Standards and Auditing

Standards

Especially for those operations in which food value chains extend to multiple states, provinces, counties, countries or even continents, compliance with food safety standards is imperative.

Without standards in place, there is a lack of supplier accountability which can lead to carelessness, shortcuts and neglected processes in your value chain. In this case, from manufacturing and processing to shipping and handling, the safety, quality and market position of your products may be at risk.

In direct response to the need for order throughout organizational supply chains, there are a number of globally recognized certification standards to help companies develop, manage and control processes, materials, products, services, technologies and systems.  Such standards are implemented and maintained through quality assurance audits.

PVC also recommends, interviews, and screens qualified certification bodies based on your specific needs.

Maintaining Industry Requirements and Internally Designated Standards

As part of its sustainable management approach, Paul Valder Consulting has a team of category-specific experts to ensure that your organization complies with the necessary standards employed in your industry and those you have elected to enforce internally.

PVC helps organizations, associations, as well as businesses and government departments design, develop and implement existing and new standards. We specialize in standards employed by manufacturers, retail businesses and stakeholder groups.

ISO 9000: Quality Management

Maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO 9000 is a group of standards which apply to quality management systems. The key requirements of these standards include:

• Procedures that cover the essential processes within a business
• Monitoring to determine the effectiveness of the standards implemented
• Record keeping
• Defect analysis followed by corrective action
• Regular review of the quality system and its individual processes
• Facilitation of continual improvements

PVC assists your company through the preparation process before certification and helps you maintain your certified status with sustainable management practices.

ISO 14000: Environmental Management

The ISO 14000 family of standards is adopted by companies that wish to design and implement effective environmental management systems. More specifically, ISO 14000 standards help organizations decrease their negative impact on the environment through a reduction in the amount of waste produced through its business processes. This results in decreased operating costs and resource consumption.

PVC’s standards and quality assurance auditing services help your company Go Green, ensuring that you meet your corporation’s environmental responsibilities while also improving the efficiency of your operation.

GFSI Food Safety Standards

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is committed to:

• Benchmarking food standards against food safety criteria
• Developing functions to exchange information throughout the supply chain
• Raising consumer awareness
• Reviewing existing retail operations

Businesses in the manufacturing, food service and retail sectors of the market are encouraged to employ GFSI to evaluate food safety standards before they are implemented. GFSI’s primary objective is to make food production and manufacture as safe as possible, resulting in enhanced cost efficiency in a company’s supply chain and preventing duplicate audits and certifications.

OHSAS 18001: Occupational Health and Safety

OHSAS 18001 is an international specification which addresses a company’s occupational health and safety management systems. This recognized set of standards helps businesses control and reduce health and safety risks within their organizations.

Through sustainable management process implementation, PVC can help your organization prepare for certification in OHSAS 18001 and continually improve your occupational health and safety management system, which in turn will establish you as a diligent, compliant, healthy and safe operation.

SA 8000: Social Accountability

SA 8000 is a globally recognized social accountability standard which oversees acceptable conditions within an organization. The SA 8000 audit certification covers labour processes, health and safety, freedom of association, as well as collective bargaining, discrimination, discipline, acceptable working hours, compensation and human resource management systems.

PVC helps your company become socially accountable for its actions. Our industry-leading consultants power your organization with the information, practices, and daily operational procedures needed to ensure that your organization maintains fair and responsible business operations.

Auditing

Our consultants are expert industry veterans in their respective fields. They ensure that your audit process goes smoothly, and they interpret your industry-specific standards so that you know where your organization needs to improve, and where existing gaps exist in your overall level of compliance.

PVC provides several types of auditing services. These include first-, second- and third-party audits, pre-assessments, gap analyses, and pre-certification (or readiness) audits.

Gap Analysis

PVC helps you identify the organizational gaps which must be addressed prior to an external or certification audit. We advise you regarding the necessary steps to close process gaps and move forward to fully meet your standard requirements.

First-, Second- and Third-Party Audits

PVC determines whether your company requires a first-, second- or third-party audit to achieve its goals.

First-party audits are internal audits; that is, the performance of a quality assurance audit on your own company. Although no external certification is given, this type of audit exists to ensure that your company monitors itself effectively in key business areas in order to achieve organizational excellence. PVC helps to determine which training is needed in order to effectively perform a self-audit. Once the necessary training is identified, PVC supplies you with auditor training and internal auditor training as needed.

Second-party audits occur when a customer audits your organization. This audit is performed to determine whether or not you have met the specific and key requirements set out by a particular customer. This quality assurance audit is based on the practices employed by organizations such as YUM! Brands (the world’s largest restaurant company) and McDonald’s.

Third-party audits are external audits performed on your company by an independent organization. These include an examination of your organization’s compliance regarding, for example, HACCP or GMP principles. PVC performs HACCP audits to ensure that you are maximizing the HACCP advantage.

Pre-Certification Audits

PVC helps you determine whether or not you comply with existing standards before seeking an external or certification audit. Also referred to as pre-assessment or readiness audits, these audits involve a high-level evaluation of your organization by the consultants at PVC who examine your company’s current compliance to a specific standard prior to seeking certification or registration. Examples of audits we offer include NPRI, toxic reductions planning, O. Reg. 127, waste audits, HACCP audits, quality assurance audits, food safety audits and C of A applications.

The services PVC provides are independent of and hold no affiliation with any certification process or body.

For further information, please contact Paul Valder Consulting.