Completed Food Safety Management System Weekly Internal Audit Checklist

Completed food safety management system weekly internal audit checklists demonstrate to auditors that your business has an effective monitoring system in place and prepare for unannounced external inspections.

An effective Food Safety Management System audit checklist enumerates questions relevant to each area being audited, while still remaining concise and readable.

1. Observation

Food businesses must uphold industry standards and comply with law to protect public health. Therefore, regular audits to monitor compliance may also help ensure standards are being upheld.

This includes everything from maintaining clean and sanitary facilities to providing enough room for employees to move freely around. This also covers handwashing facilities as well as having enough hot water available for cleaning equipment, along with having an effective waste management system in place.

An external audit should be approached with preparation. Communicating to your team the nature of an external audit through regular in-house meetings can help reinforce its importance while making sure everyone can answer any inquiries from an auditor when asked questions about them.

2. Recording

Audits are time-consuming tasks that take both effort and concentration to complete successfully. To aid this process, many food businesses utilize audit checklists as a useful way of quickly identifying urgent matters and tracking progress – these tools make the auditing process simpler, while helping ensure greater focus on food safety compliance matters.

Food businesses must demonstrate they use information gleaned from identified issues to prevent their recurrence, such as product recalls, complaints, internal audits, product testing or second and third-party audits.

An effective food safety management system includes having all of the appropriate documentation – monitoring forms, audit checklists, verification documents – in place as well as having an efficient waste management system and employee hygiene practices that meet regulations. Auditors use these elements to assess your operations and decide if an on-site verification is required.

3. Analysis

Once your food safety management system is established, it’s essential to evaluate its effectiveness through reviewing monitoring forms, checklists, verification documents and progress reports to see how well your system is operating.

Analysis can also serve to gauge your readiness to address breaches in standards through preventive and corrective actions, including internal audits, complaints, product recalls and third-party audits. This evaluation process also considers your preparedness in responding to issues identified during internal audits, complaints and product recalls; as well as any second or third party audits conducted on your business.

Utilizing an FSMS is essential for food businesses looking to maintain high standards and comply with regulatory authorities. A good FSMS should include essential components of quality management systems such as a documented food safety plan, training and awareness programs and an effective traceability and recall system – our smart FSMS also allows users to track monitoring logs and verification documents via an intuitive Traceability System!

4. Corrective Action

As soon as a food safety issue is identified during inspection, appropriate corrective action must be taken. This may involve deciding if a non-compliant product can be reworked, reconstitute or disposed of safely – in all instances validating methods must be in place prior to any corrective measures being implemented.

Corrective actions may include simple measures like recalibrating equipment to more complex ones like changing procedures.

A corrective action plan (CAP) is an integral element of HACCP plans and should address any potential food safety incidents swiftly and efficiently, thus protecting consumers. Each CCP should have its own specific CAP with detailed actions taken if a problem arises; as well as being reviewed periodically to make sure everything runs as expected; finally it should be signed off by their food safety manager as evidence that it’s effective.