What Are The Benefits And Challenges Of Implementing A Food Safety Management System (fsms)?

By Author: Emma
Total Articles: 29
Comment this article

A Food Safety Management System (FSMS) can be defined as a methodology put in place in any given organization to attain food safety. Implementing an FSMS has many more advantages, especially for organizations within the food industry. The following are the main benefits:
• Improved Food Safety: FSMS aims to ensure the safety of food at every level of production by determining and regulating existing risks. This lessens the likelihood of either product contamination or even cases of food-related diseases.
• Controlling legal risks: It assists businesses in meeting domestic and worldwide food safety standards, including HACCP, FDA, and ISO 22000 certification, thus protecting them from legal action and damage to their image.
• Better customer assurance: Providing evidence that the company observes food safety practices helps gain consumer confidence in the product, thus increasing the stakes in brand loyalty and competitiveness in the market.
• Driving Efficiency: saves costs, avoids waste, and reduces errors by expediting work processes through standardizing the work, therefore enhancing productivity.
...
... • Ability to supply products globally: Global opportunities in markets where certification in all recognized FSMS standards is mandatory as most buyers do not take food suppliers who do not comply with the high food safety management system.
• Problem-solving: Facilitates the ability to diagnose and respond quickly in the event of a security incident, reducing potential recalls and associated costs.
• Employee engagement: training and participation in FSMS promotes a food safety and quality culture, which motivates employees to adhere to best practices. An FSMS is an essential tool for ensuring food safety, meeting compliance, and enhancing business success.
Challenges of Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS)
Adopting an internal Food Safety Management System (FSM) creates many problems that must be solved by the organizations, that attempt to build and manage it. Some of them are regarded as the most important ones:
• Legal and normative compliance: Following the requirements of the food safety management system in different countries for a multinational company might be difficult. Moreover, the standards are subject to changes. Standards that are too strict for one country may be misinterpreted and enforced in a more stringent manner in another country, leading to noncompliance issues and penalties
• Financial constraints: The majority of micro and small enterprises do not have the required financial and human resources to effectively put up a dense FSMS system, training, and technology
• Cultural resistance: Institutional resistance to change can hinder the adoption of FSMS policies, especially among employees who are unfamiliar with food safety practices.
• Training and Awareness: A shortage of workers with knowledge of programs and responsive food safety culture awareness training ensuring effectiveness at every level is an uphill task. Most food workers don’t understand food safety management practices and hence do not practice them.
• Supply Chains Complexity: Conducting food safety risk management in the realm of long and disjointed supply chains is difficult, especially when there are unqualified suppliers and poor traceability
• Technological Barriers: Limited access to modern technologies, such as automated monitoring systems, can impede the ability to track and respond to food safety issues effectively.
• Crisis Management: Inefficient mechanisms for handling food recalls or contamination incidents can damage consumer trust and brand reputation.
Addressing these challenges requires strategic planning, investment in training and technology, and fostering a culture of safety and compliance throughout the organisation.