A good food safety plan should include monitoring, verification, and validation. The latter two processes are critical for ensuring that a food safety plan works effectively and is compliant with the regulations of the FDA and USDA. Monitoring is a continuous process that takes into account changes in the processes as they occur.
Monitoring involves assessing and evaluating the control measures that ensure that the processes are operating properly. Typically, this involves internal company personnel. However, it can also involve third-party experts or regulatory bodies. In either case, it is essential for the company to have the appropriate resources to conduct a comprehensive review. In addition, it is important that the verification team be properly trained.
Verification is a crucial step in BioMeT development and testing. It ensures that the samples generated are of a quality consistent with pre-specified acceptance criteria. This step is critical to ensuring the accuracy and quality of BioMeT data, which is used to generate physiological metrics.
The verification process is the final safety net in any food safety program. The goal of verification is to ensure that the processes and procedures used to prevent and control hazards are working as intended. For this purpose, validation activities must be rigorous and documented. The process should include a “go-see” activity as well as a thorough review of the data provided.