Food First Blog | Assign an Expert: When to Call in a Food Safety

Published by Admin on Sep 30, 2021 12:00:00 AM

Assign an Expert: When to Call in a Food Safety Professional

Ramping up production for the holiday season? Struggling to fill food safety roles?

While internal teams often do an incredible job managing many different standards and programs, calling in a food safety expert for a temporary assignment can be valuable. Their fresh set of eyes on an issue can supplement your internal food safety and quality team, while bringing you the latest in industry best practices.

What does a food safety consultant do?

Our experts can provide you with on-site or virtual consulting on an array of issues that include GMPs, sanitation, integrated pest management, food defense, crisis management, kill step calculations and more. While on assignment, they can also conduct inspections and training for your teams. Our experts are commonly called on to address complex and sensitive issues, such as:

Staff Shortages
Product Recalls & Quality Issues
Changing Operations and Processes

AIB International’s global network of vetted food safety and quality experts means you can get a trusted expert at your site within a week. Our experts often take on assignments spanning anywhere from a week to months at a time!

Solving Staff Shortages

Companies choose Assign an Expert when they don’t have the expertise on staff to create a program from the ground up. A corporate food safety director from a growing food manufacturer engaged our experts for a few months to write their food safety and quality program from scratch, come on-site to train their internal team, and ensure program implementation ran smoothly. They were provided a top-notch program that uses the latest best practices and will be accepted by their retail customers.

We can temporarily fill in open positions that are difficult to recruit for or have high turnover. We also frequently step in for food safety and quality assurance staff on extended leave. Our work experience, specialized knowledge, and renowned AIB International training means our experts can adeptly take on your supervisor and manager positions in sanitation, food safety and quality assurance.

Product Recalls & Quality Issues

We were contacted by a dairy supplier to an international quick service restaurant (QSR) that found its cheese was expiring faster than expected. On the recommendation of the QSR, they reached out to us to be the neutral third-party and conduct the investigative audit. Our expert discovered the root cause of the quality issue and generated a comprehensive report so the dairy could correct it and continue supplying the QSR.

Critical quality issues like this are another important time to call in an AIB International expert. We can help you identify and resolve your problem quickly so you can avoid losing a customer or a having a product recalled.

Changing Operations and Processes

We were contacted by an international breakfast brand to step into a supervisor role at a facility that was scheduled for closure in six months. It was impossible for the company to find someone with the work experience and skills to take on such a short-term and stressful job. Our expert ensured that the facility continued to hit food safety and quality KPIs, maintained staff morale to minimize attrition, and even improved some sanitation processes. This saved the company thousands of dollars.

Setting up a new processing line or shutting down a facility? Our experts have the technical skills and emotional intelligence to support your operations and teams during what could be a sensitive time.