What does Due Diligence mean in the food industry?

The food industry operates within a complex web of regulations, standards and consumer expectations.

Navigating this complex landscape, food production must prioritise due diligence to ensure safety, quality and compliance.

Let’s explore due diligence and its vital role in risk management, regulatory compliance and maintaining consumer trust within the food industry.

What does due diligence mean in food?

Due diligence in the food industry follows the same principle as any other sector: taking preventative action to avoid harm.

In the food industry due diligence is intrinsically linked to food safety. It involves demonstrating that a business has taken all reasonable steps to prevent any breaches in food safety regulations. 

These steps are designed to ensure that the food produced, handled or sold is safe for consumption and complies with legal standards.

Food manufacturing processes must adhere to safety precautions. Such as implementing adequate hygiene, safety and quality control procedures at all stages of food production, processing and distribution.

Beyond stating that these actions are in place, businesses must be able to provide evidence when necessary.

In the event of a food safety failure, consumers could potentially be harmed, leading to costly recalls and damaging your brand’s reputation.

Food Safety Act 1990 and its relation to Due Diligence

To prevent food safety failures, businesses must comply with the Food Safety Act, a significant piece of UK legislation regulating food safety and quality. 

This Act holds businesses in the food sector accountable for ensuring that the food they sell is safe for consumption, meets acceptable quality standards and is sufficiently labelled.

Regarding due diligence, the Act states: “In any proceedings for an offence under any of the preceding provisions of this Part, it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence by himself or by a person under his control”.

This provides businesses with a legal defence if they can demonstrate that all reasonable precautions were taken to prevent food safety breaches.

Therefore, due diligence under the Food Safety Act requires companies to have   robust systems in place to avoid such breaches and to prove that these measures were consistently implemented.

Key points regarding food due diligence in food industry

Putting concept into practice, we have highlighted three key points inline with the Food Safety Act.

1. Identification of critical control points

Identifying the critical points in food processing is the first step to ensuring safety through due diligence. To achieve this, it is recommended to follow the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) framework.

According to government guideline, the HACCP plan keeps food safe from biological, chemical and physical hazards. Here are the following steps to create a plan:

• Identify any hazards that must be avoided, removed or reduced.
• Identify the critical control points (CCPs) – the points that need to prevent, remove or reduce a hazard in your work process.
• Set limits for the CCPs.
• Monitor the CCPs.
• Put things right if there is a problem with a CCP.
• Put checks in place to make sure your plan is working.
• Keep records.

Metal is the most used material in food processing equipment, making it one of the primary risks in food manufacturing. 

The likelihood of small metal fragments breaking off and contaminating products is significantly higher.

HACCP systems vary depending on the type of contaminants most likely to occur in your production environment. Your HACCP plan will serve as the main proof that your production line operates with due diligence.

 Also read: Audit anticipation: reviewing everyday food safety risks

2. Inspection technology

To reduce the risk of contaminants leaving your facility, it’s important to incorporate inspection technologies into your production line to properly demonstrate due diligence. 

These should be positioned at the critical control points (CCPs) identified earlier through your HACCP system.

Removing contaminants early in the production process is a cost-effective approach, reducing the risk of damaging expensive equipment further down the line.

Upstream inspections complement end-of-line systems by detecting and rejecting contaminants that could harm your brand, helping to avoid costly product recalls.

Fortress Technology offers efficient, fast and high-quality solutions for detection and removal of contaminants. To learn more, visit our blog Off-the-Shelf: Delivering Supermarket-Spec Food Safety Due Diligence.

3. Documentation of all processes and safety measures

To prove that your facility is following the established safety protocols and guidelines, it is essential to maintain documentation of all food manufacturing and processing.

You need to keep a record of:

• Product: Record data on all production lines to ensure traceability and maintain food safety compliance.
• Recall and withdrawal system: The processes must be obtained to notify consumers and supply chain members.
• Hygiene and safety: All actions taken to maintain the hygiene and safety of your facilities and equipment.
• Contract and management: Information concerning contracts, partnerships, suppliers, licences and other industry-related information, must be properly stored.
• Staff training: Document all training and plans that demonstrate the training of your staff regarding food safety matters.

Fortress technology provides a CCP data collection product Contact 4.0. Built to digitally collect and store critical control point activity and performance.

Contact 4.0 is harmonised over the entire product range, supporting Metal Detection Checkweigher and X-Ray products. Providing 24/7 access to CCP activity remotely.

Digitise and automate your reporting via Contact 4.0. Generate reports automatically on timed intervals or shift patterns for transparent clear CCP status. Providing peace of mind and full audit trail traceability.

Now is the time to exercise due diligence in food safety!

Due diligence not only ensures food safety but also strengthens your industry reputation. Start implementing this approach based on the three key points we previously outlined.

Rely on Fortress Technology’s wide range of inspection solutions to help you demonstrate the safety of your food processing operations.

For more information on What does Due Diligence mean in the food industry? talk to Fortress Technology Europe