Managing risk is the key to success

The food industry in South Africa is facing major challenges due to the lockdown – introduced to limit the spread of the coronavirus. NSF, an international, independent public health and safety organisation, is here to help.

The restrictions that most countries, including South Africa, were forced to introduce have severely impacted the food industry. Globally, consumers’ buying patterns have changed and in turn have put strain on the food supply chains to respond to demand. Restaurants and other food service outlets have been negatively affected to the extent that many of these face permanent closure.

South Africa’s food manufacturing industry has obviously faced similar challenges. Production facilities and pack houses have had to focus a lot of attention on changing the way they operate, to ensure social distancing and new working practices to protect the wellbeing of staff.

With South Africa entering its winter period and the rate of infection increasing, this is of particular concern to all sectors and employers within the food and beverage industries.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that COVID-19 is not known to be transmitted by food, it is still of the utmost importance that specific procedures, practices and rules be implemented at food manufacturing facilities to minimise the risk of the virus spreading amongst the staff and contractors at facilities.

New challenges have arisen in the sense that these facilities need to manage food safety in terms of supply chain, absenteeism and the introduction of temporary workers.

Contact NSF Africa technical manager for food manufacturing, Jason Nyman, at jnyman@nsf.org for advice on how to reopen your business safely.

NSF International has for the past 75 years been a global leader in public health and safety, working to protect the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the health care products we use and the environment we all share. The organisation holds more than 75 unique accreditations, licenses and certifications, including ANSI, IAS and UKAS. On the international front, NSF offices are e.g. helping:

• Restaurants, hotels, retail stores, museums and airlines to reopen their operations for business;

• Manufacturers switch their production to medical supplies, including ventilators and hand sanitisers;

• Pharmaceutical and biotechnical companies to develop, and obtain approval for, COVID-19-related medicines and testing devices;

• Food retailers and manufacturers assess COVID-19-related risks to their customers, employees and supply chains; etc.

Assessing how food retailers and manufacturers rate the risks their customers, employees and supply chains are exposed to due to COVID-19 through conducting audits and risk assessments at facilities that are not accessible on account of the virus.

Audits and audit schedules have been significantly affected by COVID-19. The common GFSI audits conducted in South Africa remain the FSSC 22000 V5 and the BRCGS V8. Both of the scheme owners for these standards have allowed for extensions of their certificates to be granted online with the GFSI requirements.

This concession can be offered to any certified site that cannot be accessed due to the pandemic and has met the minimum criteria. The FSSC 22000 criteria for determining if an organisation is qualified for remote risk assessment is dependent on the number of nonconformities raised at the previous audit. The BRCGS criteria outlines that where sites are currently certificated with a grade C or D, these are classified as ‘high risk’ and certificates may not be extended. •