A food safety and quality manual should outline the structure of the food safety and quality management system. It will also provide a focus point to identify all the associated procedures, policies and forms. The manual should:
- be made available to all relevant staff either electronically as a read-only file or in paper form;
- integrate fully with the HACCP food safety plan and associated documentation;
- define how the organisational structure and associated personal responsibilities have been developed to ensure food safety and compliance with defined product quality and process criteria;
- have an issue date; issue number and be formally authorised i.e. signed off;
- describe how the manual will be updated if there is a need to change a statement in the manual and who is authorised to undertake the amendment and also authorise the changes before re-issue;
- reference the scope of the food safety and quality management system i.e. how much of the business is addressed by the manual; and
- reference any quality or food safety management system standards that the manual has been designed to comply with e.g. BRC Global Standard, ISO 9000, ISO 22000 and any sections of the system standard that are not applicable and why the organisation feels that they are not applicable.
Training programmes must be in place and be effective to ensure that all staff understand their part in food safety and quality management and the parts of the manual that are applicable to their work responsibilities.
© Louise Manning 2008
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