Watch the presentation recording: https://info.safetychain.com/webinar-replay-pass-food-retail-audits In this webinar, Dr. Karla Acosta, Food Safety Manager at The Acheson Group, helps identify the not-so-obvious areas where regulators look when conducting retail food establishment audits/inspections. Key Takeaways for Food Retailers and Manufacturers Include: • Understand critical inspection areas, including sanitation, labeling, HACCP, and record-keeping. • Best practices for maintaining food safety protocols to prevent bacteria growth, cross-contamination, and spoilage. • What documentation and record-keeping frequency is needed to ensure consistent adherence to food safety practices and regulations.

1. FSMA Fridays Webinar Series
Monthly Industry News, Updates & Trends for Food, Beverage, & CPG Manufacturers
Karla Acosta, Ph.D.
Food Safety Manager
So You Think You Can Pass?
A Guide for Food Retail Audits

2. ✔Monthly FSMA Related News
✔Regulation Changes & Updates
✔Industry Trends
✔Q&A with TAG
What is FSMA Fridays?
FSMA FRIDAYS
A global food safety and public
health consulting group made up
of seasoned industry experts
A digital plant management
platform to ensure quality,
maximize yield & optimize labor
Brought to you by:

3. ✔Only panelist microphones are on
✔Ask questions! (Q&A at end)
✔Recording link will be shared
✔Audio issues: use call-in number
Watch prior FSMA Friday recordings at
safetychain.com > Resources > FSMA Friday
Before We Get Started…
FSMA FRIDAYS

4. Meet Your FSMA Friday Speaker
FSMA FRIDAYS
Karla Acosta, Ph.D.
Food Safety Manager
Dr. Acosta specializes in retail food safety, and
provides food safety training and delivery for low-
literacy and underrepresented individuals.
She also teaches undergraduates at the Conrad N.
Hilton College within the University of Houston, and
at the University of South Florida.

5. FSMA FRIDAYS
FSMA FRIDAYS
FSMA: Regulatory Updates from the FDA
• Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors in Fast Food and
Full-Service Restaurants
• FDA Publishes New FAQs and Additional Tools for the Food Traceability Rule
• FDA Extends Comment Period on Draft Guidance on Dietary Guidance
Statements on Food Labels
• FDA Issues Final Guidance to Industry on Action Level for Inorganic Arsenic
in Apple Juice

6. FSMA FRIDAYS
• 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness
• 128,000 are hospitalized
• 3,000 fatalities from foodborne illnesses
Why is food safety important?
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021)

7. FSMA FRIDAYS
Why is food safety important?
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Institutional Location
4%
Other
8%
Caterers or
Banquet Facilities
14%
Private Home
12%
Hospital or
Nursing Home
2%
Restaurants
60%
OUTBREAKS

8. FSMA FRIDAYS
What does this mean?
60% of foodborne illnesses from restaurants
14% of foodborne illnesses from catering/banquets facilities =
Hospitality industry = ~75%

9. FSMA FRIDAYS
• Employee turnover is a challenge
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Center for Hospitality Research @ Cornell:
Cost of employee turnover averages $5,864/person
High Turnover in Food Industry
• Importance of training
• Importance of regular self-audits
• Importance of communication!

10. FSMA FRIDAYS
Inspection Frequency
Can vary per jurisdiction:
• Product made/served
• Past inspection history
• Population served
• Operation/Foot traffic
• Bandwidth of jurisdiction
• Customer complaint/report
• Foodborne illness

11. FSMA FRIDAYS
FDA Food Code Inspection Form
Food Establishment Inspection Report
• IN/OUT
• N/O – N/A
• COS
• R
Foodborne Illness Risk Factors and
Public Health Interventions:
- What are risk factors?

12. FSMA FRIDAYS
• Tip: create a checklist!
• Take notes and write down what
applies to you and HOW often they
should be audited/revised
• Let’s find out!
• SELF AUDIT regularly
So you think you can pass?

13. FSMA FRIDAYS
Good Hygienic Practices & Employee Health
❑ Handwashing techniques: Are employees washing hands correctly and at the
appropriate times?
❑ Are handwashing stations properly stocked? Who oversees verifying?
❑ Glove usage: Single-use gloves – how are they being used and how often are
they changed?
❑ Hair restraints: Are they being used properly by all food handlers?
❑ Jewelry: No jewelry other than a plain band wedding ring (note on medical
bracelets)
❑ Employee health: Symptoms and reporting
Key things to add to your checklist:

14. FSMA FRIDAYS
Managers must focus on the following:
3-5
Managing a Personal Hygiene Program
• Creating personal hygiene policies
• Training food handlers on personal hygiene
policies and retraining them regularly
• Modeling correct behavior at all times
• Supervising food safety practices
• Revising personal hygiene policies when laws
or science change

15. FSMA FRIDAYS
Time/Temperature Control for Safety
Key things to add to your checklist:
• Proper cooking time and temperatures
• Reheating procedures for hot holding
• Cooling time and temperature
• Hot holding temperatures
• Cold holding temperatures
• Date marking and disposition
• Time as a Public Health Control; procedures and records

16. FSMA FRIDAYS
Time-temperature control:
Preventing Time-Temperature Abuse
Food has been time-temperature abused
whenever it is handled in the following ways:
• Food held in the range of 41ºF to 135ºF (5ºC to
57ºC) has been time-temperature abused
• Pathogens grow rapidly between 70ºF and 125ºF
(21ºC and 52ºC)
• Cooked to the wrong internal temperature
• Held at the wrong temperature
• Cooked or reheated incorrectly

17. FSMA FRIDAYS
Avoid time-temperature abuse:
Preventing Time-Temperature Abuse
• Monitor time and temperature
• Make sure the correct kinds of thermometers
are available
• Regularly record temperatures and the times
they are taken
• Minimize the time that food spends in the
temperature danger zone
• Take corrective actions if time-temperature
standards are not met

18. FSMA FRIDAYS
Temperature logs: Can be your friend or your enemy – you pick!
Does your
temperature log
template MAKE SENSE
for your operation?

