5 Simple Causes of Incorrect Food Product Labelling

Although it may seem like errors in labelling food products is no big deal, there can be serious consequences from such mistakes. With a greater focus on food labelling by consumers and regulatory authorities, it will just be a matter of time when these errors will start costing your business.

The three main consequences for incorrect labelling include regulatory action, product recall and consumer action. All actions can be easily prevented by avoiding the following:

Identifying Food Safety Hazards

Why is it that so many food businesses fail to identify their food hazards correctly? The identification and control of food hazards forms the basis of every HACCP Program. It is really HACCP 101! The worst case scenarios for not identifying and controling food hazards adequately are food poisoning outbreaks, product recalls and very bad media coverage (damage to your brand). So how do you work out what hazards could occur in your business?

Investigating Non-Conformances

As a food auditor an important part of the job is identifying non-conformances during the audit process. Unfortunately, many food businesses struggle with what is required to rectify non-conformances. Any non-conformance identified during an external or internal audit should be seen as an opportunity to really get in and resolve an issue before it escalates to a point where significant damage can occur to the business.

Welcome to the Food Safety, Quality and Compliance Blog

I spend 50% of my working life auditing food businesses for compliance against food safety legislation and customer standards like BRC, McDonalds, SQF, WQA. Don't get me started on why there are so many different standards - I will save that for another day.

When I audit, I get asked all these weird and wonderful questions by Quality Assurance Managers and food business owners that the majority of the time I think are pretty straight forward. I think from working in food compliance auditing I automatically assume that everyone knows what I know (because I don't think it is rocket science!). After 18 years doing this gig, I have finally got it that people don't. It is not through lack of intelligence, just lack of time and priority.

I live and breathe this food safety and compliance stuff and I am very very passionate about it. I am also very passionate about trying to help small business to be aware of their business risks in regards to food safety, quality and compliance. So hence starting this blog.

I hope to bring you insight into my world and hopefully you will learn stuff along the way. So without further to do, let's get started on this journey!