SQF 2.7.1.3 - Testing the Food Defense Plan

In section 2.7.1.3 it states "The food defense plan shall be reviewed and challenged at least annually".

What we have done in the past to challenge the plan, is have someone come in a walk around production to test our food defense plan.

However, because of Covid, we are unable to have any visitors in the building and therefore cannot test the plan.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to different ways of testing the plan that would be acceptable for the mandatory annual review?

Thank you!

Depends, what threats your program's addressing. You can leave something smelly in your warehouse (to test warehouse personnel reaction), or ask somebody from your employees to play "I want to access some confidential documentation" Fire drill would also be a test, just concentrate on food safety measures. 

we had someone test positive for COVID and used the plant reaction and plan of action for our crisis management... would that count as a food defense challenge? also can you document your food defense challenge as a crisis management since some of our crisis management has terrorism, biological tampering and dirty bomb 

Hello :)

So we do a lot of cleaning and sanitizing and we have a lot of different chemicals that we have to use during the clean up, so I create a spray bottles that has water in them but the label said: "Warning Dangerous poison! Deadly for Humans! Do not use in food production facility. Chemical Name: Botulinum; Common Name: Dead; Manufacturer: Evil Corp." i made the label look exactly the same as the rest of the chemicals.And then i waited to see if anybody will report those bottles :) i create a report of what exactly happen, also, i attached pictures of the bottles with my report. I was very sneaky about it because i didn't want any managers or supervisors ruin my test :)  I placed the spray bottles in the end of the shift when no one was around and my employees reported the bottles next day after i placed them in the facility. I described in my report how many hours its took employees to find the bottles, my test was successful and bottles were reported on the beginning on the shift  (we clean on the beginning of the shift and in the end of the shift due to the nature of our product) and everybody had a good laugh :) Also now i know if employees are paying attention to labeling :)

Hopefully it was helpful :)

Quality Is The Goal 

Hello :)

 

So we do a lot of cleaning and sanitizing and we have a lot of different chemicals that we have to use during the clean up, so I create a spray bottles that has water in them but the label said: "Warning Dangerous poison! Deadly for Humans! Do not use in food production facility. Chemical Name: Botulinum; Common Name: Dead; Manufacturer: Evil Corp." i made the label look exactly the same as the rest of the chemicals.And then i waited to see if anybody will report those bottles :) i create a report of what exactly happen, also, i attached pictures of the bottles with my report. I was very sneaky about it because i didn't want any managers or supervisors ruin my test :)  I placed the spray bottles in the end of the shift when no one was around and my employees reported the bottles next day after i placed them in the facility. I described in my report how many hours its took employees to find the bottles, my test was successful and bottles were reported on the beginning on the shift  (we clean on the beginning of the shift and in the end of the shift due to the nature of our product) and everybody had a good laugh :) Also now i know if employees are paying attention to labeling :)

 

Hopefully it was helpful :)

 

Quality Is The Goal 

Surely this only works once ??  Or is it a test for robots ?

@alem - not usable IMO unless you have a continuous Covid defence mechanism at entry which can be proven to not fail. If so, you can be an instant Millionaire.

(Loss of critical staff members due Covid is being utlised as a crisis management hazard in other threads here)

Surely this only works once ??  Or is it a test for robots ?

 

@alem - not usable IMO unless you have a continuous Covid defence mechanism at entry which can be proven to not fail. If so, you can be an instant Millionaire.

(Loss of critical staff members due Covid is being utlised as a crisis management hazard in other threads here)

I test my food defense program once a year, so every year i switch it up, so maybe after 2 or 3 years i can repeat it again ....

I have done it twice. The first year I just had someone try to break into the premises and let him go as far as he could, pretty simple but valid. The second year I showed up earlier and let a bunch of items around the production area, picked the third person from production that showed up and simulated starting up production and have him identify the "hazards". 

Hope it helps.

Following our Food Defense training this year which we clearly told employees that the chemical room is supposed to be locked with limited access as needed. We decided to test leaving the chemical room door open and see how quickly an employee would recognize the chemical room door was open and close the door. We were able to monitor the whole time using our security cameras and the employees passed the test. 

Good Day 

Quality Is the Goal, on 23 Jul 2020 - 01:56 AM, said:

Hi 

Thank you for the below example that is very good.

Do you perhaps have a template to use to do this intrusion testing.  

Thanks for your assistance 

So we do a lot of cleaning and sanitizing and we have a lot of different chemicals that we have to use during the clean up, so I create a spray bottles that has water in them but the label said: "Warning Dangerous poison! Deadly for Humans! Do not use in food production facility. Chemical Name: Botulinum; Common Name: Dead; Manufacturer: Evil Corp." i made the label look exactly the same as the rest of the chemicals.And then i waited to see if anybody will report those bottles :) i create a report of what exactly happen, also, i attached pictures of the bottles with my report. I was very sneaky about it because i didn't want any managers or supervisors ruin my test :)  I placed the spray bottles in the end of the shift when no one was around and my employees reported the bottles next day after i placed them in the facility. I described in my report how many hours its took employees to find the bottles, my test was successful and bottles were reported on the beginning on the shift  (we clean on the beginning of the shift and in the end of the shift due to the nature of our product) and everybody had a good laugh :) Also now i know if employees are paying attention to labeling :)

Hi 

Thank you for this example, excellent scenario. 

Do you perhaps have a template to use to do this intrusion testing.  

Thanks for your assistance 

 

Hi 

Thank you for this example, excellent scenario. 

 

Do you perhaps have a template to use to do this intrusion testing.  

 

Thanks for your assistance 

 

If you're unable to build a specific template around this, I've always submitted the scenarios as just a written report on the company letterhead signed by the participants.  In the beginning of August, I played the role of an intruder (I'm a corporate QA employee who was unknown to the personnel in this plant).  I wrote up what I did and what I observed during my intrusion, and then we got their senior management together in a meeting to review and discuss.  This was sufficient for the SQF audit they just passed, and has worked in plants I consulted for in years prior.

Thank you for your assistance.  I did reliase that a template is not needed.  You have shared some good scenario.

Thank you and have a fantastic day.