Ruth Shaw Consulting Ltd

02/02/2023

Congratulations to the small UK food producers who achieved their SALSA food safety certificate in January!

Your innovation and creativity are driving the food industry forward and your commitment to safety standards sets a leading example for others to follow.

A special 👏 👏 to first-time approvals

You can view the most recent Approvals using the link in our bio 👆

31/03/2021

SUSSED!
We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
It’s a short and sweet topic this week, a quick read! Important little nuggets of information to keep you on the right line.
Week 40 Procedures & Work Instructions
Are your Procedures and Work Instructions available to staff to refer to if they need to, perhaps they stored or displayed in a location near to where the staff carry out the tasks they relate to?
Are your Procedures and Work Instructions clear step by step instructions which are easy to follow?
Have you written clear and concise CCP Procedures?
Are the Procedures and Work Instructions in the right languages for the staff members you employ?
All of the above are questions you need to ask yourself to ensure you have got this section of SALSA right!
Let’s check out how to tackle this one!
https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/.../week-40...
What’s coming next…
Week 41 Premises

24/03/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 39 Specifications

Manufacturing Specifications are the same thing as Recipe Specifications. They are for your staff members to follow to make sure they always make the Product using the correct ingredients, the right method and equipment, including settings.
The clearer the instructions, the more consistent your finished product will be.
Finished Product Specifications are the document you use to sell your product to your Customer.
The Finished Product Specification is an agreement between you and your customer. The agreement is that you will always make the product within the Specification Standard to ensure that it is always within ‘food safety standards’ and is of the Quality, Nature and Substance, as prescribed.
Let’s check out how to tackle this one!

https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/03/week-39-specifications-weve-got-salsa.html

What’s coming next…
Week 40 Procedures & Work Instructions

10/03/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 38 Document Control
Document Control is one of those topics which is simple, if you know how! Once you understand it, it’s just logical!
Document Control is just a system for controlling the most recent version of a ‘Procedure’, ‘Work Instruction’, ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ or ‘Record’ for example, is being used (not an old out-of-date version).
For the purposes of SALSA, we need to put in a system so that we can take care of Document Control.
There are three parts to it:
1. A Document Control Procedure (to stating the system you are going to use)
2. The application of Document Control on each and every document
3. A Document Control Index
Let’s check out how to tackle this one!
https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/.../week-38...
What’s coming next…
Week 39 Manufacturing Specifications

18/02/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 37 Complaints
Complaints, when received, need to be handled quickly and efficiently.

Staff need to understand the difference between a serious Complaint, such as a food safety issue, which is when it needs escalating immediately, or a less serious Complaint such as a quality issue. These are still very important to your business reputation, however, are not an immediate food safety risk.

Staff need training about the difference between a Food Safety Complaint or a Quality Complaint, especially if they have very little food industry experience.

Having a system in place to deal with Complaints efficiently and effectively is essential, particularly for the reputation of the business.

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!
What’s coming next…
Week 38 Document Control

https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/02/week-37-complaints-weve-got-salsa-sussed.html

18/02/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 36 Managing Incidents
Managing Incidents is an extremely important topic. It is a part of the SALSA Standard where a lot of Non-Conformances found in audits, due to businesses NOT carrying out their Mock Recall.

Incidents can come in many forms. The most serious can result in a Recall. This can be a very costly situation for various reasons. Business reputation, financial costs, human resource costs for example. We are going to look at setting up the Managing Incidents Procedure and testing that it works through a Mock Recall.

As I mentioned in the previous weeks, it is not a Traceability Test, although traceability is an element of a Mock Recall.

A Mock Recall is ‘testing that your team knows what to do’ if and when a Recall situation was to actually happen. You need each team member present at the Mock Recall, to carry out their role, follow the procedure, and make sure it works and it is understood.

There are other Incidents which might happen which are not as serious. However, could result in a ‘Near Miss’, such as a glass breakage which could contaminate food being prepared, an allergen spillage, a contaminated ingredient, metal contamination from damaged equipment, all of which can all be found and stopped before leaving the building. These types of incidents also need recording, so you can ‘Correct & Prevent’ from happening again.

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!
https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/02/week-36-managing-incidents-weve-got.html

What’s coming next…
Week 37 Complaints

06/02/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!
Week 35 Traceability Testing

https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/02/week-35-traceability-testing-weve-got.html

19/01/2021

Our first webinar on food safety certifications for small businesses is tomorrow.

The event is co-hosted with SALSA and Cardiff Metropolitan University, and in this first session, we will give you an introduction to the certification schemes and their requirements.

The webinar will kick off at 11:00 am. After the presentation, you’ll have time to ask the expert panel questions.

You can register your place for all the webinars by following the link.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

https://okt.to/ytpo8T

19/01/2021

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!

Week 33 Corrective Action

Corrective & Preventive Action is important to any business.
If your business has any sort of Incident or Complaint, it is important to follow it through with Corrective and Preventive Action.

Incidents are sometimes serious, such as a Withdrawal or Recall. Sometimes, however, they are not as serious, they happen on site before the product has left the building, therefore is still under your control. However, it still needs ‘Actioning’ to Correct and Prevent.
If you were to have a Recall or Withdrawal, it is imperative to ensure the immediate issue is addressed and the product is taken off the market. And obviously, you would want to prevent it from happening again. An investigation into why it happened would highlight the reason, so you can action the Preventive Controls.
For less serious Incidents which might happen on site, such as the Non-Conforming Materials we spoke about last week, we still require immediate Corrective Action. If you don’t follow this through with your investigation into why it happened and prevent it from happening again, you would have a reoccurring issue. Every time an issue reoccurs, this costs time and money. Therefore, we also need the Preventive Action.

That is the reason why this section has been added to the SALSA Standard. To help you and your business prevent reoccurring issues from happening.

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!

https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/01/week-33-corrective-action-weve-got.html

What’s coming next…
Week 34 Traceability

13/01/2021

13/01/2021

We've Got SALSA Sussed

Week 32 Non-Conforming Materials

https://ruthshawconsultingltd.blogspot.com/2021/01/week-32-non-conforming-materials-weve.html