Food Quality Assurance Managers Asked to Identify Top Concerns for 2014

Westminster, CO -- (SBWire) -- 12/23/2013 --Keith Ersfeld, Senior Quality/Food Safety Manager for Power Packaging, an Exel Company was announced as a winner of the TraceGains’ food manufacturers and processors food audit contest. Food audits are serious business, but they are not without their mishaps. TraceGains recognized the top three audit submissions with a Kindle Fire HDX 7” tablet.

Ersfeld described his audit experience, “Several years ago, our company bought a frozen pizza plant in Alabama. My colleague and I were chosen to be the quality control representatives during the start-up of the plant. Our only customer at the time wanted the NFPA to approve our HACCP plan before they would sign a contract. We worked weeks on the plan and finally came audit day for our HACCP plan.”

“Ten minutes before the auditor was to arrive, the warehouse manager used the washroom in the front offices. When he flushed, raw sewage backed up out of the toilet. It kept running and running, eventually flowing down the carpeted hallway and into the offices, reception area and entrance to the plant. Outside, some of the sewers in the parking lot had sewage water bubbling out of them as well. The receptionist announced the auditor was here. She had locked the front door to keep people out during our crisis. I went out the side door, through the parking lot and around the corner only to see the auditor with a handkerchief covering his nose and mouth (the smell was horrific). I extended my hand and asked him ‘Well, what do you think of us so far?’” Ersfeld added humor to a tense situation.

“Actually, we made lemonade out of those lemons. We received accolades from him for the way we handled the situation. He approved our plan and the plant started up the following week. After forty years in the food business, this was the most stressful beginning to any audit I have seen,” concluded Ersfeld.

All Quality Assurance professionals regardless of vertical or sector specificity are invited to respond to this important industry survey at http://bit.ly/2014FSQASurvey. All participants will receive an advance copy of the survey results, when providing an email address; the survey is strictly confidential and anonymous.

TraceGains’ mission is to promote quality and safety within the food supply chain by offering a cloud-based, automated solution to mitigate risk, improve quality, and empower 365 Audit Ready companies. Food Safety News provides much-needed coverage of topics important to the core audience of government agency personnel and food industry leaders.

About TraceGains
TraceGains (http://www.tracegains.com) provides food and beverage manufacturers and distributors with a web-based, full-service supplier, compliance, and regulatory document management solution that automates and streamlines processes to convert static documents into actionable data. With a network of more than 5,000 supplier members and more than 250 deployment sites, TraceGains offers an ever-expanding database of suppliers, purchased items, and documents that companies can leverage to improve product quality, accelerate product development, and meet regulatory and audit pressures. TraceGains not only digitizes all incoming documents, making them easily searchable, but also extracts critical data and analyzes them against customer-specific business and compliance rules, alerting stakeholders to any non-compliance. TraceGains’ automated solution assures companies that documentation is up to date, organized, and searchable, making companies 365 Audit Ready. TraceGains’ customers boast a four to six month return on their investment. Follow TraceGains on Twitter at @tracegains.

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Jennifer Brusco
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