Food Defense/Security Assessment

Our facility currently undergoes an NFPA-SAFE (now FPA-GMA) audit on a yearly basis. One section of the audit (2.14) Food Defense, requires use to undergo a Food Defense Assessment. Can I have the groups input on viable standards to base the assessment upon (ie. FSIS, AIB etc) as well as groups/organizations that will conduct the assessment of our facility.

I am based in Western Canada so any N. American organization/standard would be appreciated, however I would like to know what other countries are using for standards for Food Defense. Our organization's goal is to be ISO 22000 certified by 2008 and we are using the FPA requirements and audits to help us obtain that goal

Thank you

Phillip,

If you are still looking for an answer to this question I can help; I created the Food Defense program for a national food company and always got perfect scores on these 3rd party audits.

The short answer to your question is that almost any security assessment of any kind will suit these 3rd party audits. They all have their roots in the FDA Guidance Document for Food Producers, which in turn only has a general recommendation for an assessment.

Our firm created a self-assessment based on those FDA guidelines and then showed that self-assessment to any 3rd party auditors like AIB, FPA or Silliker. They were always satisfied. We also had a much more stringent internal audit that we could have shown, but never needed to.

Kind regards,
Ned