Food Safety Services

RQA provides a broad range of manufacturing and distribution services responding to the unique needs of clients. Supplier audits may be performed to assess compliance with the client's existing quality assurance / food safety programme or regulatory requirements.

RQA has experienced and trained food and product safety auditors located in all its world regions. The services offered include:

3rd Party Supplier Audits

RQA has its own food safety audit that can also be customised to fit the specific needs of food companies that are looking to have their supplier base audited by a third party audit firm.

RQA's food safety audit encompasses all the key aspects of a comprehensive foods safety audit (HACCP, hygiene, pest control, cleaning/sanitation, material control, product flow, QA, QC, contamination control, equipment, packaging, warehousing, allergens, security, traceability and recall).

This is currently used by several large food companies to assess their suppliers. An important option with the RQA audit is the ability of our experienced auditors to offer advice to the companies being audited. This helps with the overall improvement process.

The GMA-Gap Audit

In addition to carrying out full GMA audits, RQA is able to complete a GMA-Gap audit. This will help you identify areas of strength and weakness against the FPA protocol. RQA would provide a report to help you improve your company systems and procedures prior to a full GMA audit.

This audit usually takes between a day to a day and a half to complete.

GMA-SAFE Supplier Audits for Food Excellence

The RQA Group is a leading audit company for the GMA-Safe programme. To date, RQA Europe has carried out FPA audits in UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland, Austria, Turkey, Israel and Spain. With a total of 45 auditors located throughout the world, RQA has the experience and capability to carry out your audit.

Because of our experience, we can also assist you in understanding what is required of the audit and the background it. RQA's certified auditors have all attended a comprehensive 4 day training course and exam. They also have many years experience in food manufacturing processes covering all sectors of the food, beverage and packaging industries.

What the GMA says about its audit:

"The GMA-Safe program was designed by leading food companies to meet the global food industry's audit needs. GMA-Safe provides a reliable, comprehensive assessment of a company's entire food quality and safety system while reducing the time and expenses associated with redundant supplier audits."

Click here http://www.fpa-food.org for more details.

Managing Food Safety Programmes

In addition to the auditing, RQA is able to manage your entire audit programme from scheduling audits to closing non-compliances. Audit reports and actions can then be provided to the company whose suppliers are being audited. An account manager would be assigned and the audit programme would be managed by the relevant RQA regional office. The audit can be either the company's own audit, RQA's audit or the GMA-Safe audit.

Food Safety Consultancy

RQA can help you prepare for specific audits by doing "gap-audits". These gap-audits are effectively consultancy visits to help to identify areas that the company must focus on in order to pass the full audits. RQA can offer gap audits to BRC, IFS, GMA-Safe.

In addition, general consultancy on food safety can be provided. For example, you may need advice on improving or challenging your HACCP system; checking for allergen cross-contamination; process flow design etc. Whatever your needs, contact RQA to find out how we can help.

BRC Gap-Audits

Using the network of field representatives located throughout the world, RQA is able to offer pre-shipment inspection services. If you have a shipment of products on one side of the world and you want to be certain of its quality prior to it leaving port, then RQA field representatives can assess the products to an agreed specification.

If products are found to be out of spec, huge savings in cost and inconvenience can be made if this is learnt prior to shipping. For example if you are in UK and you have an olive supplier in Greece or a clothes supplier in China a pre-shipment inspection will give you the confidence that what you have ordered is what you will receive.

Hygiene Audits in Restaurants

RQA has its own hygiene audit specifically for food service outlets. This would be typically used by restaurant chains where there is a desire to check the quality procedures and hygiene level of the outlets within a group. The audit can be followed up by sample and swab testing by using one of RQA's partner laboratories.

Food Security Assessment

The RQA Food Security Assessment is designed to identify possible areas of exposure or weakness with respect to malicious tampering either from an internal or external source.

It is designed to assist facilities that manufacture, process, package, or hold food products. The focus is on all aspects of a food business's operations are considered. The RQA assessment is primarily based upon U.S. FDA Good Manufacturing Practices (21 CFR 110), FPA and FSIS Guidelines, HACCP System Guidelines (NACMCF, Codex), and Food Industry Best Practices.

The one day assessment includes a total of 12 sections, including: Food Defense Plan Management, Internal and external, Personnel Management, Water and Ice Defense, Shipping Receiving as well as others. Each section is further broken into a list of related items. Each item is evaluated and scored using a 4 point scale. Facilities are required to provide objective evidence to demonstrate their level of compliance to the item.

Internal Auditor Training Course

As a result of Issue 4 of the BRC Global Food Standard RQA Europe Ltd developed a short training course specially designed for internal auditors. In the latest version of the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety (Issue 5) it makes specific reference to the training of internal auditors in the clause: 3.5.2 'Internal audits shall be carried out by appropriately trained, competent auditors...' How do Companies ensure and demonstrate compliance during their BRC Evaluation that their Internal Auditors are trained and competent?

The RQA Internal Auditor Training Course provides the solution.

The RQA Internal Auditor Training Course covers the theory and practical auditing skills essential when conducting internal audits. This course is aimed at all levels of experience from those with little knowledge of auditing or as a refresher course for more experienced auditors.

The course covers importance of internal auditing, preparation, planning and how to conduct an audit. There are sections in the training course which also cover personal attributes, auditor skills and different question types. There are several exercises during the course which gives delegates the chance to put theory into practice.

RQA Europe can tailor make this course to suit your specific needs which is really advantageous especially when Companies train several of their employees on the same subject. RQA Europe also has the facility to witness the competency of your Internal Auditors whilst conducting an internal audit after the training session by a trained BS EN ISO 9000 Auditor.