The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the role of third party certification in determining how food business capability is assessed. Chris Gilbert-Wood, Andy Kerridge, Louise Manning and Denis Treacy reassess the processes used to demonstrate the production of safe and authentic food during and beyond the pandemic.

The food and drink industry is the UK's largest manufacturing sector, contributing £28.2bn to the economy annually and employing around 430,000 people. This manufacturing base forms a key part of the £110bn per annum ‘farm to fork’ UK food chain1. In 2019, UK food and drink exports reached £23bn across more than 220 countries2. The success of the industry relies on the adoption of appropriate food safety and quality management systems, ensuring consistent performance, and market and regulatory compliance. Over a 12 month period (1st October 2019 – 30th September 2020), there were 687 notifications on the European Union (EU) Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) database3 associated with the UK and 150 food alerts and/or allergy alerts on the Food Standards Agency website, together averaging around 17 notifications a week, showing that non-compliance occurs; its impact can range from minor to serious. It should be noted that these are the publicly available figures and additionally there will be product withdrawals and rejections within the supplier's control.

The current approach to demonstrate food is safe, legal and authentic is based on a system with written standards, designed to support a due diligence defence4. With the advent in the UK of the Food Safety Act in 1990, the due diligence defence arose as a change to the previous liability law associated with food products5. Over time, the assurance approach has drifted away from the original intentions and principles of the due diligence defence. The retailers’ need to meet their due diligence requirements has driven the development of third party certification standards, which have evolved over the last 30 years with increasing complexity and greater resource demands for production sites6. The UK food supply chain has now become operationally dependent upon these third party certification standards with their associated audits to drive and define enabling action and improvement planning at the individual food business operator (FBO) and wider supply chain level.

Verification activities provide on-going evidence of capability and compliance. Verification confirms that the food product and its packaging are consistently meeting the intended design specification and performance criteria, and that required processes are being followed. Verification should also address other essential elements of food safety capability and compliance including whether the food risk management systems, pre-requisites, procedures and processes applied to protect product integrity and ensure safety are in place and being appropriately performed. This verification can be enacted by various food sector stakeholders in multiple different ways, with different focal points and for different purposes according to their specific needs. It would be expected that food businesses are able to evidence their food safety and regulatory compliance capability in ways that are accessible and able to meet these varying stakeholder needs, even during a pandemic.

COVID-19 大流行使第三方认证在确定如何评估食品业务能力方面的作用成为人们关注的焦点。Chris Gilbert-Wood、Andy Kerridge、Louise Manning 和 Denis Treacy 重新评估了用于证明在大流行期间和之后生产安全和正宗食品的过程。

食品和饮料行业是英国最大的制造业，每年为经济贡献 282 亿英镑，雇用约 430,000 人。这个制造基地是每年 1100 亿英镑的“从农场到餐桌”英国食品链1的关键部分。2019 年，英国食品和饮料在 220 多个国家/地区的出口额达到 230 亿英镑2。该行业的成功依赖于采用适当的食品安全和质量管理系统，确保一致的性能以及市场和监管合规性。在 12 个月的时间里（2019 年 10 月 1 日至 2020 年 9 月 30 日），欧盟 (EU) 食品和饲料快速警报系统 (RASFF) 数据库3收到了 687 份通知与英国以及食品标准局网站上的 150 个食品警报和/或过敏警报相关联，平均每周大约有 17 个通知，表明发生了不合规；它的影响可以从轻微到严重。应该注意的是，这些是公开可用的数字，此外，在供应商的控制范围内还会有产品撤回和拒绝。

当前证明食品安全、合法和真实的方法是基于具有书面标准的系统，旨在支持尽职调查辩护4。随着 1990 年英国《食品安全法》的出台，尽职调查辩护作为对先前与食品相关的责任法的更改而出现5。随着时间的推移，鉴证方法已经偏离了尽职调查抗辩的初衷和原则。零售商满足其尽职调查要求的需求推动了第三方认证标准的发展，这些标准在过去 30 年中随着生产场所的复杂性和资源需求的增加而不断发展6. 英国食品供应链现在已经在运营上依赖于这些第三方认证标准及其相关审计，以推动和定义单个食品企业经营者 (FBO) 和更广泛的供应链层面的扶持行动和改进计划。

验证活动提供能力和合规性的持续证据。验证确认食品及其包装始终符合预期的设计规范和性能标准，并且正在遵循所需的过程。验证还应涉及食品安全能力和合规性的其他基本要素，包括用于保护产品完整性和确保安全的食品风险管理系统、先决条件、程序和流程是否到位并得到适当执行。食品部门的各个利益相关者可以通过多种不同的方式、不同的焦点和不同的目的，根据他们的具体需求来实施这种验证。