Why Root Cause Analysis Training is Essential for SQF 10 Compliance

Treating the symptoms of an illness won’t help prevent its recurrence, and the same goes for food safety and compliance nonconformities.

Root Cause Analysis looks beyond the symptoms and investigates the underlying hazards that caused the incident in the first place, in order to take corrective and preventive actions to stop it from recurring.

But RCA doesn’t only help companies prevent food safety incident recurrences; it also helps companies meet one of the core clauses of SQF 10.

Scoring changes under SQF 10

When SQF Edition 10 audits begin in January, facilities and companies seeking certification will need to adhere to a series of scoring changes designed “to strengthen the connection between certification and real-world food safety performance,” according to the SQF Institute.

These scoring and methodology changes include “core clauses,” specific requirements fundamental to preventing food safety failures.

These are the non-negotiable requirements that carry higher point deductions during an SQF 10 audit. In other words, the margin of error during audits has shrunk. Because RCA looks past the symptoms to the core causes, it helps prevent repeated failures that can torpedo a facility during an audit.

Corrections and Corrective and Preventative Actions (2.5.3) is one of these core clauses and requires investigating and recording the root cause of nonconformities.

An SQF Institute guidance document states that a corrective and preventive action program requires identifying the root cause of non-compliances of critical food safety limits and requirements.

From Assumptions to True Cause

The SQF Institute paper states that while there may be “a tendency to assume the cause” when non-compliance or deviations happen, “root cause analysis seeks to move past assumptions to uncover the true cause.”

This means that when a failure on the production line occurs, management looks past operator error to examine root causes like how equipment, facility design, or ingredients from a third-party supplier contributed to the incident. It examines the setup and breakdown procedures and checks what role they may have played.

It states that determining the root cause “allows the site to identify where the process failed so that a corrective action and potentially a preventative action can be implemented. This ultimately improves the site's management of food safety and quality.”

“Turn each audit into continuous improvement"

ASI Food Safety refers to RCA as “a systematic method for finding the underlying cause of a nonconformity so a corrective action fixes the real problem instead of the symptom.”

Applied well, RCA “stops findings from recurring and turns each audit into continuous improvement.”

Continuous improvement is key not only to elevate your food safety culture, but also because SQF 10 requires the development of a clear, documented food safety culture assessment plan that includes procedures for culture assessment and improvement. This includes regular measurement and evaluation of food safety activities.

Why RCA Training is Essential

Learning the new requirements of SQF 10 isn’t enough; teams must also know how to carry out these core clauses on the work floor.

For Root Cause Analysis and Corrective and Preventive Actions, this means understanding what RCA requires, how to trace failures through the production system, and concepts such as the 5 Whys and Fishbone Diagram, and how to use them.

It requires better communication between leadership and the production floor and a real commitment to investigate why non-conformities happened, and not just how to affix a band-aid after the fact. It also requires training your team in what RCA demands.

Prepare for SQF 10 with the Rootwurks Root Cause Analysis Course

Self-paced and 100% online, the Rootwurks Root Cause Analysis Course teaches learners what RCA demands and how to adopt a proactive, preventive approach that gets to the root causes of food safety risks - not just the symptoms.

Moving from theory to the work floor, the course uses real-life examples to teach learners how to manage an RCA investigation, helping train them to carry out a key demand of food safety culture - and SQF 10.

Enroll in the Rootwurks RCA Course and Boost Your SQF 10 Readiness