(Reprinted with permission from http://www.oxebridge.com/news.asp?ID=362
.. The original version contains sup****ting evidence hyperlinks.)
by Christopher Paris
VP Operations, Oxebridge Quality Resources.
John Surak's article on ISO 22000 and HACCP ("A Recipe for Safe Food:
ISO 22000 and HACCP", ASQ Quality Progress, October 2007) commits more
than one offense in its claim that these standards can help "food
supplies remain safe in the global environment." ASQ as an
organization stands directly alongside him in this failure, a failure
resulting in the deaths of both people and pets.
First, Mr. Surak neglects to tell readers that the spinach recall he
mentions in the opening paragraphs was traced to Natural Selected
Foods, a company which has claimed third-party certification to HACCP
(via the USDA's Qualified Through Verification program) as least as
far back as 2002, five years prior to the e.coli outbreak.
Mr. Surak also fails to mention the most recent spinach recall from
Dole, a company whose website makes no less than ten references to
HACCP, and who claims "all of Dole's salad facilities operate under a
system called HACCP" and "the HACCP program is a standard of safety at
all Dole plants."
The list goes on:
* Topps Meat, responsible for the recent beef recall , cited UDSA
GMP and HACCP (the company recently shut down entirely).
* The Chinese plant responsible for the melamine-laced pet food
also claimed certification to HACCP and ISO 9001.
* Kraft Foods, responsible for the recent recall due to salmonella
in its white chocolate, cites HACCP on its website.
* Tony's Meats, cited for responsibility behind the recent
ingredient-mixup recall affecting liverwurst, also claims HACCP.
* Fairbanks Farms, subject of an e.coli beef recall in New
England, also claims HACCP as far back as 2002 -- when it was subject
to a previous massive beef recall, also for e.coli.
The rest of Mr. Surak's article is the usual stuff targeted for
standards-enthusiasts, an admittedly tiny audience: dry, clause-by-
clause analysis of standards which, according to QP's cover design
editors, will do nothing less than "ensure safe food." Perhaps that
can be forgiven as over-eager authors and melodramatic headline
writers who are simply enthusiastic about their work.
But failing to mention the fact that certifications to HACCP were
already implemented in facilities where the poisonings have been
re****ted is inexcusable; without recognizing that the problem lies not
in the standards, but in the certification and verification of those
standards, Mr. Surak and ASQ can blather on all day long, while people
and pets die from food poisoning.
ASQ is further to blame: rather than look inward or to examine what is
wrong with third party certifications that allow such crises to happen
in certified companies, ASQ publicly trotted out a host of other
causes, including blaming consumers for not wa****ng their hands, and
(of course) further deployment of HACCP. It's worth noting that the
official ASQ position -- as published in its June 2007 Quarterly
Re****t -- featured Mr. Surak's same failed suppositions as the QP
article. The closest ASQ comes to the root cause is by calling for
"more effective inspection - not more inspection", but they then drop
the ball by indicating only "food producers... who do not show
compliance with HACCP" should be "subject to closer
surveillance." (Emphasis mine.)
Again, ASQ and Surak fail to acknowledge the reality that the
companies already certified to HACCP are the culprits. The consistency
of this position, as it stands in stark contradiction with
undisputable facts released to the public on an almost weekly basis,
should raise ASQ members' eyebrows. Why the overt dishonesty?
Until ASQ pushes for improvements in our nation's third-party
certification process, not only for its staple products (ISO 9001,
14000) but for HACCP and other USDA/FDA programs as well, the problem
will continue unabated, QP readers will have to sit through more dull
clause-by-clause analyses of standards which aren't delivering, and
more animals and children will die.
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