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Note : The English version of the website of the Agency contains only a part of the information that is available in the French and the Dutch version of the site.
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 Quality Management at the Food Agency |
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Every day, the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) encourages operators to set up a reliable self-checking system and to have that system validated. But what about quality management inside the FASFC ? |
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| The Agency’s quality system |
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The mission statement of the Agency is the basis of the quality policy : “To guarantee the safety of the food chain and the quality of our food in order to protect the health of humans, animals and plants”.
The search for quality is part of the strategic targets of the business plan of the FASFC which, among other things, aim at compliance of all the activities of the FASFC with the international standards in force, i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 17020 and 17025. At the same time, the Agency develops an environmental management system that is based upon ISO 14001. As a result, a first series of locations obtained the EMAS (FR-NL) registration in 2010.
The quality system that is being set up gradually, brings together the requirements of each of these standards into one system in order to obtain a more effective and more user-friendly tool. |
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| ISO 9001 |
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Management of veterinarians with assignment. Crisis prevention and crisis management. Management of missions of the Food and Veterinary Office (European Commission) in Belgium. Validation of guides on self-checking. Granting approvals to certification and inspection bodies. Granting approvals to external laboratories. Management of reference laboratories. Management of trainings for approved laboratories. Management of TSE (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) analyses. Handling of complaints by the call center for consumers and by the mediation service. Handling of complaints related to fees. Management of administrative fines. Communication. Internal audit.
The last stage of the extension to all central processes is now being prepared and should be achieved by the end of 2011.
Why has ISO standard 9001 been chosen ?
ISO 9001 certificates are used to increase confidence in products and services supplied. These certificates are widespread in the private sector, but are less common in the public sector. It should be noted that in de public sector notions such as “customer” and “product” are less obvious.
The idea that quality management systems increase the efficiency and the professionalism of organizations is generally accepted, all the more as organizations are larger and their need for standardization is greater.
In addition to these benefits, the advantages for the FASFC are obvious :
- operators of the food chain expect that controls are harmonised ;
- standardisation leads to administrative simplification ;
- on an international level the ISO 9001 standard can improve the image of the FASFC, which may have a positive effect for operators who would like to engage in exports ;
- finally, the ISO 9001 is compatible with standards ISO 17020 (inspection bodies) and ISO 17025 (competence of testing and calibration laboratories).
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| ISO 17020 |
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ISO 17020:2004 certificate |
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Accreditation certificate issued by BELAC in accordance with the criteria laid down in standard ISO/IEC 17020 for control activities in the distribution sector (retail trade, large-scale distributors, catering businesses, institutional kitchens, …) as defined in the certificate (No 428-INSP) (PDF) and its technical annex (PDF FR NL). |
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Printable version | 
Last update on
20.04.2011
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