Food safety is linked to factors like quality of raw materials used, efficiency of the process and the hygienic status of the manufacturing facilities. While most of the organized sector players take adequate precaution to ensure food safety, there can be slips occasionally due to inadvertent causes or negligence. Inspection of processing facilities regularly by enforcement authorities can bring out deficiencies not noticed by the processor. Of course there is no guarantee that such government inspections can be 100% trust worthy as has been shown in the salmonella contamination last year in peanut products in the US, in spite of inspections by the safety personnel who failed to note any thing amiss. The proposal in Australia to involve third party auditors for inspection of some of the food handling facilities may be inevitable considering the enormity of the job.
The new PPP model unveiled recently calls for selecting independent technical auditors who will be deployed only for inspection of facilities having a good track record in hygiene and sanitation. "A new Government scheme to allow independent experts to review food safety management systems will cut red tape and costs for food businesses while maintaining food safety standards. Suitably qualified, skilled and accredited independent auditors can now apply to the Food Authority for registration as eligible third-party auditors. The Authority's Director of Industry Liaison, Mr Peter Sutherland, says the new arrangement from October will initially apply for mandatory audits of hospitals, aged care facilities and delivered-meals organizations". The mandatory requirement for these auditors to report within 24 hours any violations ensures quickly addressing the problem.
The above scheme needs to be introduced for the entire food processing sector and if implemented it will lead to establishment of many independent consulting auditors with right qualification and experience. The current practice of going for ISO label or HACCP protocol does not ensure proper evaluation of the facilities and in India at least these independent auditors have some what low credibility as far as consumers are concerned. Besides these are voluntary schemes involving payment of fees to the organizations administering them where as a linkage with safety enforcement authorities will provide teeth for the government blessed third party auditors as being introduced in Australia..
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