No substitution for experience

Hello all.   I am relatively new to this site and do enjoy reading the comments and questions in the forum section.  It demonstrates the levels of understanding, misunderstanding and outright confusion out there with regards to the myriad of rules and regulations.   I feel right at home.

Next week begins my 35th year in the food production industry with the last 25 of those years being hands on with HACCP and BRC.  Our food plant became BRC registered last year with an A rating mainly due to a strong management commitment and an incredible QA team (2 full time staff).  If you are weak in either of those areas I wish you luck if you are going after GFSI certification.

Our plant managed to survive a Listeria recall a number of years ago (no one became ill) and I can tell you there is no substitute for learning than to go through this type of experience.  You learn to look at things like you never would have thought.  You learn to understand the enemy just that much better.   You learn to accept that no plant is immune from suffering this fate and that Listeria is everywhere and once you find it and eradicate it you must start the searching process all over again because it will be back.

I will continue to watch the forum section and will happily interject my 2 cents worth if I perceive there to be any value in it.  The readers can then decide for themselves if there is merit in my comments and with luck there may be the odd nugget worth reading.

Best of luck to all in producing safe foods and doing so in a manner that allows you to leave the industry at the end of your career with a full head of hair.  Too late for me.

Hello Handyandy and a warm welcome to the IFSQN.  I’m always curious when long serving food safety professionals pop on here, how did you get here and why now?  Maybe you just got a computer? :smile:

Seriously I’m sure you have a wealth of experience to share with the food safety fledglings and seniors. You cannot beat learning from mistakes, it hurts, but the scars they leave are extremely valuable.

Regards,
Simon