What action should be taken if we do not meet a food safety objective?

Hi guys, I am hoping to get some clarity. We set our food safety objectives last year but one was not met. What are the next steps? Am I correct in thinking this an internal NCR that we need to close out? Thank you! H.

Good morning curioush.

This might go without saying, but does your food safety objective document also list pass/fail objective next steps? That would be the first place to check. If it doesn't, I'd update that when you put them together this year to include next steps so you can get ahead of it for next year. SQF is always big on 'Do what you say. Say what you do.'

I'll bow out of the convo at this point; I haven't run a program under the current SQF version, and I don't want to steer you wrong.

so the language is thus

The SQF System shall be reviewed by senior site management at least annually and include:
i. Changes to food safety management system documentation (policies, procedures, specifications, food safety plan);
ii. Food safety culture performance;
iii. Food safety objectives and performance measures;
iv. Corrective and preventative actions and trends in findings from internal and external audits, customer complaints, and verification and validation activities;
v. Hazard and risk management system; and
vi. Follow-up action items from previous management reviews.
Records of all management reviews and updates shall be maintained.

So while you do need to document them, you may not need/be able to "close them out"---remember, the word is OBJECTIVE not ABSOLUTES

For context, what was the objective, generally speaking--i.e. a reduction in customer complaints, downtime etc

Thanks for the replies thus far! As for context, I have just taken over an existing SQF program and their goal was to achieve a 95% rating or above during their audit last year and they got a 93% which was under the target.

I guess I misunderstood the need for the objective and needing the document some sort of close out if the target was not met.

H.

I would just carry the objective over to the next year.