As A Food Safety Consultant - Do You Develop Food Safety Systems Alone ?

Hi Everyone.

I have been having a debate with some colleagues and thought I would reach out to get some insight from other food safety consultants:

Question: When you develop a food safety management system for a company, do you do so generally on your own, with a team or both ?

Simple answer is no.  You may be the person writing and/or being a subject matter expert, but you need the onsite team to be involved with the process.  After all you will be handing off the material and information to the site for them to maintain and further develop.  I've always had status update calls or emails, and before starting have an onsite visit and/or remote scoping session to review all things needed.  Then when its time for pass off I go through each and everything word for word to make sure everyone understands and for the opportunity to ask questions.  Yes there will be times when you are doing the grunt work yourself "alone",  however you still need onsite folks that can answer your questions too.  I've always viewed consulting a partnership.  

When I do full system builds its a co-development with the facility personnel - it would be an injustice for them to not be involved, because ultimately it becomes their system, their implementation and their upkeep/maintenance of the system/certification.

Thank you everyone - appreciate the insights.

I would just like to ask a follow up question in case anyone has anything further they can share:

Company X is a consulting company which has a number of food safety systems consultants. Company Y has contracted Company X to develop (document writing and assistance with implementation) a SQF system  for them.

Is it normal (what usually happens) for:

(1) The consultants within Company X to form their own HACCP or Food Safety Team when developing a food safety management system for Company Y 

                                                                                                 OR

(2) Is the norm for 1 assigned consultant from Company X to develop (write and provide implementation support) the SQF system for Company Y, while using the other consultants (their colleagues) in Company X as a reference resource only if required ?

I am of the opinion that it should be #2 but some of my co-workers do not agree so I am curious as to what is the best practice by other food safety consultants.

Thanks for any further feedback.

The HACCP team should be made up of primarily personnel from the MFG site.   They develope the haccp plan.   A consultant could be added to the team and guide or even do a good portion of the work developing the plan. 

Developing a SQF complaint food managment system does not "require" a haccp or food safety team. 

Unless the consultant(s) (company Y) have very detailed knowledge of all aspects of operation, it would be very difficult to work in a vacuum from the manufacturing site (company X?).   Like glenn stated it would be an injustice for company X to not be involved.   Alot of what I would do is training them each aspect of the clauses and how they can prove thier compliance when the audit date comes.  Its their system.   They need to know it inside and out.    

However, im a little confused that you are stating that company X also has consutants.   Maybe its semantics.  

@srose, I agree with your option 2.  I do side work with a friend who owns his own consulting business, and he offers templates and a FSQMS format that he'll help write and tailor to their business, but it requires working with their on-site food safety teams to make sure the templated SOP's are reflective of what they business is actually doing.  We'll guide them when their practices aren't strong enough or sufficient to match SQF code requirements, and by having them involved they gain a knowledge of their newly written programs to navigate their SQF audits with minimal guidance.  In the couple of instances where we tried to handle it all for them and deliver it before their audit, they failed to review and properly enact the programs (new forms, checklists, self-audits, etc).  Then they sat during the audit and pointed to us to explain their own program to the auditor.  Not a good look, and these companies struggled to pass.

When I do full system builds its a co-development with the facility personnel - it would be an injustice for them to not be involved, because ultimately it becomes their system, their implementation and their upkeep/maintenance of the system/certification.

100% agree.  You may be building the system, but ultimately it is THEIR system; they have to work with it every day, they're already generally familiar with their process and will be able to help you in fitting the FSQMS into their specific product/process circumstances.