Preparing Testing and Sanitation Data for Food Safety Audits… We Need a New Way
July 09, 2023
Digitization has made food safety audit preparation easier than ever. Users can quickly find and compare any data, all in one place. Watch and learn about Neogen® Analytics.
Video Transcript
TITLE CARD: Neogen Analytics
[Music]
TITLE CARD: Preparing for Food Safety Audits with Neogen Analytics
TITLE CARD: James Quill, Director, Product Operations & Customer Success
Dan Dwyer: What have you learned from customers about how they approach audits differently now that they're on a digital platform?
James Quill: Thanks, Dan. I think that's a good question. I think it applies in a couple of different areas.
[A split screen appears with James Quill on the left and Dan Dwyer on the right.]
James Quill: As we've talked to customers over time and they get more and more comfortable with the application, understanding what data is available to them on an ongoing basis, the level of panic, if you will, has significantly dropped. The confidence that they have going into audits is a dramatic increase from where they started when they were on paper or in various Excel spreadsheets.
[An image of the Neogen Analytics software is shared on screen with James Quill and Dan Dwyer on the side of the screen. The Neogen Analytics software screen shows a table with column headings of "Site", "Floorplan", "Location", "Test Point Name", "Test Point Description", "Zone", and "#CAs". The page is titled "Insights".]
James Quill: Let's use actually this "Drain 3" as the example. So one of the things I can do is if I was at a customer's facility and we were on paper, and I got a presume positive for Listeria back on my "Drain 3" and I asked you go find me every other corrective action that's ever happened for "Drain 3" and what you did about it and when it was done and who took the sample that day and what what day was it scheduled. Like all of that data. How do I how do I trace all of that back? So, for me, all I'm going to do is I'm going to copy the name here.
[The cursor on the Neogen Analytics screen highlights "Drain 3".]
James Quill: I'm going to go to "Test Points".
[The cursor moves over and selects in the left-hand navigation "Test Points" under "Environmental Testing". The "Test Points" page has a table and at the top right is a search field. The text "Drain 3" is pasted into the search field and entered.]
James Quill: I'm gonna, you know, go to my search. Type in "Drain 3".
[The results table populates with all data with names that include the word "Drain". The cursor clicks on the link "Drain 3" in the "Name" column.]
James Quill: I click on "Drain 3".
[The screen now goes to a page titled "Edit Test Point". The data area is titled "Drain 3" with tabs for "Test Point Details", "Test Results", "Corrective Actions", and "Log".]
James Quill: And from here I see that, first, I have "Details", I have "Test Results", "Corrective Actions", and "Log".
[The tab for "Corrective Actions" is selected and a table titled "Corrective Actions" is displayed with headers "ID", "Date", "Analysis Type", "Test Method", "Protocol", "Owner", and "Status".]
James Quill: I can click on "Corrective Actions" and this is the complete list of every corrective action that I've had for this test point. You can see here I've got E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella. I've got a slew of different things that have happened.
[The cursor selects the text linked "ID" for line item with ID 1417. The page shows a top table titled "Corrective Action Details". Table headers are "ID", "Date Opened", "Floorplan", "Location", "Analysis Type", "Collection Date", "Sample Analysis", "Assigned To", and "Status". The page shows a second table titled "Activity List". Table headers are "#", "Activity", "Protocol", "Activity Notes", "Attachments", "Assigned To", "Status", "Date Completed", and "Action".]
James Quill: For any one of these I can come through and I can actually click on that corrective action. It brings me into that individual corrective action. So I'm looking at just that specific one I see why was the corrective action launched, the day was open, the floorplan, some of the test point identifying information. I have the sample analysis that it was collected on.
[The cursor selects the text linked "Sample Analysis" in the first table. The page shows tabs for "Open", "Closed", and "Deleted". A gray box has a list of a report. Below are two tables. The first table is titled "Test Points". The second table is titled "Audit Trail".]
James Quill: I'm going to open that in a new window. I come here and I can actually see this sample analysis was done on 05/02. It was part of my weekly Listeria swab.
[The page scrolls down to the second table titled "Audit Trail".]
James Quill: I see that I don't have an owner assigned, but if I slide down here to the Audit Trail, I can see that it was actually Leah who did the collection and had added the results. So I have a lot of information that's available to me in the application that when customers get into a rhythm of "I find something in paper. I have to go chase it back in this spreadsheet. I have to go look in this binder. I have to go — oh you know — if it's greater than three months old I can't find it in the always-on audit book that I keep. I have to go back to the shelf and pull a specific. You know, it gets to be a challenge. Whereas in the application, because we have these actionable fields, we're able to, with a couple of clicks, have one place that we go to to find all of the information that we need. As long as we are accurately putting that information into the application and then it's so much easier and less stressful to be able to pull that information out as I'm doing right now.
[Music]
TITLE CARD: Neogen Analytics
Recent conversations with several food and beverage producers have revealed an increase in audit frequency — some reporting that they are either preparing for or hosting multiple customer and certification audits each month. The disruption and resource drain are significant, as the traditional audit experience is heavily weighted toward document management, retrieval, and manual spreadsheet preparation.
We’ve all been there, digging through binders and searching through spreadsheets while the auditor impatiently drafts their report in the conference room.
The “new way” of doing things promises a vastly different approach — a digital one — where a portion of your audit prep is always on.
The Old Way
To understand the impact that digitalization can bring, it’s important to first understand the detriment of the “old way” of doing things:
- Organizations manually collect and process diagnostic testing — Environmental Monitoring Program and Product Sampling data — to verify their sanitation effectiveness.
- The test results are collected manually — often via a PDF attached to an email, or worse, a printout of a Certificate of Analysis.
- The data from these documents is then stored for future use — including retrieval during an audit.
- Sometimes, the printouts are stored in three-ring binders in a “records room.”
- Sometimes, the data is entered into a spreadsheet for manual creation of reports.
- The spreadsheet data is then, sometimes, built into pivot tables.
- From there, reports are created weekly or monthly and used by upper management to make decisions.
Does this process sound familiar?
Breaking down the old way into its component steps reveals that there are many points of human touch required to collect, combine, archive, and retrieve records required for audits. This is not only laborious, but it also injects several opportunities for human error to enter the equation. Ultimately, preparing for audits should not add risk to your operations.
The New Way
In a digitally transformed world, the process looks more like this:
- Testing and sanitation workflows are scheduled and conducted via a pre-programmed, policy-driven digital engine.
- Information about testing data flows back and forth to and from the lab(s) via digital connection, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
- Lab diagnostic results are ingested into a digital platform that automatically conducts pre-programmed analysis of the data.
- Sanitation workflows, incidents, and outcomes are recorded in the same digital platform, enabling ease-of-access and reporting.
- Management and audit reports are updated and available in an “always-on” environment that can be accessed anywhere via cloud-based interface.
Streamline your audits with Neogen Analytics. To learn how we can prepare you for your next audit, sign up for a specialized demo today.
Category: Food Safety, Consumer Goods, Dietary Supplements, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical & Biotech, Microbiology, Pathogens, Environmental Monitoring