The difference between Regulatory and third party audit is at one side regulatory audits are concerned with compliance with code but thrird party audits go beyond codes and evalute the management of food safety systems. A facility can fail in third party audit though it is in compliance with regulatory requirements.
Here are list of general food safety requirements which is must for third party audits.
– GMP signeage is present in key locations
-Production and storage areas should be free from pests and any areas 20ft around it should be free from recurring pests.
-Pest control equipments are located away from infected area and monitered every month
-Pest control equipments should have barcodes.
-Ingreditents and products should be packaged and care to be taken to avoid cross contamination
-Storage racks should allow free passage of air
-On hold products should be segregated and properly identified
-Ingredietnts , products and packaging should be rotated in FIFO
-Equipments designed to prevenet condensation, dust or spillage
– Complete enclosure of packaging and processing areas.
-Raw ingredients should be examined before usage
-Unit and carton packaging should be coded for production day
– Bathrooms adequate in number, design and number, and stocked
-Hand washing stations adequate in number, design and number and stocked
-Warm water available for hand washing
– Single service containers not re used for food
-Reusable containers marked for purpose
-Infected employees are restricted or excluded, wounds bandaged
– Hair nets, beard nets, restraints
-Jewelry confined to a wedding band
-Clean outer garments
-Smoking, eating, drinking controlled
– No items in upper pockets
– No equipment should have provisional repairs using tape, cardboard, string, wire
-Temporary repairs should have date stamps.
– Equipment cleaning should have – Surfaces cleanable ,Clean items used for storage ,Protection of food during cleaning ,Cooler coils, fan guards clean ,Stored equipment protected , Safety equipment for sanitation crew ,Cleaning equipment color coded or identified for use ,Excess lubricants removed