19. FSMA FRIDAYS
Temperature gauges in holding units
Walk-in
cooler/freezer
Hot-hold
reach-in
Why shouldn’t you
use the
temperature
gauges in these
holding units?

20. FSMA FRIDAYS
Protection from Contamination
Key things to add to your checklist:
● Receiving practices
● No bare hand contact with RTE food or a pre-approved alternative procedure
properly allowed
● Food separated and protected
● Food-contact surfaces; cleaned and sanitized
● How often are food-contact surfaces being cleaned and sanitized? Who is doing
it and are they properly following procedures?
● Are testing strips readily available?
● Can my employees accurately test the sanitizer strength?

21. FSMA FRIDAYS
Preventing Cross-Contamination
Separate equipment:
• Use separate equipment for each type of food
Remember to train your employees on
the difference between cleaning and
sanitizing!
Clean and sanitize:
• Clean and sanitize all work surfaces, equipment,
and utensils after each task

22. FSMA FRIDAYS
Chemical sanitizing:
Sanitizing
Does your operation have a cleaning and sanitizing log
sheet?
How often are you cleaning and sanitizing?
• Food-contact surfaces can be sanitized by either
• Soaking them in a sanitizing solution
• Rinsing, swabbing, or spraying
them with a sanitizing solution
• In some cases a detergent-sanitizer blend can be used
• Use it once to clean
• Use it a second time to sanitize

23. FSMA FRIDAYS
Concentration:
Sanitizer Effectiveness
• Change the solution when
• It’s dirty
• The concentration is too low
• Check concentration with a test kit
• Make sure it is designed for the
sanitizer used
• Check the concentration often

24. FSMA FRIDAYS
Food Labeling and Allergen Control
Key things to add to your checklist:
● Food properly labeled
● Are allergens easily identifiable?
● Is there allergen-specific equipment or
practices to prevent cross-contact?

25. FSMA FRIDAYS
Labeling food for use on-site:
Labeling and Storage
• All items not in their original containers must be labeled
• Food labels should include the common name of the
food or a statement that clearly and accurately
identifies it

26. FSMA FRIDAYS
Compliance with Regulations
• Record-keeping: do you have ALL of the documents you KNOW you will be asked for in one
consolidated location?
• Do all managers/supervisors know where these are located?
• Implementation and adherence to HACCP
• Water and sewage systems
• Pest control records
• Schedules
• Employee training records
Key things to add to your checklist:

27. FSMA FRIDAYS
１) Understand how food laws work
How to Survive a Health Inspection
2 simple tips that will save you:
２) Health inspectors/regulators are not
your enemy
• Take notes
• Fix as many things as you can (COS)

28. FSMA FRIDAYS
• Inspections may be conducted at
least once a year, can be monthly
but are typically twice a year
Operational Inspections
• The frequency can be influenced by
the workload if the inspector, the size of
your operation, the stores history in
terms of violations and the
susceptibility to foodborne illness of its
clientele

29. FSMA FRIDAYS
Operational Inspections
The manager then keeps it on
file
This signature is an
acknowledgment of receipt
The inspector completes an
inspection that must be signed
by the PIC

30. FSMA FRIDAYS
• When you are inspected/audited:
• ALWAYS ACCOMPANY THE INSPECTOR!
• Take advantage of their experience
• Also means you are available to answer
questions
• RESPOND TO THEIR EMAILS
Operational Inspections

31. FSMA FRIDAYS
An inspector may close an operation
when there is:
Closure
• Significant lack of refrigeration
• Backup of sewage into the operation
• Emergency, such as a fire or flood
• Significant pest infestation
• Long interruption of electrical or water
service
• Clear evidence of a foodborne-illness
outbreak related to the operation

32. FSMA FRIDAYS
Feeling lost?
What TAG can do you for you:
Who you gonna call? 🡪 Not GhostBusters! TAG
• Audit (with the eyes and brain of a health inspector but the heart of a friend)
• TAG helps food companies ensure their compliance with FDA, USDA, and foreign food safety regulations through
document and facility reviews and assessments
• Recall/Crisis Management
• Food Defense
• Supply Chain
• Food Safety Culture
• Environmental Control and Monitoring Programs (ECP/EMP)
• Food Safety Training
• …and much more!

33. FSMA FRIDAY
Questions?
Dr. Karla Acosta
Food Safety Manager
So You Think You Can Pass? A Guide for Food Retail Audits

34. ✔ FSMA Friday Session Recordings & Content Library
Resources & Future Events
FSMA FRIDAYS
✔ TAG Newsletter
✔ Global Food Safety Consultants: AchesonGroup.com
✔ FSMA Friday LinkedIn Group
✔ Q&A, Articles & Updates … Join FSMA FRIDAYS!
safetychain.com/resources/content-downloads
Get More Guidance:
achesongroup.com/blog