The US Food Processors Association's Supplier Audits for Food Excellence (NFPA-SAFE) Programme has announced that Catherine Adams, general manager of Quality Assurance for Heinz USA and Dan Donahue, vice president of Worldwide Quality for Campbell Soup Company, have been appointed to serve as co-chairs of the programme for a term of two years.
"Our new co-chairs, Catherine Adams and Dan Donahue, played vital leadership roles in the world-class food industry task force that designed and established the NFPA-SAFE Programme," said Rich Salotto, vice president of the NFPA-SAFE Programme. "Their continued leadership will help the SAFE Programme eliminate the necessity of duplicative supplier audits, while raising the bar on food safety and quality systems."
NFPA-SAFE completed a pilot phase in 2001 and launched the full operation earlier in 2002. "We also acknowledge the hard work and innovation provided by Eric Gibson, manager, supply chain quality, Kraft Foods, as co-chair over the past two years. We're delighted Eric will continue as a member of the NFPA-SAFE Programme Council," Salotto said.
The NFPA-SAFE Programme allows suppliers to satisfy multiple customers with a standardised audit carried out by SAFE-certified, third party auditors. The SAFE audit is a comprehensive assessment of a company's entire quality and food safety system, covering management responsibility, fundamentals, food safety systems, quality and regulatory compliance.
The SAFE Programme offers added efficiencies through an innovative online platform. SAFE-certified auditors are profiled online according to industry specialization, and the entire auditor bidding and selection process is completed online. Further, completed audits are posted online and protected by dual passcodes and a security system modelled after the banking and credit industry systems to protect confidentiality.
NFPA is the voice of the $500 billion food processing industry on scientific and public policy issues involving food safety, nutrition, technical and regulatory matters and consumer affairs.