102 farm audits have been completed up to mid October (YTD), with audit outcomes indicating SA dairy farms are continuing to deliver exceptional food safety and quality trends.
Our industry continues to be challenged by personnel shortages and difficulties with recruiting staff. Dairysafe is maintaining regular contact with dairy manufacturers to ensure process controls are maintained and food safety outcomes are not compromised while resources are limited.
65 dairy processor audits have been undertaken up to mid October (YTD), identifying 9 minor and 20 major non-conformances. Compliance trends illustrate that additional focus is required with:
- Good Hygienic Practices (GHP)
- Cleaning and sanitation
- Maintenance programs
- Documentation
- Water testing
- Export arrangements (for export registered businesses)
Dairysafe has successfully managed 36 incidents and 8 complaints for the YTD. The incidents have involved residue detections, notifiable contaminants, microbiological breaches or detections and raw milk temperature breaches. Complaints range from product not reaching use by date to odours, discolouration of product and unusual appearance.
Overall, the food safety audit data for the SA dairy sector and outcomes this year are very positive with no SA dairy products with pathogens at retail level, no antibiotic residue in finished dairy products, no consumer level recalls involving SA dairy and no foodborne illness associated with SA dairy products.
The second round of bi-annual audits of the 15 export registered dairy processors for 2022 are progressing well.