At Bulldog Bag, we like to say that quality assurance isn’t a department, it’s a habit, and when you’re responsible for thousands of products’ food safety and quality assurance, there’s no substitute. Every year these habits get put to the test through a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) audit, and this year for the first time, Bulldog Bag Ltd. passed an unannounced audit.
That means: no calendar reminders, no countdown, just a knock on the door. In this blog we give you the perspective from Leo Latorre, Bulldog Bag’s HACCP / Quality Supervisor, and Ernest Lewis, General Manager, on certification, auditing and maintaining a companies’ good habits.
What Is HACCP and why It Matters
HACCP is a globally recognized methodology for identifying, evaluating, and controlling hazards that could compromise product quality and safety. For a flexible packaging manufacturer like Bulldog Bag Ltd., the HACCP methodology is used to measure compliance for industry certification, in our case IFS PACsecure certification.
To become an IFS PACsecure certified facility, a company first needs to approach an accredited third-party certification body for an audit. The certification body will then appoint an independent auditor to review the applicant’s practices and processes for HACCP compliance.
These audits usually happen once a year at a predetermined time to ensure that all the relevant participants -think Department Heads, HACCP Liaisons, QC Technicians, Operations Manager(s)- are on site for inspection. However, every three years the certification body conducts an unannounced audit to verify that companies remain in full compliance, even when an inspection is not anticipated.
What Happens During an IFS PACsecure Audit?
On the day the auditor arrives and informs the front desk that they are there to conduct an audit. Key members of staff are contacted to assemble, introductions are made and an inspection of the facility commences. The inspection is based on the 7 HACCP principles and includes reviewing how a facility handles critical control points, where contamination could occur, and how it’s prevented. The auditor will also verify recordkeeping, review employee knowledge, and walk the production floor.
Transparency and traceability are really at the heart of an audit. It’s not just a paper exercise, it’s proving that a facility’s commitment to safety is genuine and ongoing. That’s the beauty of unannounced audits. It ensures companies “live” their quality and safety standards day-to-day, not just when someone’s watching.
The first-hand experience
When asked about the experience of the unannounced audit Leo Latorre said “Actually, I was not aware that the auditor had even arrived… I was called in from my office and was told ‘Hey, can you come to the boardroom because the auditor is there.’”. One-by-one, key team members assembled for the opening meeting and after pleasantries, Bulldog Bag’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) were put to the test which included spot interview with team member on the production floor. “I was pleased to see that they were able to answer most of her questions” says Leo, “They were all compliant, they have been trained properly.”
According to Leo the most stressful part of the audit, “It was the knockout points…. With IFS [PACsecure] they have knockout points, and if she [the auditor] saw a knockout point being violated, it’s an automatic fail.” That means the audit immediately ends, the auditor leaves the facility and the only options are: appeal, or apply for a new audit.
On a day-to-day basis, Leo goes through the facility to check for non-conformances, from minor to critical violations, and proposes corrective actions if any need to be taken. Anyone who’s tried to enforce good habits knows, it’s hard and while intentions are good your efforts can easily be seen as nagging, but the stakes are much higher than say, paying for a gym membership that you’re not using.
Why This Matters to Our Customers?
For all our customers, whether they’re in the food industry or not, HACCP certification provides confidence that their packaging is produced in a facility where hygiene, control, and traceability are non-negotiable. It gives them the confidence that Bulldog Bag operates at the same level of diligence and accountability they apply to their own products.
That being said, for some of our customers, industry certification like IFS PACsecure is a requirement as they have their own HACCP audits. Any goods entering their facilities, or used in their supply chain, have to meet or exceed their HACCP criteria. For these customers, when a supplier’s certification lapses, or a supplier fails to pass an audit and loses certification, they are effectively forced to source from another certified supplier, or risk failing their own audits.
The Bulldog Standard
Passing a HACCP audit is a reflection of the systems and people behind our products. Every operator, technician, and quality assurance team member contribute to maintaining that standard, and an unannounced audit is the perfect reminder that excellence is built into our daily routine. This sentiment was perhaps best capture by Ernest Lewis’s comments, “At the end of the audit, the auditor told me that we have a very good team here at Bulldog. I had to correct her and tell her that I have the best team.”
We’re proud to maintain HACCP certification as part of our broader commitment to quality, safety, and customer trust. Because when it comes to protecting products, whether it’s pallet covers for building materials or the food that feeds our communities, there’s no room for shortcuts and no need for reminders.