2015年1月21日星期三

HKSQ Seminar on Assuring Food Quality and Safety in the UK Food Industry

The seminar entitled "Assuring Food Quality and Safety in the UK Food Industry" was organized by Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and co-organizer by America Society for Quality (ASQ) – Hong Kong and Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on 20th Jan 2015. The seminar aimed to share an expert’s practical experience of working with prestigious food brands in the United Kingdom and ensuring food safety compliance of the highest order.

In the beginning, Dr. Albert Tsang (Former Chairman, HKSQ) introduced our guest speaker Mr. Resh Plaha background. She is member of UK Institute of Food Science & Technology, Panel member of CQI for ISO 9001:2015, IRCA Lead Auditor and panel member of Advisory Board, member of Institute of Directors, UK and Guest Lecturer in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Loughborough University, UK.


Mr. Resh Plaha (Director, Crystal Quality) was our guest speaker and her topics included “Food Industry Career Background”, “UK Food & Drinks Manufacturing Sector”, “UK & European Food Scares”, “Key General UK Food Legislation”, “Key Food Quality Schemes”, “Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)”, “BRC Global Standard for Food Safety”, etc.


She told us the Food & Drinks Manufacturing was the largest single manufacturing sector up to 18.3% of turnover in UK. (Turnover was ₤95 billion!) And employed 400,000+ people which was over 17% of total manufacturing employees. Therefore, Food Standard Agency was formed as UK Regulatory Body to ensure food quality and safety. The following table showed difference key events about the problem of food in UK & European. Key General UK Food Law established included The Food Safety Act 1990, The General Food Law Regulation (EC) no. 178/2002, The General Food Regulation 2004, and Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006, etc.


Then Mr. Resh Plaha showed us some key UK Food Quality Schemes to assure food standards through food label logo included Red Tractor, LEAF scheme, FSA, Food Hygiene Rating, British Lion Eggs, etc.



After that she briefed some key UK Food Safety Standards included BRC-British Retail Consortium global standard (v7 on Jan 2015), HACCP-Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (Regulation (EC) No: 852/2004) and BS EN ISO 22000:2005 – Food Safety Management System (which bridge gap between ISO 9001 and HACCP). Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) was managed by Consumer Goods Forum to be benchmarking body for harmonization international food safety standards and aimed to “Once certified, accepted anywhere”.


Lastly, she stated 7 key items under BRC Global Standard for Food Safety.
1. Senior Management Commitment
- Implementing the standards and engender culture of continual improvement; they needs to set strategic objectives and involved in management review.
2. Food Safety Plan – HACCP
- Risk management system to identify and prevent food related hazards included Microbiological, Physical, Chemical and Allergen; as well as developed on Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs)
3. Food Safety & Quality Management System
- Included all QMS requirement especially on outsourced processing & Packing control
4. Site Standards
- It concerned local environment, external maintenance, site security, plant layout and buiding fabric, staff facilities, product contamination, housekeeping & Hygiene and waste disposal, as well as, pest control, etc.
5. Product Control
- It included product authenticity, new product development, labelling, management of allergen, testing (using accredited lab) and product release.
6. Process Control
- It involved control of operations, production line checks, equipment calibration, etc.
7. Personnel
- Training was important element which included personnel hygiene (Medical screening & Protective Clothing).


At the end, she concluded all high standards requirements aimed to ensure finished product “Integrity”, “Quality”, “Safety” and “Legality”.

Q&A Session:
I asked two questions about PRPs and Food Hygiene 7S (in Japan). Ms. Resh Plaha said PRPs were concerned many things included GMP, GHP, GDP, GTP and GAP. Moreover, 7S was good habit for checking things in daily based. Dr. Albert Tsang asked what was the most challenge to implement such standards. Ms. Resh Plaha replied to maintain very clear room for fresh cream production.


Before end of the seminar, Mr. Karson (Former Chairman, HKSQ) presented a souvenir to Ms. Resh Plaha.


We took a group photo for memory.
(Left: Mr. Victor Chan (HKSQ member), I, Prof. Chris J. Backhouse (Loughborough University), Dr. Albert Tsang, Ms. Resh Plaha, Ms. Minda Chiang (Hon. Secretary, HKSQ) and Mr. Karson Chui.)


We had dinner together and shared our experience on different topics in that night.


Reference:
HKSQ - www.hksq.org
Crystal Quality - http://www.crystalquality.co.uk/

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