The cost of food safety for smallgoods manufacturers

Have you ever wondered what the cost of food safety really is? In the beginning it’s not always easy to see all the costs associated with auxiliary activities that belong to maintaining high levels of food safety at your premises and comply with relevant legislation. An insight into the requirements is a useful way to plan for additional expenditures that a smallgoods manufacturer will face if they decide to go down that road.

Certification

All smallgoods manufacturers must register their business with their local enforcement authority. Manufacturing of ready-to-eat foods such as salami, polony, cured or dried meat products is considered a high-risk activity in regards to food safety and requires a different type of license than a regular butcher’s shop. If your business is registered as a low risk butcher shop, you will need to apply for a new license with your local enforcement authority. The application fee for the high risk business is usually higher than low risk business application fee.

Development and implementation of Food Safety Management Systems

The development and implementation of a Food Safety Management System is a part of the approval process with your local enforcement authority. Under Food Standard 4.2.3 cl 4 you are obliged to demonstrate and document your compliance with food safety legislation. Development of such plan is a complicated and lengthy process which starts with establishing Good Manufacturing Practices – such as training, cleaning and sanitation, staff hygiene etc. HACCP plan – a detailed description of the processes, evaluation of the hazards and establishment of critical points, follows. This is a complex process that requires a professional advice as any mistakes can have serious and very expensive consequences. If you don’t have an experienced food safety specialist at your disposal, it is a very good idea to engage services of an independent consultant. However, a development of Food Safety Management System for your production is only a start.

Microbiological testing

A part of your Food Safety Management System will be a verification schedule and part of the verification schedule will be microbiological testing of your products and your surfaces. There are different requirements depending on the type of products that you produce, but as an example you will need to conduct listeria monocytogenes environmental and product testing. You can group products from the same production line (products that have the same post cooking process) in one sample, but still, this will be a huge cost, especially in the beginning. And that is if nothing goes wrong. If any of the samples test positive, there are steps that you need to take according to your Food Safety Management System (which may involve the product recall) and usually the frequency of the testing will need to increase. Microbiological testing will form a considerable part of your ongoing expenses. If I sum it up, it’s cheaper to have a strong Food Safety Management System, trained staff and set processes that don’t change, than risk the cost associated with positive microbiological test.

Shelf life determination and ongoing verification of the shelf life.

In the beginning of production of products with long shelf life, such as vacuum packed products, dried meats, fermented products you will need to verify the shelf life that you propose for those products. You can use similar products to yours as a guideline in establishing the end of shelf life however you are not able to use it before you verify that your products will last that long. This usually involves microbiological testing for the pathogens that are most likely to be present in the products that you process at your premises at different times and different temperatures (mild temperature abuse is necessary to vouch for occasions when a customer doesn’t store your product at or below 5 °C).

Equipment

You will need to invest in number of equipment from thermometers, that are going to be used only for ready-to-eat products to water content meters. Not everything is a must if you can find another way to verify. For example, your environmental swabs can be made by a consultant (such as Absolute Food Safety) to spare you from purchasing expensive incubator and swabs, their storage and maintenance or laboratory fees for the same testing.

Cleaning

Clean and sanitised premises are a non-negotiable in any food processing environment. You will need to invest in appropriate detergent and sanitiser. Generally, your chemical provider will be able to advise you on the best detergent, as they will need to take into account number of variables such as amount of fatty food and hardness of your water. There are number of options in regards to sanitisers as well. Widely use are quaternary ammonium compounds, which can be used as a no-rinse sanitiser in correct concentrations. Many butcher shops also use bleach. When procuring chemicals, you will need to take into account all the equipment and surfaces that you need to clean. The other part of the cost of cleaning is a cost of labour as you will need to allocate time to clean and sanitise the equipment. Generally, labour is more expensive than chemicals, so investing in good cleaning chemicals and equipment will reduce the cost of labour.

Training

Even the best Food Safety Management System will not work, if there are staff that are not trained in how to use it. You will need to ensure, that all your staff have a good knowledge of the procedures contained in Food Safety Management System and you can achieve it usually through training. To save some costs, you can do an in-house training yourself. You can ask a consultant to prepare an in-house training that you can deliver yourself or you can invite a trainer to train your staff. Whatever methods you choose, don’t forget to maintain strong documentation.

Printing

The Food Safety Management System is usually a large document containing a lot of information on all aspects of your production. Your Food Safety Management System will need to be updated at least annually, but this can be more frequent especially in the beginning. There is also a considerable number of forms that you will have to fill out on daily basis and print often. Printing might be the least of your worry, but it will certainly cost additional money.

There might be other costs connected with development and implementation of your Food Safety Management System, these are just few major ones. The cost will depend on your particular production, amount of products, premises, type of production etc. etc. The decision to manufacture Ready-To-Eat food can be a major turn around for your business. If you plan for it, logistically, legally and financially, you will enjoy the fruit of your hard work for years to come.