According to a recent Sparta Systems survey, a majority of food and beverage companies (61%) feel ready to meet the stricter requirements of the first food reform laws the U.S. has seen in 70 years.
We’ve broken down the free whitepaper of findings by populations and perspectives.
Survey Population
Many respondents to the survey come from small companies (58%). Almost half work in Quality Assurance. Two-thirds occupy manager or director roles.
Supplier Ecosystem
Sizes of supplier networks were consistent with the sizes of organizations surveyed. Not surprisingly, enterprise organizations reported the largest networks, although close to 20% of the largest companies indicated supplier numbers between 1 and 99.
FSMA Readiness
Larger companies were also most likely to strongly agree that they’re compliance-ready. Those in regulatory affairs expressed the least confidence (25%) across the board on questions of readiness for finalized or soon-to-be finalized rules.
Supplier Quality Visibility
Larger organizations expressed much higher confidence levels in their suppliers’ visibility, especially when it came to preparedness for compliance with foreign supplier regulations (FSVP). Small and medium-sized companies were evenly split on their confidence in foreign supplier quality and safety.
Perspectives on Visibility
Overwhelmingly, companies of all sizes agree on the importance of visibility into quality and safety processes. This feeling was let by those in quality assurance roles, with 93% agreeing or strongly agreeing. Conversely, a majority of those in supply chain/procurement roles (66%) actually disagreed or strongly disagreed on the importance of supply chain visibility.
Perspectives on Strategy
Many respondents from every size company believe they have a clear strategy and plan to meet FSMA requirements. However, almost one-third of small-company respondents neither agreed nor disagreed on the question of strategy. By far the most diverse sense of strategy came from consultants and quality assurance departments, with 17% and 7% respectively conceding their company has no clear FSMA strategy.
Current Quality Management Solutions (QMS)
When asked about current management practices, the survey revealed a lack of automated systems for managing compliance across the supply chain: More than a third (38 %) said their organizations manually track, manage and report food quality and safety, while 56 % of respondents classified processes as partially automated. Only 7% reported fully automated systems.
FSMA Effectiveness
Forty-three percent of companies expressed confidence in FMSA. Medium-sized companies remained least convinced, with over 50% indicating “maybe” the new rules will be effective in improving food quality and safety.
Improvements
More than half (60%) of all respondents said they believe increased supply chain visibility will improve food quality and safety. In addition, 37% believe automated processes will positively impact visibility and compliance.
Download the full survey results here.
Source: Sparta Systems PR. Sparta Systems’ Survey Finds Food & Beverage Companies Confident in FDA Regulation Preparedness
