During 2021, Dairysafe completed 268 audits of dairy farms, dairy transporters and dairy processors, plus an additional 15 export audits in December.
As a result of the audits there were:
- 17 major corrective action requests (CARs), including 12 processor and 5 farm CARs; and
- 31 minors CARs, including 9 farm, 1 transporter and 21 processor CARs.
A major CAR occurs where the potential impact of a non-conformance is likely to compromise food safety and integrity if no remedial action is taken to correct the non-conformance within a specified period.
“Pleasingly, the overall food safety outcomes for the SA dairy sector during 2021 were 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,” said Geoff Raven, CEO of Dairysafe.
In 2021, the non-conformance trends at dairy processors included additional work needed by processors with HACCP, monitoring records, and maintenance.
Non-conformance trends at farms included additional work needed with food safety programs, feed vendor declarations and pest control matters.
There were several external complaints made to Dairysafe in 2021 covering hygiene and product being out of specification.
And there were 23 incidents managed by Dairysafe in 2021 covering environment and dairy product microbial breaches, antibiotic detections in raw milk and chemical taint.
“While the results show there are improvements that can be made by the dairy community, overall, the industry should be very proud of its food safety efforts and record,” Geoff said.