Food Safety, Quality, Legality & Authenticity Policy

One governing commitment across product and business obligations

The policy brings food safety, quality, legality and authenticity together as connected management responsibilities rather than separate technical concerns. It recognises the company’s responsibility to customers and requires the applicable statutory, regulatory, customer and certification requirements to be met.

By making product safety, legality, authenticity and specified quality fundamental considerations in site management, the policy provides a clear reference point for decisions about the systems, resources and priorities needed to protect those outcomes.

Management commitments that give the policy practical meaning

The policy requires the company to maintain an effective FSQMS appropriate to the products and activities undertaken by the site. It develops that commitment through six linked requirements:

• Apply HACCP principles and risk-based controls to protect food safety, legality, authenticity and product quality.
• Provide the personnel, competence, training, resources, facilities and infrastructure needed for effective FSQMS operation.
• Establish and review food safety and quality objectives and use performance information to support continual improvement.
• Maintain controls designed to protect the authenticity and integrity of products and raw materials and prevent food fraud.
• Continually improve the site’s food safety and quality culture.
• Communicate the policy to employees, temporary workers and contractors so they understand the commitments relevant to their activities.

Together, these requirements connect the policy statement with the management conditions needed to support it in practice.

Accountability at the top and a duty to report at every level

The policy places overall accountability for implementation with senior management and requires endorsement by the person with overall responsibility for the site. That gives the commitment formal authority and makes food safety, legality, authenticity and quality explicit management responsibilities.

It also establishes a site-wide reporting expectation: all personnel are expected to support the policy and report any condition or activity that may compromise food safety, legality, authenticity, quality or customer requirements. This gives concerns a clear route into the management system rather than leaving responsibility with the technical function alone.

The reference point for connected FSQMS controls

As a governing policy, this document sets direction rather than detailing each operating control. HACCP and risk-based controls, objectives and performance review, competence and training, resources, authenticity and food-fraud controls, communication and culture are developed through the wider FSQMS.

That makes the policy a useful common reference point for managers and technical teams when reviewing whether the documented system, its resources and its priorities remain aligned with the company’s commitments. It also helps employees understand the purpose behind the controls and reporting responsibilities relevant to their work.

A governing policy within the interconnected Suite

Within the Food Industry Hub FSQMS Policies and Procedures Suite, this policy provides the top-level commitment that the wider framework develops through responsibilities, operational controls, decisions, escalation, monitoring, verification, evidence requirements and system interfaces.

For a manufacturer reviewing the strength of its documented FSQMS, that connection makes it possible to assess the governing policy alongside the procedures intended to give its commitments practical effect.