Discovering ways to develop great-tasting products can be an invigorating and gratifying process. However, once discovery has been achieved, you must verify that your production process renders foods or beverages that are safe for consumption. For many food manufacturers, this entails not only meeting minimum regulatory requirements but also establishing processes that meet even higher internal or customer-driven standards. This blog focuses on process validation and why it’s essential to your food establishment.
Once you’ve drafted the production procedures and processing parameters, there are two steps to take to ensure you’re up to acceptable standards: validation and verification.
- Process validation is the enterprise of generating data to support the efficacy of your process in achieving its intended effect.
- Process verification is the enterprise of continuously monitoring the critical parameters for the purpose of confirming that they have been implemented as designed and validated via the process validation.
What Is Process Validation?
Process validation is a means of providing evidence that proper food-processing methods are implemented from production to distribution.
Validating a process requires collecting documentation and data, whether from scientific literature, internal studies or regulatory resources, that…
- Describe the measures you take to safely produce a product
- Identify potential hazards and concerns
- Enumerate the tools and metrics to monitor and control these hazards and concerns
- Prove your ability to control these food-safety hazards through preventive means (validation step)
- Confirm your ability to produce high-quality products consistently (verification step)
While successful completion of a process validation is an important milestone on the road to compliance, the journey continues past the point of generating data to demonstrating the efficacy of a kill step in the inactivation of pertinent pathogens. Verification is a continuous process by which data are collected and analyzed throughout production; it is a critical component in the larger feedback loop of the food-quality and safety program. These data generated may prompt calls for process alterations, both minor and major, and on some occasions revisiting a process validation if aspects of a production process change significantly, such as the ingredients, packaging configuration, processing parameters and/or food-safety objectives.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mandates a regular review of process validations every three years. This review may also prompt a re-analysis of safety requirements, which in turn can lead to a new process-validation procedure that replaces the initial validation.
Find out How to Develop A Strong Food Safety Culture
Why Is Process Validation Important
FSMA, the most comprehensive U.S. food-safety-law reform in the modern age, was enacted to shift the focus from managing food-safety failures to preventing foodborne illnesses. Moreover, it mandated that FDA ensure compliance among various food-production establishments and across all phases of the food-supply chain.
With this, businesses producing food regulated by FDA, including co-manufacturing, production, processing, packing and repackaging facilities, are required to develop and verify food-safety plans and conduct food-safety tests, which may then require process validation.
There are also consequences for failing to comply with FSMA regulations. For example, if contamination is identified in a food-production facility, potentially affected products can be detained, a food recall issued and/or fines levied. In worst-case scenarios, facility production can be suspended until sufficient evidence has been generated to demonstrate that control has been reestablished.
Besides fulfilling the necessary legal requirements, diligently undergoing process validation makes sense for a business. A well-designed process validation and robust verification program increase confidence that the process will reliably produce product in a manner that mitigates hazards that could endanger consumers, brand reputation, the company and its employees.
Food Safety Net Services — Your Reliable Certification and Auditing Team
As a business in the food industry, it can be challenging to keep up with regulatory and industry requirements. Most establishments are familiar with FSMA and HACCP guidelines, but many need additional guidance to upgrade their Food Safety Management System.
Given the relatively infrequent need to conduct full-scale process validations, the technical nuance associated with validation study design and the laboratory facilities required for execution, most companies need external support when embarking on process validation activities. In fact, selection of a reputable and accredited food-safety testing and consulting firm can be one of the most important decisions made during the validation workflow. An experienced process-validation expert provides value from the initial stages of project management through completion. From lending expertise in the design of cost-efficient and data-rich studies, to assistance and oversight during data collection, to generating an interpretative final report, they can help make light work of what can be a daunting and resource-taxing endeavor.
With all of that in mind, please consider enlisting the wide-ranging expertise of Food Safety Net Services (FSNS) for your next process-validation exercise. With a network of ISO 17025 accredited laboratories, FSNS specializes in comprehensive microbiological projects and shelf-life testing. We also offer auditing and consulting services to ensure your food-safety management systems meet industry standards.
Download our process validation checklist so you know what to expect when planning for a process validation.
