processing facility in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She leads teams that are responsible for internal food safety and compliance, as well as supplier/ vendor import and regulatory compliance. She and her team members work corporately with other High Liner facilities based in the U.S.

Karen received her B.S. in Animal Science from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, Nova Scotia.